JGO committee advances Good Samaritan amendments and a mandatory PDMP after island health providers testify in support

The House Judiciary and Governmental Operations (JGO) Committee on July 25 advanced two public-health-focused bills after testimony from Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation staff and a local pharmacist.

The committee adopted House Bill 24-35, which would amend the Good Samaritan Act (7 CMC §2018), and advanced House Bill 24-36, to establish a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) administered by the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation (CHCC). Committee members voted to replace permissive language in HB 24-36—words such as “may provide” and “may request”—with mandatory language (“shall”) for several provisions on information exchange and program development.

The bills aim to expand legal protections for people responding to opioid overdoses and to create a CHCC-run database of prescription and dispensing records. CHCC officials and local clinicians told the committee both measures would support safer prescribing and improve clinical care.

“My name is Eleanor Cabrera, and I represent CHCC as the chief strategy officer,” said Eleanor Cabrera during public testimony. Cabrera urged passage of HB 24-35 to broaden Good Samaritan protections to first responders, off-duty personnel, school employees and other community members acting in good faith. She also expressed CHCC’s support for HB 24-36, saying the proposed PDMP would be CHCC-administered, aligned with national standards, and would allow clinicians real-time access to prescription data.

Dr. Joshua Wise, a pharmacist and general manager of PHI Pharmacy, told the committee the PDMP would be valuable not only for controlled substances but also for monitoring…