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2004 SESSION

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HB 954 Drug offenders; testing for infection with sexually transmitted diseases.

Introduced by: L. Scott Lingamfelter | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Testing of drug offenders for infection with certain sexually transmitted diseases and other reportable diseases. Requires the court trying the case of any person alleged to have committed any drug offense or any offense that was motivated by, or closely related to, the use of drugs to order the person, upon a finding of probable cause that the person has committed the crime with which he is charged, to undergo testing for those sexually transmitted diseases and other reportable diseases that are listed as reportable diseases by the Board of Health and are identified by the Commissioner of Health as being of epidemic proportions among injection drug abusers. The test results must be kept confidential under state and federal patient privacy law and regulations. In the case of positive test results, the Department of Health must offer the defendant appropriate counseling and must conduct surveillance and investigation. The test results will not be admissible as evidence in any criminal proceeding. The cost of the tests will be paid by the Commonwealth and taxed as part of the cost of the criminal proceedings. The Department of Health must annually compile aggregate data by local jurisdiction and for the state at large, without personal identifiers, on defendants whose test results are reported as positive for sexually transmitted diseases pursuant to this section, including, but not limited to: (i) the defendant's gender, (ii) the drug or drugs alleged to have been used by the defendant, (iii) any sexually transmitted disease for which a positive test result was obtained, and (iv) any known subsequent referrals of the defendant for treatment of or testing for any sexually transmitted disease during the reporting period. A report of the aggregate data, without personal identifiers, required to be compiled pursuant to this section shall be posted prominently on the Department of Health's website in a manner that allows the general public to access the results for each local jurisdiction in the Commonwealth as well as the state at large. The Commissioner of Health is charged with identifying, from among the list of reportable diseases, those sexually transmitted diseases and other diseases that are of epidemic proportions among injection drug abusers.


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