MINUTES OF MEETING

      ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE

 

      Sixty-seventh Session

      May 28, 1993

 

 

 

The Assembly Committee on Commerce was called to order by Vice Chairman Morse Arberry, Jr., at 11:55 a.m., on Friday, May 28, 1993, in Room 332 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada.  Exhibit A is the Meeting Agenda, Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Mr. Morse Arberry, Jr., Vice Chairman

      Ms. Kathy M. Augustine

      Mr. Rick C. Bennett

      Mr. John Bonaventura

      Mr. Val Z. Garner

      Mr. Dean A. Heller

      Mr. David E. Humke

      Mr. Richard Perkins

      Mr. Scott Scherer

      Ms. Myrna T. Williams

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:

 

      Mr. Gene T. Porter, Chairman

      Ms. Chris Giunchigliani

      Ms. Erin Kenny

 

GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:

 

      None

 

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Mr. Paul Mouritsen, Senior Staff Analyst, Legislative    Counsel Bureau

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

 

      Ms. Carol Hanna, Executive Director, Private Investigators Licensing Board; Mr. Fred Hillerby, Nevada Board of Pharmacy; Mr. Keith MacDonald, Executive Secretary, Nevada Board of Pharmacy; Mr. L. Scott Walshaw, Commissioner, Financial Institutions Division (See also Exhibit B attached hereto).

 

 

 

 

SB 207      Provides that records or information of investigation by private investigator's licensing board are confidential under certain circumstances.

 

Ms. Carol Hanna, Executive Director, Private Investigators Licensing Board, testified.  She stated SB 207 was amended "in cooperation with the Press Association."  She advised SB 207 established guidelines for investigation of licensees and provided records be made public if disciplinary action was imposed.

 

Vice Chairman Arberry closed the hearing on SB 207.

 

SB 246      Revises certain provisions relating to practice of pharmacy and state board of pharmacy.

 

Mr. Fred Hillerby, Nevada Board of Pharmacy, testified.  He explained various sections of SB 246.

 

He said Section 2 defined "Intern Pharmacist."  He explained under Nevada's statutes, a pharmacist had to accumulate 1,500 hours as an intern before he could be licensed.

 

He stated Section 3 provided if it was necessary for the board to go to court to have a subpoena enforced and if the subpoena was enforced, the defendant (in the action in which the subpoena was issued) was responsible for legal fees incurred by the board.

 

He advised Section 4 referred to a prior section (Section 2) with regard to the definition of "Intern Pharmacist."

 

In explaining the purpose of Section 5, Mr. Hillerby said previously, Nevada law had not included pharmacists among manufacturers with respect to the compounding of drugs.  He advised the federal government ascertained some pharmacists were compounding vast quantities of drugs for resale and said those pharmacists were manufacturers.  He said Section 5 clarified pharmacists were not exempt from either federal laws or Nevada's laws concerning the manufacture of drugs.

 

Mr. Hillerby referred to the provision of Section 6 contained on page 2, at line 39 and 40, and advised that provision allowed the board to participate in and spend money for programs of continuing education.

 

Mr. Hillerby said Section 7 set forth those things an Intern Pharmacist was permitted to do under direction of a pharmacist and provided a certificate (authorizing an individual to undergo practical pharmaceutical training) would be valid for four years from the date of its issue. 

 

He stated in Section 8 the word "certification" was replaced by the word "certificate."

 

Mr. Hillerby used a situtation in Ely as an example in explaining the situations with which Section 9 dealt.  He said Ely had both a small hospital and a prison.  He suggested it would be difficult to force both the prison and the (hospital) pharmacy each to have a full time pharmacist.  He advised a pharmacist owned a store in Ely and could act as part-time director of the hospital's pharmacy and indicated Section 9 would allow the board to permit that to be done.

 

He stated Section 10 changed the date for renewal of licenses from June 30th to October 31st in order to avoid both the confusion and the bookkeeping problems which could result from requiring such renewal at the end of the fiscal year and also to cause the license renewal dates for pharmacies and pharmacists to coincide.

 

Mr. Hillerby explained Section 11 replaced the word "physician" with the word "person" to provide prescriptions could be written by individuals in other states who were authorized to do so by the statutes of their states even though those individuals were not physicians. 

 

He stated Section 12 added the word "strength" to the description of those things a prescription must contain.

 

He explained Section 13 pertained to the subpoena power of the board and to enforcement of subpoenas issued by the board.

 

Mr. Hillerby said Section 14 provided greater flexibility in the reference material which could be used to determine equivalency of drugs when subsituting generic drugs for other drugs.

 

He advised Section 15 required the board to maintain lists published by the Food and Drug Administration with regard to controlled substances and to make those lists avaiable to those individuals charged with enforcing laws regarding controlled substances in Nevada.

 

He explained Section 16 would permit a pharmacist to add a patient's address to a prescription for a controlled substance which was handwritten by a physician if the physician omitted the address from the prescription.

 

Mr. Hillerby said Section 17 clarified a thwarted attempt by an individual to obtain a controlled substance illegally was still an attempt to break the law.

 

He stated the provision contained in Section 18 pertained to dangerous drugs but was otherwise the same as the provision contained in Section 5.

 

Mr. Hillerby indicated in Section 19 the following drugs would be deleted from the list of poisonous drugs contained in that section: Boric acid, powder or crystals; camphor, spirits of camphor or camphorated oil; and iodine or its tinctures.   He asked Mr. Keith MacDonald, Executive Secretary, Nevada Board of Pharmacy, to provide further explanation.

 

Mr. MacDonald said for years, the drugs Mr. Hillerby named had been included in the list of poisons but were commonly sold in supermarkets and pharmacies.  He said there were no acknowledged admissions to hospitals due to poisoning or death caused by those drugs and "so we're just excluding them in the list of poisons."

 

Mr. Hillerby resumed his testimony.  He said Section 20 contained new language which provided a prescription must not be refilled after one year had elapsed from the date the prescription was issued. 

 

He advised in Section 21, the word "issued" would replace the word "written" to preclude prescriptions becoming perpetual.  

 

Mr. Arberry asked why under AB 246, certain sections of statute were repealed.  With respect to the first such section, Mr. MacDonald indicated Nevada used to require only manufacturers of generic drugs to be licensed as manufacturers.  He said it was no longer necessary to license drug manufactuers because all such manufacturers now distributed their products through wholesalers or were themselves listed as wholesalers by the Prescription Drug Marketing Act.  With respect to the second repealed section, Mr. MacDonald explained the board was required by statute to provide a list of drug manufacturers to "everybody who we had licensed."  He said because of their risk management procedures, pharmacies found those lists to be useless and therefore, the board served no purpose by providing those lists.  With respect to the last repealed section, Mr. MacDonald said another section of AB 246 provided if not licensed, "a pharmacy or person shall not use the word 'drug', 'drugs', 'prescription' or 'pharmacy'."  He indicated adding to those prescribed words the additional words contained in the section being repealed, would "...mean that a supermarket couldn't have a sign up that said 'remedies' and so on."

 

Mr. Scherer referred to Section 14, line 31 on page 6, and asked if the word "approved" or the word "authorized" should be used in place of the word "established."  Mr. MacDonald explained the list of approved drugs published by the Food and Drug Administration was duplicated in many other references books.  He said the words "established by" could be replaced by "approved by" or by other language.

 

Mr. Scherer referred to Section 11 and asked if the first word of subsection (a) should be "schedule" (rather than "substance").  Mr. McDonald said he believed Mr. Scherer was correct and suggested "substance" was a typographical error.

 

Mr. Scherer pointed out in both instances in which the word "less" was used in line 27, on page 4 of AB 246, the word "fewer" should have been used.  He stated he believed Nevada's statutes should be written in proper English.

 

Vice Chairman Arberry closed the hearing on AB 246.

 

SB 407      Makes various changes relating to licensing and regulation of escrow agencies and agents.

 

Mr. L. Scott Walshaw, Commissioner, Financial Institutions Division, testified.  He advised a bill was passed by the legislature during the last legislative session which transferred jurisdiction over licensing of independent escrow companies pursuant to Chapter 645A from the Real Estate Division to the Financial Institutions Division.  He said during the period the Financial Insitutions Division had administered the provisions of that bill, it was noted there were several areas which "needed some housekeeping," and it was the purpose of SB 407 to perform that function.

 

Mr. Walshaw reviewed various sections of SB 407 as set forth on a memorandum, dated April 28, 1993, Exhibit  C.

 

In his explanation of Section 4, Mr. Walshaw advised the owner of an escrow company, which the division subsequently placed in receivership, had engaged in activies which were not licensable activities and which resulted in a substantial loss to those with whom she was doing business.

 

In his explanation of Sections 6 and 9, Mr. Walshaw advised the license fees were being raised by a considerable amount, but those fees had not changed for some period of time, and the increase being imposed would make those fees commensurate with fees paid by other licensees over which the division had jurisdiction.

 

Mr. Perkins asked if the change in fees would affect the division's budget.  Mr. Walshaw replied it would not.  He indicated the change in fees represented a very small increase in the amount of revenues received by the division.  He said the division's budget was considered "revenue neutral" because at the end of the fiscal year, the division refunded each dollar it had received from the general fund.  He explained the fees in question pertained to only approximately two dozen licensees and would not amount to a large sum of money.

 

Vice Chairman Arberry closed the hearing on SB 407.

 

BDR 54-1770Revises requirements for licensing of real estate appraisers.

 

Vice Chairman Arberry called for a motion for committee introduction of BDR 54-1770.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN BENNETT MOVED FOR COMMITTEE INTRODUCTION        OF BDR 54-1770.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN GARNER SECONDED THE MOTION.

 

      THE MOTION WAS CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY BY ALL THOSE PRESENT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There being no further business to come before the committee, Vice Chairman Arberry adjourned the meeting.

 

                                        RESEPCTFULLY SUBMITTED,

 

 

 

 

                                        ________________________

                                        SARA J. KAUFMAN

                                        Committee Secretary

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Assembly Committee on Commerce

May 28, 1993

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