Six medical marijuana dispensaries on Oahu could be built legally by July 15, 2016 if Gov. David Ige signs House Bill 321, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
House Bill 321 is set to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries, which would resolve the paradox faced by the roughly 13,000 medical marijuana users in Hawaii, who since the year 2000 can legally use the plant but have not had a legal way of acquiring it, save for growing it themselves.
The bill states for every 500 medical marijuana patients in a county, one dispensary license will be allowed. Right now that allows for six on Oahu, four on Maui, four on Hawaii island, and two on Kauai.
To get the license, applicants must prove they have $1.2 million to invest in the business, and there is a $50,000 annual renewal fee for that license, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
The bill would not allow the growth and sale of marijuana to be in the same location. It also does not allow inter-island commerce, reports the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Michael Visher, owner of Colorado’s Green Man Cannabis Dispensary, said, “Every person who steps into a marijuana facility has to be licensed.” This includes cleaning crews, plumbers, electricians, pest control people. “That license is going to be valuable.”
According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, “Ige’s representatives have said he’s open to signing the dispensary bill into law, and members of his Cabinet worked with legislators in crafting the measure."
The bill was passed to the Governor on May 7, and the deadline for his decision is July 14, according to the Medical Cannabis Coalition of Hawaii.
Hawaii News Now reports, "If Governor Ige signs the bill into law or lets it become law without his signature, the State Department of Health will begin accepting applications for dispensary licenses in January."
The bill has passed all other layers of government, with a large support base.
Alanna Norwood, a BYUH junior in biomedicine from California, said, “I think it’s a great idea. Then the state can make money on the taxes. People smoke anyway and it’s not really dangerous. There are tons of rules regulating where and when people can smoke it.”
Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association said with the existing medical marijuana users and those expected to become users once dispensaries are legalized, sales in Hawaii could become $65 million a year, boosting the economy.
“Each dispensary could employ up to 30 people and each grow center about 20,” the Star Advertiser reported U.S. Cannabis Pharmaceutical Research consultant Michael Patterson saying.
However, Hawaii Sen. Josh Green said, “the people who have been pushing marijuana have been overstating the economic benefits to their communities and the people against it are overstating the negative social impacts. I don’t yet know whether or not it’s going to have a significant economic impact on Hawaii. There hasn’t been an honest assessment yet.”
That lack of honest assessment also concerns Rep. Marcus Oshiro, who was one of 13 legislators who voted against HB 321. He wrote his viewpoint in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, saying the for-profit growing and selling of marijuana “is a dangerous and untested social experiment on Hawaii’s people and is not consistent with local values and culture. Not-for-profit or co-ops or limited imports are viable alternatives. Obviously, jumping onto the social experimentation bandwagon with so little positive data is reckless and dangerous.”
He said the legislature has “not evaluated the facts carefully, considered the ongoing social experiments and data in other states, prevented predictable and foreseeable harms and have not exhausted all less overbroad or intrusive means of helping our legitimate medical marijuana patients and families.”
Zoia Falevai, a librarian at the campus library from Samoa who came to Hawaii in 2001 for school, said, “ A lot of people suffer from cancer in my community. Medical marijuana can help them with the pain and give them an appetite to eat.”
Born and raised in Laie, Yvonee Marasco-Mapu, the Health Center receptionist, said she thinks this measure could make more problems. “I would say its bad for the community. Different people act different ways when they are on it. I’ve seen it before. I think they might get it for medical and then sell it.”
Marasco-Mapu’s worry is backed by a study the University of Colorado did, which “revealed that about 24 percent of teens obtained their marijuana from medical marijuana card holders,” as Oshiro pointed out in the Honolulu Star Advertiser.
Marasco-Mapu went on to say, “It just opens a jar of worms. I know there are some people out there who really do need it for medical—for those who need to be comfortable before passing. I just know they should have really strict laws for those.”
Virginia Pressler, M.D., is director of the Hawaii Department of Health. She wrote her take on the bill in the Honolulu Star Advertiser, she said there are “no formally recognized standards exist for the medical use of marijuana,” mostly because it is still an illegal Schedule I drug, as are heroin and LSD.
She calls for the Department of Health to “establish its own guidelines for medical marijuana” to protect “Hawaii’s vulnerable patients.” She said there is a need for “greater clinical research and epidemiological studies (for example on the relationship of medical marijuana use to motor vehicle accidents, falls, or injuries).”
Rep. Oshiro brought up the dangers facing users on the mainland because of a lack of health standard. “Unhealthy mold, mildew, pesticides and petroleum residue are showing up in marijuana in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon.”
According Carl Bergquist, the executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, HB 321 “protects our keiki by prescribing strict marketing rules and prohibiting direct sales of medical marijuana to them, while ensuring access for those minor patients who need relief from suffering.”
Rep. Oshiro is also worried about the youth. Other than rolling a joint, highly concentrated oils and waxes that have 10-15 doses can be consumed with vapes. “The fact that Hawaii’s youth are leading the nation in using these devices should give us pause.”
He cited the National Institutes of Drug Abuse reporting that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana, and it is more likely for those that start young. “The negative data trends on crime, highway accidents, youth, employment, and mental health and social service providers are uncontroverted,” he added.
Bergquist said the bill “prevents monopolies.” However, Oshiro said this law invites big business to come and “place our citizens at the mercy of mainland interests. Once given a toehold, they will use their increasing wealth and political power to expand influence.”
Ultimately, he wants Hawaii to “continue to be the masters of our own destiny and not beholden to a new outside interest disguised as a compassionate and healthy friend.”
“No state that has either legalized medical or recreational marijuana has eliminated the illegal drug trade,” said Oshiro.