Originally published Jan. 2nd, 2017

We know we can do better. If 10% of the licensed Cannabis patients in Hawaii engaged in direct action, we could save lives in 2017.

How many Cannabis-preventable deaths occurred in 2016? How many will occur in 2017?

There is no legal way to grow Cannabis in Hawaii. The mere act of possessing or consuming Cannabis by a patient remains illegal in Hawaii even with a license. There is no way to purchase Cannabis seeds or starter clones legally in Hawaii.

Healthy Goals for Hawaiʻi Cannabis Patients in 2017 [Updates in Orange]

1. Increase Patient Access to Cannabis Medicine [Success! Plant count increase from 7-10]

The numbers provided by the Hawaii State Department of Health demonstrate an impending shortage of medicine. The unusually small number of licensed dispensaries is insufficient to meet demand. Moreover, Cannabis medicine prices directly impact addiction in our communities. When opiates are more affordable than Cannabis the act of seeking relief results in addiction. To prevent this from expanding as it has in the past, we must take action;

• Re-schedule Cannabis at the state level and notify DOJ that Marijuana has accepted medical use in Hawaii, and either Marijuana needs to be removed from federal Schedule I, or Hawaii needs to be exempted from enforcement of Federal Schedule I as it applies to Marijuana. Note: At the end of 2016, a written request to review Cannabis scheduling in Hawaii was met with opposition from Nolan Espinda, (Director of Public Safety) and Doug Chin (Hawaii’s State Attorney). Scheduling Cannabis in hawaii updates. SCR 147  requests the legislative reference bureau to conduct a study on the potential impact on the administrative and judicial systems of state government and on local law enforcement if the illegal possession of marijuana for personal use is decriminalized in Hawaii.
• Restore caregiver’s rights to grow for for patients and make acquiring seeds a non-criminal activity (supply must meet demand).
• Restore a caregiver’s right to consume Cannabis (Finding a caregiver that does not consume Cannabis is nearly impossible).
• Allow patients to consume Cannabis in hospitals (currently illegal to administer Cannabis to patients of any status or age).
• Change rules and regulations to make it clear that patients can grow and process their own steady-supply Cannabis-derived medicine
  • Create a definition for a Cannabis plant that treats patients and investors equally (Plants less than 12″x 12″ are not counted for investors)
  • Allow for a steady uninterrupted supply of medicine grown at home. Increase number of plants over 12″ to 9 (allow for 3 plants in three stages of growth aka a steady supply).
  • Increase home possession amount to 12 ounces (allow a legal harvest of 1-3 plants at a time).
• Related legislation:
  • Senate Bill 174 is still alive and moving . Introduced by Espero, English, Ruderman, S. Chang, Dela Cruz, Gabbard, Galuteria and Kidani, this bill could amend the definition of debilitating medical condition to include lupus, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and autism as conditions that qualify for the legal use of medical marijuana. This bill passed through various Senate committees and is now being heard in House committees. The chances for this bill are good. Apparently legislators don’t want to get run over by a patient in a wheelchair in the grocery store. It must pass the Health Committee chaired by Representatives Della Au Belatti, and Vice Chair Rep. Bertrand Kobayashi.
    Other members of the committee include; Rep. Sharon E. Har, Rep. Chris Todd, Rep. Dee Morikawa, Rep. Andria P.L. Tupola and Rep. Marcus R. Oshiro next and a hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday, 03-21-17 9:00AM in House conference room 329. Use the links to contact these reps to let them know you support this bill. We strongly urge you support this bill by Registering and then Submitting your testimony no later than 9am Monday, March 20th. We can’t imagine how it would feel to have a child suffering from Epilepsy and not being allowed to treat them with Cannabis. In fact, synthetic versions of THC are already legally allowed by your legislature.

2. Increase Awareness for Healthcare Professionals [Fail – Education law not fulfilled.]

• Continue delivering and expanding educational programs for Doctors, Nurses and healthcare professionals.
• Spend the money already collected from dispensary applicants on the education promised in dispensary law.
• Provide state protections for healthcare professionals serving patients with Cannabis-treatable diseases.
• Provide the facts regarding critical program capacity metrics eg;
  • Number of patients with Cannabis-treatable diseases not being served (identify who needs help).
  • Number of deaths in 2016 from Cannabis-treatable diseases (Identify who we can save)
• Related legislation:
• Amends Hawaii Revised Statutes and Hawaii Administrative Rules to substitute references to “medical marijuana” and like terms with “medical cannabis” and like terms.  Requires the department of health to make all conforming revisions to documents, letterhead, websites, and other necessary items by December 31, 2019.  Introduced by GABBARD, KIDANI, K. RHOADS, RUDERMAN, Baker, S. Chang, Ihara, Kim, Nishihara, Riviere SB 786 could amend Hawaii Revised Statutes and Hawaii Administrative Rules to substitute references to “medical marijuana” and like terms with “medical cannabis” and like terms. Requires the department of health to make all conforming revisions to documents, letterhead, websites, and other necessary items by December 31, 2019. (SD1). Imagine state health and safety workers properly identifying the Cannabis plant medicine they sell through dispenaries? It could be an indication of intelligence in groups that currently think of Cannabis patients as users of an evil drug.However, Governor David Ige and the Hawaii State Department of Health believe it is essential for the medical marijuana dispensary program to first be launched and become operational before making modifications to existing laws or introducing new ones. “Changes to the existing law may be premature and will divert attention away from the immediate priorities necessary to ensure a dispensary system is underway to serve Hawaii’s eligible patients.” These statements have created further distance between pediatricians capable of saving children’s lives from the medicine they need to live.

Hawaii law enforcement have pledged to obey Jeffrey Sessions who recently said, “We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no! Don’t do it!” Local law enforcement are backing a man who said in the 1980’s that he thought that “the Ku Klux Klan was okay until he found out some members smoked marijuana.”

“The War on Drugs has been massively devastating to the heart and soul of American society. States are fighting back, by legalizing marijuana and utilizing harm reduction strategies over incarceration. We cannot allow Jeff Sessions to reinvigorate the War on Drugs.” -Drug Policy Forum

It’s easy to spot the unaware and uninitiated in the medical and legislative communities by the words they use. When they call the plant and medicine “marihuana” or they call patients, “users” they are causing harm. [Update – a new law 1488 requires Hawaii state government to refer to Cannabis as “Cannabis” instead of “marijuana”.] However, the department of health have already stated they will not support legislation for Cannabis healthcare and their most recent reports and website continue to use the derogatory term, “marijuana”.

Recently the department of health further clarified their intention when they sent an email to patients and investors which read in part, “About 45 medical marijuana bills have been introduced in this legislative session, but Governor David Ige and the Hawaii State Department of Health believe it is essential for the medical marijuana dispensary program to first be launched and become operational before making modifications to existing laws or introducing new ones. Changes to the existing law may be premature and will divert attention away from the immediate priorities necessary to ensure a dispensary system is underway to serve Hawaii’s eligible patients.” -Hawaii Department of Health

How does treating licensed patients differently from dispensary owners affect our health and economic prosperity?

Dispensary investors were treated to a new law expanding their customer base to allow sales of medicine to licensed patients from other states. In 2018 patients licensed in other states will be allowed to purchase medicine from dispensaries in Hawaii. This doubles the number of customers ie; patients in our islands on any given day. Could this be the reason for delays in opening or is it really the responsibility of those who chose the software vendor? Regardless, dispensaries no longer need local patients to profit from health care.

On the plus side, it’s already much easier to get a license in California. Parents with children suffering from diseases that are not approved by the department of health (lupus, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and autism) cannot access medicine in Hawaii legally but may be able to fly to another state to get licensed in 2018 and return to Hawaii to access medicine. Privacy plays a major role in a parent’s decision to acquire knowledge or medicine.

Employees working for nearly all departments including the department of “Child Protective Services” has access to Cannabis patient health records. CWS and CPS in other states are known for arresting parents and seizing children when they learn the parents are breaking federal law. Parents with Cannabis licenses have told us horror stories about Hawaii CWS involvement in their lives. Labled as drug abusers, parents find themselves choosing between medicine or parental rights.

Hawaii law enforcement lead by Nolan Espinda have already testified this session indicating they would follow the US Attorney General, Jeffrey Sessions who recently spoke to department of safety and local law enforcement officials in Virgina;

“I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana–so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful,” He continued:

“I realize this may be an unfashionable belief in a time of growing tolerance of drug use. But too many lives are at stake to worry about being fashionable. I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store … Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.”

During a youth summit on opioid addiction in New Hampshire this month, he told an audience that, because of such efforts, “people began to stop using drugs. Drug users were not cool.” It wasn’t reported whether any children in these audiences were parents of children of patients.

The educational requirement in HRS 329D has not started. The law reads as follows:

[§329D-26]  Public education.  (a)  The department shall conduct a continuing education and training program to explain and clarify the purposes and requirements of this chapter or to provide substance abuse prevention and education.  The program shall target community partner agencies, physicians and other health care providers, patients and caregivers, law enforcement agencies, law and policy makers, and the general public.

     (b)  The department shall employ at least one full-time staff member whose qualifications and duties include the provision of medical marijuana health education. [L 2015, c 241, pt of §2]

3. Make Patient Participation in the Hawaii MMJ Program a Legal and Private Activity [Fail – A small regulatory infraction eg; improper plant labeling, may still and often does result in criminal prosecution of licensed patients.]

• Decriminalize patient and caregiver activities when acting within current law.
• Clarify transportation, plant definition and distribution rights among patients.
• Rewrite laws in clear language that does not have to be settled in court (relieve judiciary of unnecessary burdens).
• Create a legal defense fund for patients and caregivers (equal treatment for all patients in court).
• Protect sensitive and confidential “individually identifiable health information”. Stop the state from selling private patient information to third parties (remind legislators that this is illegal under federal law and doing so subjects tax payers to unnecessary legal action).

4. Create an Emerging Cannabis Industry with a focus on “Patients Over Profits” [Fail – Any and all benefits for business are limited to 8 dispensary owners. There are no other licensed Cannabis businesses.]

• Convince legislators to hire consultants in Hawaii or Cannabis-legal states to perform an economic analysis of our emerging Cannabis economy.
• Empower and strengthen a safe, legal Home Market for Cannabis (support small family farms).
• Provide incentives for the state to allow dispensaries to open now.
  • Currently the primary incentive is a law created for investors called, “reciprocity”. Reciprocity doubles the market size for investors in 2018.
  • By allowing dispensaries to sell to out of state patients Hawaii law circumvents the need to rely on sales to local patients.
• Increase safety by preventing dispensaries and testing laboratories from operating in the dark. Transparency is a known requirement in other states to support patient safety.
• Shine light on dispensary investors and licensees who risk patient safety.
• Hold licensees accountable for their actions or lack thereof to support patients (current law allows dispensaries to remain open after a safety violation or product recall).
• Related Legislation:
  • SB 305 specifies that video monitoring and recording of medical marijuana production center and retail dispensing location premises shall be retained for a period of forty-five days.  This would reduce costs for dispensaries that would normall by required by law to retain surveilence video for 90 days. Ultimately this could backfire on dispenaries that choose to limit surveilience video as we known employee theft is the primary reason for cameras in dispensaries. At least patients who shop in dispensaries could be afforded some protection should state prosecutors get lazy about collecting evidence to incarcerate patients for performing an illegal activity inside a dispensary.

5. Legalize Cannabis for Adult Use [Fail – Cannabis is still illegal for undiagnosed an unlicensed patients.]

• There is no better solution for healthcare, our economy and society in the Aloha State. Hawaii citizens are “no less equal” than patients in states where Cannabis is legal.
• You own your body. Your decision to choose a life-saving, plant-based medicine should be between you and your healthcare provider.
• Acknowledge addiction. Provide legal alternatives to opiates. Our communities are in crisis.
• Cannabis creates jobs. Making those jobs illegal is creates separation in our communities. We need to bring people together to strengthen our local economies.
• Anyone should be able to try Cannabis without risking their happiness, their job, their family or their freedom.
• Shine light on legislators and other decision makers to who harm patients intentionally or otherwise.