Bill allowing out-of-state cannabis patients to buy drug advances

A bill to allow out-of-state marijuana patients to buy their medicine at local dispensaries and prohibit employers from firing workers with cannabis cards who test positive for the drug passed out of a key committee Thursday.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee moved the measure, which could be a boon for the fledgling legal cannabis market, which has been slow to get off the ground.

The bill establishes a so-called reciprocity process that requires the state Health Department to register out-of-state patients and caregivers so tourists would be able to purchase and use the drug legally while in the islands. Currently, only local marijuana cardholders can legally use pakalolo.

The same measure proposes to prohibit employers from “suspending, discharging, or discriminating against an employee for testing positive for cannabis” as long as the worker is authorized to use it for medical purposes.

Businesses are grappling with how to deal with potential changes that could significantly affect their workforce.

“Just because you have a prescription doesn’t mean you can be stoned all day at work. You still have to perform at the level you were hired to perform at,” said Tommy Silva, owner of T&T Tinting Specialists Inc., which has about 30 employees. “It’s tough. We treat it now kind of like alcohol, where alcohol is legal and you can do it on your own time, but when it affects your performance and attendance and anything else, then we deal with it administratively.”

Silva said the business is changing its policies accordingly and that medical marijuana is no different from any other prescription drug.

“If somebody’s being prescribed some kind of drug to handle anxiety and abuse and shows symptoms at work — bad performance, raging attitudes and conflicts with employees and customers that weren’t apparent before — we’ll have to sit them down and get them help. It’s just not acceptable,” he added.

Tim Lyons, executive director of the Hawaii Business League, a small- business advocacy group with about 800 members statewide, said there is a “great deal of concern” from members on how to handle medical marijuana in the workplace.

“At this point it’s a big concern just because we don’t know how it’s going to develop. It turns out in most cases to be another situation where they’re going to have to hire an attorney. We hate to have to hire attorneys if we’re on the paying end. For a lot of small businesses, it’s just prohibitive,” Lyons said. “You’ve got that strange dichotomy of federal illegality and the state perhaps permitting it, and we don’t know where we are. It makes it hard to comply without the advice of legal counsel. This is just another one of those situations that makes it very difficult (to do business).”

The proposed legislation also gives dispensaries the green light to sell edible cannabis products, steps that could move the industry forward.

“It’s not for social or recreational use in Hawaii yet, but that’s going to be next, probably,” Silva said. “We’re just kind of preparing our handbooks to be ready. Change is inevitable.”