A patient could possess 4 ounces of medicinal marijuana and seven plants of any maturity under a bill passed by the Legislature this session. Current law allows for possession of 1 ounce
Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
The recent explosion of a butane honey oil lab in a Hawaii island home serves as evidence that a growing and dangerous practice on the mainland has reached Hawaii shores.
"It’s been happening all over the United States," Hawaii County police Lt. Mark Farias said of the laboratories at which a marijuana byproduct that’s both smoked and inhaled in e-cigarettes. "We’ve been seeing more and more of the finished product and components to extract it."
During extraction, butane is dispensed into a container of marijuana to strip the plant of oils. The liquid is then placed in a water bath to boil off the butane.
On Saturday night, a powerful blast in a lab in Puna blew off cabinet doors, melted metal pipes, knocked out windows and seriously injured a 30-year-old Keaau man, Hawaii County police said. The man was taken by private vehicle to a fire station, transported by ambulance to Hilo Medical Center with third-degree burns, and later transferred to an Oahu hospital.
Police recovered 102 marijuana plants from an indoor growing operation, more than an ounce of butane honey oil, three e-cigarettes, and components used to manufacture the oil.
The makeup of the resulting oil derivative, which is honeylike in consistency, can be up to 100 percent THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, Farias said.
Honolulu police recently confiscated a parcel containing e-cigarettes and a liquid substance that tested positive for THC, a Honolulu police spokeswoman said.
Anyone with information about any butane honey oil is asked to call police at 808-935-3311.