National marijuana policy advocates returned to the isles for a second year to urge state lawmakers to take a common-sense approach on marijuana policy that focuses on science, public health and safety rather than legalizing or demonizing the drug.
Representatives from Project SAM — Smart Approaches to Marijuana — met with a small group of state legislators Tuesday to discuss ways Hawaii can learn from states such as Colorado, Washington and California. Hawaii lawmakers have been discussing how best to proceed with amending the state’s medical marijuana law because many say the drug isn’t easy enough to obtain.
Project SAM co-founder Dr. Kevin A. Sabet said during a news conference Tuesday at the state Capitol, "We want to talk about what we call a health-first policy emphasizing prevention, treatment, smart law enforcement, and we really want to learn from … examples of what we do not want to copy: alcohol and tobacco."
Sabet, an author and drug policy researcher who co-founded Project SAM last year with U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., urged Hawaii lawmakers to avoid measures that could lead to marijuana becoming an industry that relies on addicts for profits.
"This has become a political process — not a contemplative policy process — and money is driving it," he said. "And they’re going at a thousand miles an hour while we’re trying to piece together the stories that are coming in."
Colorado, Sabet said, first legalized medical marijuana in 2001 and didn’t have any point-of-sale stores open until the mid-2000s. By 2008, though, the industry had exploded, and surveys show nearly 4 percent of adults had obtained a medical marijuana card, he said. Between 2006 and 2012 — when voters approved legalization — hundreds of medical marijuana stores had opened.
Advocates caution that California has been following a similar path since medical marijuana shops first opened in 2009.
"Very quickly in Los Angeles alone, we had 966 what we call ‘pot shops,’" said John Redman, a senior adviser to Project SAM and executive director of Californians for Drug Free Youth. The shops now sell energy bars, candy, energy drinks, even "pot tarts" for breakfast, he said: "These were things that were absolutely targeted to youth, (and) we realized this was exactly what the tobacco industry did many years before."
Project SAM leaders also visited Hawaii last year and helped launch SAM-Hawaii as one of the country’s first SAM Project affiliates.
State Reps. Sharon Har (D, Kapolei-Makakilo) and Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Poamoho) and Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha) sponsored Tuesday’s discussion.
"We have one shot to do this, and we want to make sure we do it right and address it based upon science, facts and the realities of Hawaii and our constituents," Oshiro said.
Efforts to decriminalize marijuana in Hawaii in recent years have failed.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear two resolutions Friday that would call for a task force to develop recommendations for establishing a regulated statewide medical marijuana dispensary system. House Resolution 29 and House Concurrent Resolution 48 were passed by the chamber’s Health Committee last week.
Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-Makiki-Tantalus), chairwoman of the Health Committee, said in a news release that thousands in Hawaii suffering from cancer and a wide range of other debilitating diseases could benefit from having better access to medical marijuana.
"It is unconscionable for us to walk away from them and do nothing," she said. "We are one of just a handful of states who currently legalize medical marijuana without having access via some form of a system of dispensaries. We need to change that sooner rather than later."
Sen. Josh Green (D, Naalehu-Kailua-Kona), chairman of the Senate Health Committee and an emergency room physician on the Big Island, said Hawaii needs to make sure it takes a sensible approach when it comes to marijuana legislation.
"We have to be careful," he said during the forum. "We have to build a good program that’s based on science. If we do that, I think we’ll be proud of what we do in the state."
More information about Project SAM can be found at www.learnaboutsam.com.
