Careful criteria will ensure safe access

With the passage of the medical marijuana dispensary bill House Bill 321, Hawaii is returning to the compassionate spirit that prevailed when our Legislature was first in the country to legalize medical cannabis in 2000. Strong majorities in both chambers sent a carefully crafted piece of legislation to the desk of Gov. David Ige, where it awaits his signature. If, as we hope and expect, he signs it into law, the long-suffering, seriously ill patients of Hawaii will soon be able to procure their essential medicine at a safe and legal retail location.

Starting early next year, the Department of Health will have a 17-day open application period for up to three licensees in Honolulu County, two each in Hawaii and Maui counties, and one on Kauai. Each licensee will be able to own or operate up to two dispensaries and two production centers. Strict criteria ensure that the applicants have bona fide ties to Hawaii and the granting of licenses will be entirely merit-based. The selected licensees will be announced by mid-April 2016 and, after the department gives its final approval, they may open their doors by July 15, 2016. From October 2017 on, additional licenses may be issued based on need.

The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii will be active in the Department of Health’s upcoming rulemaking process for the dispensary system, and we encourage the public to participate as well. HB 321 establishes the parameters for advertising and marketing, dispensary employee training and certification, product laboratory testing, health and sanitation standards, and more. A great deal of collaborative work has been done and we anticipate that this system will work well, both from the get-go and as it evolves.

The final version of the bill emphasizes common sense and targeted approaches to safety. For example, it focuses on prohibiting specific, dangerous processes like butane extraction by patients or their caregivers, while allowing wider latitude to the licensees in their production. It 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.

A new computer system linking the Department of Health with the dispensaries will allow for regulation of sales, inventory and quality as well as the disposal of production waste. Finally, the security systems at dispensaries and production centers will use state-of-the-art alarms, video monitoring, fencing, etc.

To help our active-duty soldiers and veterans in Hawaii, the bill adds post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the conditions eligible for medical marijuana treatment. This victory should be seen as part of a larger battle to eventually permit federal Veterans Administration doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients.

In addition to all these upsides, there are economic benefits for Hawaii. In these lean times, the creation of new jobs and additional revenue to the state coffers are most welcome. To that effect, the bill allows for subcontracting so that additional businesses can help the dispensaries and productions centers. We are pleased that the final version omits excessive special taxes, and in 2018 a reciprocity system for out-of-state patients will kick in — important for a state with a major visitor industry.

While HB 321 is not a perfect bill, it got progressively better during the long legislative process. It prevents monopolies, gradually phases out the growing role for caregivers — with crucial exceptions for patients on islands without dispensaries such as Lanai and Molokai. It still authorizes them to help their patients obtain and use their medicine. Patients will still be permitted to grow their own plants and a wide range of lab-tested marijuana products from lozenges to ointments and oil extracts will be available to them at the dispensaries.

The dispensary program is still a work in progress. It is good, common-sense public policy because it resolves the essential contradiction of our 15-year-old program: that there was no safe and legal access to medicine. The medical cannabis patients of Hawaii are grateful to Rep. Della Belatti and Sen. Will Espero, primary chairs of the final conference committee, and to all of the legislators who worked on and supported the bill, for putting us so near the finish line. Now it is up to all of us to make this work.

8 licenses, 16 dispensaries, 6,000 plants

Under the new proposed state law, the Hawaii Department of Health will issue eight dispensary licenses. Each license holder will be allowed to operate up to two retail dispensaries for a total of 16 statewide. Geographically, they will be spread out across the state: six dispensaries on Oahu, four each in Hawaii Island and Maui Counties, and two in Kauai County.

Each license holder will be allowed to grow up to 6,000 plants and operate two production centers to convert harvested material into products that can be sold to registered patients. The license shall allow production, manufacturing and dispensing of marijuana and manufactured marijuana products only in the county for which the license is granted.

FAQs about medical marijuana, now online

The medical marijuana patient registration program was transferred from the state Department of Public Safety to the state Department of Health in January 2015, as part of Act 177. The Department of Health has introduced its own medical marijuana website, which includes frequently asked question and is the main portal for the public to learn about the program and coming developments.

Also now available is an online application process for physicians and a confidential online system than can be used by law enforcement officials to verify that those found growing or using marijuana are certified medical marijuana patients.

— State Department of Health