Medical marijuana is coming to Hawaii — for real this time — and so are the regulations.

The latest from the state Department of Health requires that cannabis plants carry specific types of identification tags. All well and good; DOH must adopt rules to ensure that the program runs smoothly and, more important, safely and securely.

Still, it also should run efficiently. The program has a staff of only four to provide the necessary registration cards patients and caregivers must carry along with their marijuana. Let’s hope DOH is prepared to ramp up resources, if necessary, to meet the demand. At some point, the long wait for medical marijuana in Hawaii needs to end.

The dispensaries are expected to open in July.

Walking to school gets its own day

For a variety of reasons, walking to school isn’t as common as it used to be. But Wednesday, Oct. 21, will be a day when students in Hawaii can make a point of it, if their parents let them, as part of what is now an international occasion: Walk to School Day.

Natalie Iwasa, president of Cycle On Hawaii, says the event was started in 1997 and now is held in 40 countries, its purpose being to “raise awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion and concern for the environment.”

Sounds good, so long as the schools aren’t so far away as to make walking to them impractical.