The state Department of Health has finally answered the question: Who’s reviewing applicants for Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensary licenses?

The review panelists are: James Duffy, retired Hawaii Supreme Court justice; University of Hawaii professor H. David Bess; Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser, deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture; Keith Ridley, chief of the DOH Office of Health Care Assurance; and John Fisher III, an Alabama pharmacologist and toxicologist.

Almost as important to the job as such credentials is a certain capacity to steer clear of trouble. The DOH wants to insulate panelists from attempts to influence their decision.

So, applicants, if you run into any of them on the street, it’s probably best to smile, wave and walk on by.

Police presence looking better

Good news for Waianae Coast residents: They are expected to get faster response times from police and won’t have to travel nearly 12 miles to Kapolei for assistance, once the new Honolulu Police Department substation on Farrington Highway opens in May.

The $16.4 million facility, between Bayview Street and Waianae Valley Road, is four times the size of the previous substation, which was demolished in 2014.

The 2017 fiscal year budget also includes a request for eight more officers on the Waianae Coast — so it’s possible there will be more officers on the streets as well as inside the two-story, 25,172-square-foot substation.