Sick people and their caregivers wait for state to let them buy pot

Jari Sugano is anxiously awaiting the opening of Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensaries so she can legally buy the drug to help ease the seizures her 8-year-old daughter, MJ, endures from a rare form of epilepsy.

Sugano, who has had to grow MJ’s cannabis for the past four years and figure out the right dosage and strain for her ailing child, spoke at a news conference Tuesday for Aloha Green Holdings Inc., one of three dispensaries preparing to open. Aloha Green is opening Thursday on the ground floor of the Interstate Building at 1314 S. King St. for patient education and community outreach only, and for pakalolo sales later this summer.

The company, one of eight dispensary licensees selected by the state Department of Health in April 2016, plans to open a 1,700-square-foot retail center, selling eight to 12 strains of cannabis products, including flower, hash, rosin, oil and lozenges. The cash-only dispensary is prohibited by law from selling edibles or paraphernalia that enable the products to be inhaled.

Once the dispensary opens for sales, only state-certified medical marijuana patients will be allowed to enter the facility, including the waiting room. The company has a metal detector set up at its entrance and a 24-hour surveillance system.

During operating hours, security guards will assist patients, who must show medical IDs to a receptionist behind a glass window. They will then get a buzzer to wait for their turn to enter the actual dispensing area, which has four counters with at least four patient consultants, known as bud tenders, who will help in the selection and dosing of the drugs.

A menu of products will be featured on five flat-screen TVs throughout the center.

Medical marijuana advocate Teri Heede, a 62-year-old multiple sclerosis patient who has bought the drug illegally for the past three decades, is looking forward to buying safe, natural medicine to ease her symptoms.

“Initially, when I was first diagnosed, I could barely walk,” she said. “I still had to go on the black market. It could have filth in it, pesticides, herbicides. I’ve gotten some that’s made me sick before because somebody fertilized it with the wrong thing.”

The state Health Department is certifying three laboratories to test the marijuana’s potency and purity before sales can begin. Hawaii legalized medical cannabis in 2000, but patients had no legal way to obtain the drug. At least one lab, Steep Hill Hawaii, is targeting June 15 as its opening date and will run as many as 70 tests for pesticides and heavy metals.

“(The delays are) ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” said Heede, who also spoke at the facility Tuesday. “DOH has just dragged their feet. That’s all DOH is concerned with is the regulations. You can’t keep giving us old people pharmaceuticals. There is a better way.”