Allow vaping for medical cannabis

The establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries was intended to create a safe, regulated channel for the delivery of cannabis products that are formulated for use as medicine.

Many of those who have become certified by the state to purchase the drug for this purpose are not happy with smoking the plant products themselves, finding the smell or burning sensation unpleasant. Fortunately, that problem should be overcome through an omnibus bill that authorizes regulated vaping products as an alternative.

Medical cannabis has been legal in this state for 18 years, but patients’ only option for obtaining the drug legally was to grow the marijuana for their own consumption. Finally three years ago, the law establishing the first dispensaries was enacted.

Still, some patients who use marijuana to relieve pain, nausea or other symptoms of various physical conditions have been dissatisfied with the conventional processed plant product. They have been looking for a delivery system with the ease of adjusting dosage that smoking provides, but that is more clinical and odor-free.

The legal availability of cannabis oil in cartridges used for vaping would seem to meet those requirements. A measure passed by lawmakers to make that happen, House Bill 2729, is poised to become law, which is a rational development.

The bill included other provisions as well, including establishing criteria for out-of-state cannabis patients and caregivers to be credentialed to purchase products at Hawaii dispensaries. This aspect also makes sense, given that strict safeguards, including requirements for equivalent medical-cannabis certification from the traveler’s own state, are in place.

HB 2729 is under review by Gov. David Ige who will decide whether to sign it or let it become law without his signature. The prospect of a veto appears to be off the table: Rightly, the governor has left the bill off his list of measures for which he’s retaining the option to veto.

Initially, the administration did have concerns about authorizing the vaping option. The state Department of Health has been executing a policy discouraging both tobacco smoking and e-cigarettes, and officials wanted to be sure this measure would not compromise that position.

In early testimony on the bill, health officials urged lawmakers to clarify the bill’s language to “ensure against the use of vaping devices for vaping or smoking of tobacco or tobacco products.”

That has been accomplished. HB 2729 allows for cartridges to be manufactured elsewhere but stipulates that they “be filled with cannabis, cannabis oils, or cannabis extracts manufactured by the licensed dispensary.”

The measure also prohibits cartridges containing “nicotine, tobacco-related products, or any other non-cannabis derived products.” It also requires that the device for turning the oil into an aerosol be temperature-controlled to prevent combustion of the oil, to allow for the safe inhalation of the product vapor.

Vaping can’t be viewed as a safe activity generically. Many commercial vaping liquids contain nicotine — some people adopt e-cigarettes as a way of satisfying the smoker’s nicotine craving without the cancer- causing components of tobacco.

But the cartridges imported and sold in local vaping stores have not been sufficiently regulated, and their chemical compounds have not been studied.

Further, some of these are flavored, appealing to a youth market. Neither this marketing strategy, nor inhaling the vapor, is something the state can endorse.

In the case of medical cannabis, however, the quality control is enhanced and it is possible for the state to vouch for what the cartridges contain. HB 2729 defines an unglamorized product that falls within the confines of medicine — and that’s as it should be.