Pubdate: Sun, 21 Dec 2014
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2014 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Dan Nakaso
Page: A1

GROWING PAINS

Years After Hawaii's Landmark Medical Marijuana Law, Patients Still 
Struggle to Get the Drug Legally

After allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes in 2000, 
Hawaii was widely envisioned to be the first state that would 
legalize marijuana in America.

Instead, 14 years later, there's no legal way for patients to obtain 
marijuana without growing it themselves. The law is silent on how the 
state's 13,000 patients can get seeds for the seven plants they are 
allowed to grow.

Even after Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana through 
voter-backed initiatives, Hawaii legislators remain focused on 
legislation that would create a statewide medical marijuana 
dispensary system that - in the best-case scenario - will likely take 
two to three years to become reality.

"I'm discouraged," said Karl Malivuk, a 66-year-old medical marijuana 
patient from Moiliili who sits on the Medical Marijuana Dispensary 
Task Force that's trying to develop a dispensary system. "I'm worried 
they'll have the 20th anniversary of the 2000 act (allowing medical 
marijuana) before they open the first dispensary. People had been 
patting themselves on the back saying, 'Hawaii is the first state to 
recognize medical cannabis.' But for 14 years it's been a useless 
law. The system was doomed right from the beginning."

So Malivuk - who suffers extreme nausea from treatment for chronic 
liver disease - buys his marijuana through Hawaii's underground market.

"I have no say-so over what is available," he said. "Compared to the 
'60s and '70s, it's so heavily narcotic. So I have a choice of being 
nauseated or totally stoned."

The upcoming legislative session certainly will see efforts to 
legalize marijuana, or at least lessen the penalties to mere fines.

Tracy Ryan, chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii, last week 
circulated a bill she drafted that would legalize marijuana and was 
looking for a sponsor. State Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois 
Point), chairman of the Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military 
Affairs Committee, once again plans to introduce legislation calling 
for fines instead of criminal penalties for marijuana possession.

But like other legislators, Espero said the emphasis on 
marijuana-related bills this session will be on creating a system 
that would allow patients to legally acquire their marijuana through 
an unknown number of dispensaries on each island.

"I do expect that bills will be introduced on decriminalization and 
legalization, as always," Espero said. "But Hawaii's not ready for 
legalization. The public is not clamoring for it. My colleagues are 
not knocking on my door saying, 'We have to have it. It is now on the 
radar and it is gaining momentum.' People are still waiting to see 
how things are handled in Colorado and Washington and other states."

The number of medical marijuana patients is expected to grow next 
year when the state Health Department takes over administering the 
program from the state Department of Public Safety and its law 
enforcement focus.

But last week, Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force members heard 
testimony that the Health Department likely will need two to three 
years after a bill is passed to consider all of the complicated 
issues involved in a dispensary program - and create rules to administer it.

IN THE MEANTIME, chronic pain sufferers such as Vernon Drury, 54, of 
Makakilo, remain frustrated that it's still illegal to obtain 
marijuana and marijuana plants - even for patients with a 
state-issued certificate.

"It shouldn't take that long to get medical marijuana to patients," 
Drury said. "All we've got to do is follow what's being done in 
Washington and Colorado. But we like to drag things out here. It 
frustrates me. Why not make it legal all the way around?"

The answer is that the federal government seems willing to allow 
medical marijuana in states "with a tightly regulated system," said 
state Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Tantalus-Makiki), chairwoman of the 
House Health Committee, which likely will hear any bills regulating 
Hawaii's dispensary system, including one being drafted by the 
Legislative Reference Bureau.

"We're focusing on making sure we have a dispensary system that works 
and operates," said Belatti, an attorney. "The feds - for lack of a 
better word - respect that. We don't want our patients to be 
federally prosecuted. That's why the focus on decriminalization and 
legalization is misguided. We should focus on what we can do. But I 
understand the frustration. I feel their frustration."

There is no shortage of complicated issues that have to be addressed 
in setting up Hawaii's dispensaries, said Susan Chandler, director of 
the University of Hawaii's Public Policy Center.

"You have licensing issues," said Chandler, who facilitates the 
dispensary task force's meetings. "Who's going to be able to grow it? 
What's the fee structure? There are quality control issues and 
security issues. It's a very complicated piece of legislation. While 
other states have done it, we don't have a quick administrative rules 
process and procedures."

Until Hawaii creates a dispensary system, Chandler said, "We have a 
medical marijuana system but you have to begin in the illegal market. 
How do you get your first seed? You can't buy it legally. That's the 
strangest part."

So caregivers such as Jari Sugano and Reid Kaneshiro of Mililani 
Mauka struggle on their own.

This year, they went looking for a marijuana plant to cultivate in 
their backyard so they could create a tincture to help treat their 
daughter's seizures.

Five-year-old Maile "MJ" Kaneshiro was diagnosed with Dravet 
syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. The couple also has an 8-year-old 
autistic son, Austin.

A stranger finally gave them a plant, Sugano said.

"We had no idea what we were getting. I had no experience with 
marijuana and the learning curve is very steep. And I couldn't get 
the plants to grow. It was just too cumbersome," she said.

Sugano, who is also on the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force, 
helps fruit and vegetable farmers on Oahu through her job as an 
extension agent for the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical 
Agriculture and Human Resources. So Sugano is embarrassed that she 
isn't doing a better job of cultivating marijuana plants in her 
backyard, where four of her legal seven plants just died of a white 
fungus outbreak.

Showing her three surviving, 18-inch marijuana plants, Sugano said: 
"This is sad for what I do for a living. But this is the best I can 
do. As the parent of two special-needs children, there isn't a lot of 
time left for me to learn how to do this."

With only three plants alive that can provide MJ with enough tincture 
for a month - and no seeds, seedlings or cuttings, Sugano said, "We 
don't have a backup. We're stuck."

If Hawaii had a medical marijuana dispensary system, Sugano said, she 
would know the origins of each plant and possibly have access to a 
testing facility to measure the right amounts of cannabidiol (CBD) 
and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that MJ needs for her tinctures.

Before Sugano and Kaneshiro learned how to turn their plants into 
medicine for their daughter this year, MJ had seizures daily. Now 
she's down to about one seizure per week and her hyperactivity and 
appetite are better, Sugano said.

But the effort can be overwhelming, she said.

"Managing a family with two special-needs children is difficult," 
Sugano said. "On top of that, I have to take care of the plants. For 
many patients, it's just too much."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom