Pubdate: Tue, 23 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
Page: A10

MEDICAL MARIJUANA TOO HARD TO OBTAIN

It's been almost 15 years since the law was enacted, and Hawaii still 
doesn't know what to do with its medical marijuana program. It's 
actually less of a program than a policy, and that policy is: Hawaii 
residents can get a prescription for the drug, but filling it is 
another matter.

If the state had the concern that it should about maintaining the 
integrity of the program and quality control for the drug it 
provides, lawmakers would finally finish the work they started in 
2000 by establishing a regulated dispensary system. The fact that it 
hasn't yet done so means that anyone enrolled in the program is on 
their own, with no reasonable way to ensure the effectiveness or 
safety of what they're using.

Hawaii, once thought to be on the vanguard of the movement to enable 
the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes only, now has fallen 
behind states such as Colorado and Washington, which have legalized 
it altogether. The changed landscape means most of the advocacy 
energy has shifted toward the goal of legalization or at least 
decriminalization.

But rather than rushing to follow those states, it makes more sense 
at this point to let them serve as the national pilot programs. 
Hawaii should learn whatever lessons their experience imparts. 
Implementation of recreational marijuana has not come without 
problems, not the least of which is unanticipated bad reactions to 
the drug infused in food products.

Some pitfalls, such as residents carrying marijuana while they cross 
lines into states where it's still illegal, may be less of an issue 
in an island state. But there would still be repercussions here, 
demanding better surveillance at airports.

By now there have been ample opportunities to learn from other states 
about the best way to establish and regulate medical marijuana 
dispensaries, and lawmakers and advocates should let all that 
experience inform Hawaii in creating its own system.

The Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force was created through 
legislative resolution in the 2014 session to ride herd on just that 
project. A report is due out before the convening of the 2015 
Legislature, but documents posted on the task force website 
(www.publicpolicycenter.hawaii.edu/projects-programs/hcr48.html) show 
some of the issues to be resolved.

For example, the group estimates the number of patients at 13,000 and 
is considering a network with a ratio of one dispensary per 500 
patients, according to a preliminary report - large enough to reach 
everyone while being small enough to be manageable by regulation. 
This seems a prudent idea, aimed at avoiding the loosely controlled 
proliferation of dispensaries in California, for example.

Other issues to be resolved include how much to charge dispensaries 
in fees. Among the six states the task force studied, Nevada charged 
at the high end - $5,000 for the application, $30,000 for the license 
- - while Oregon charged no such fees.

Where laboratory tests and quality control are concerned, New Mexico 
seemed to set the strictest standards. How each state manages a 
patient database is variable, too, as was the requirement for 
security at each dispensary.

But the most critical issue is the controls over the production and 
dispensing of the drug itself. If patients can't grow their own, they 
resort to the black market.

This is hardly the expectation one should have of any system that 
appropriates the term "medical." Marijuana has been shown to have 
utility in countering the pain and discomfort of cancer treatments, 
and there has been work using a variant to lessen the seizures of 
epilepsy and other conditions.

Patients with such legitimate uses for the drug deserve the same 
standards as are applied to the distribution of other medications. 
For now, lawmakers need to set aside all the debate over legalization 
and finish the job they started in 2000, establishing a viable system 
for the medical use of marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom