Thirty years ago, a college kid in Kentucky was caught growing marijuana plants in his closet. That turned him into a convicted felon, and though he's been on the right side of the law ever since, he still can't vote. On any job application, he must check the box next to "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" All this misery for growing a plant whose leaves the past three presidents admit having smoked. We know this story because Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky keeps telling it. That a Southern Republican probably running for president is condemning such prosecutions as unfair speaks volumes on the collapsing support for the war on marijuana - part of the larger war on drugs. [continues 499 words]
Kevin Sabet just doesn't get it ("If you think Big Tobacco was bad, wait until you see Big Marijuana," StarAdvertiser, Insight, Sept. 24). Big Marijuana already exists in the form of Mexican drug cartels. These are ruthless people who cut off heads to resolve business disputes, sell drugs to anyone regardless of age, and have a vested financial interest in providing cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin to consumers. Like it or not, marijuana is here to stay. We can collect taxes on legal marijuana or we can subsidize drug cartels. Punitive laws have little, if any, deterrent value. Despite the dire predictions of drug warriors, the sky is not falling in Colorado. [continues 59 words]
Saying changes need to be made to reduce their pain and inconvenience, patients and caregivers testified Wednesday evening in favor of establishing statewide medical marijuana dispensaries. But at least a few residents, including a physician, advised that the dispensaries should be centralized and that marijuana in its various forms should be kept out of the hands of children and put in child-proof containers, in view of some research that shows its early use can hamper brain development. More than 70 people attended the public meeting held by the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force at the state Capitol auditorium. [continues 334 words]
Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted - they stop after using a few times. It is also true - and regrettable - that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry - Big Tobacco 2.0 - intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 861 words]
Research Focuses on Marijuana's Harm, and Ignores Its Medical Benefits Is America's scientific research biased to focus on the harmful effects of drugs? That was one of the questions at the heart of a congressional hearing this summer seeking to understand more comprehensively the scientific evidence related to marijuana. And it was how Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found herself being grilled by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va. "Dr. Volkow, your testimony seems to completely disregard lots of other data," he accused. [continues 872 words]
Legal Medically, but Difficult to Obtain, Lawmakers to See If Loophole Can Be Fixed This is the first in a two-part series looking at a loophole in the medical marijuana industry that allows patients to possess and use the substance, but not obtain it unless they grow it themselves. Part two will be published in Monday's TGI. LIHUE - It has been just over 14 years since Hawaii made history. At the time, the 50th state became the first in the nation to establish a medical marijuana program through legislation rather than ballot initiative. [continues 1020 words]
The state has agreed to eliminate a rule requiring permits for protests at the Capitol and other state properties. In a settlement reached in federal court earlier this month, the state said it will repeal a requirement for groups of 25 or more to obtain a permit to demonstrate on state property. The permit had to be requested 14 business days in advance and required the applicant to get insurance to protect the state from possible damages. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii sued the state in March, claiming the administrative rule violated the First Amendment by stifling spontaneous demonstrations. The lawsuit also said state officials would sometimes waive the permit requirement without outlining the guidelines for waivers, which allowed officials to approve demonstrations based on their message. [continues 288 words]
Marijuana ministry advocate Roger Christie has finally been released after four years in federal custody to a halfway house, and, boy, he said upon his release, would he like to once again consume some of his favorite plant. He added wisely, though, that would be only "when I'm legally allowed to do so." But, not even counting his four years of probation, that might be never - unless he moves to Washington state or Colorado, where marijuana is legal, and assuming Hawaii doesn't follow those states down that road. Here in Hawaii, Christie could try to qualify as a medical marijuana patient - his effort to secure a religious exemption obviously didn't succeed - but otherwise his greatest joy might be to just breathe the fresh air of freedom, such as it is. [end]
Roger Christie Enters a Halfway House As His Term Ends, and He Plans a Federal Appeal Marijuana ministry advocate Roger Christie emerged from four years in federal custody Thursday and said he's looking forward to his first hit of marijuana - "when I'm legally allowed to do so." "I want to juice it, I want to eat it, I want to wear it," Christie said in a brief interview before checking into an Iwilei halfway house called Mahoney Hale, where he will stay until his Nov. 14 "expiration of sentence date." Then Christie will be on four years of federal probation and supervised release. [continues 604 words]
Big Island Resident Roger Christie Has Been in a Federal Detention Center Since 2010 Hawaii island cannabis advocate Roger Christie, who pleaded guilty in September 2013 to federal charges of marijuana trafficking and failing to file tax returns, is being released to a halfway house. Christie is considered an icon among some marijuana supporters and has been in custody in Honolulu's Federal Detention Center since his arrest in July 2010 on the trafficking indictment. State Sen. Will Espero had planned to visit him but was told that Christie was to be released Thursday, Espero said. Jeff Davis, a Christie friend and Libertarian candidate for Hawaii governor, also said Christie is being released Thursday. [continues 307 words]
Meetings on How to Address Hawaii's Regulations Are Set for Oahu and the Big Island Any system of medical marijuana distribution centers in Hawaii would likely incorporate policies and programs that have proved successful in other states, but also accommodate the unique needs of the state's roughly 13,000 medicinal cannabis patients, officials say. Those concerns include consideration of the fact that all interisland transport of marijuana is now illegal and that the product can be grown outdoors in Hawaii year-round, unlike in some other states where weather will not permit open-air cultivation, said Peter Whiticar, a branch chief with the state Department of Health and a member of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force. [continues 425 words]
Fourteen years after Hawaii legalized the use of medical marijuana, the state still lacks a dispensary system allowing eligible patients to obtain the drug easily and lawfully. Patients are left to grow pot themselves, or buy it on the black market. A new report by the Legislative Reference Bureau highlights the challenges patients face in Hawaii, and describes how medical-marijuana programs operate in the other 22 states that have them. We've said it before, but we'll say it again: Hawaii needs a dispensary system to match the 2000 law. We hope this latest report will be the springboard to establishing one. [end]
A young couple recently visited me at my stall in the Hilo Farmers' Market. The man was on disability from service in Afghanistan, with a marijuana medical card from California. As I sketched their portraits, we chatted. He said he needed some medicine, and was dumbstruck to find that there were no certified dispensaries on the island where they were spending two weeks. "What kind of thinking is that?" he asked me. I grew embarrassed because no logical answer was available to me. This situation is not uncommon in this day and age. One would think the tourism agencies would want to rectify this situation without bureaucratic harassment of such visitors. Tomas Belsky Hilo [end]
A Report to the Legislature Details Obstacles to Care Caused by the Lack of Dispensaries Despite being among the first states to approve the use of medical marijuana, certified patients in Hawaii still face challenges tied to access and transporting the drug in the isles, according to a new report to the state Legislature. The Legislative Reference Bureau report is to be presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary System Task Force, a working group convened by the Legislature to make recommendations for establishing a dispensary system for marijuana in Hawaii. [continues 538 words]
I read the Aug. 26 article, "Medical marijuana could help counter painkiller deaths," with great interest, especially the last sentence about how people "may never start opioid medication use if they are able to get pain relief from medical marijuana." I remember the days of Green Harvest, the federal marijuana eradication program that was highly successful in Hawaii. People went to jail, lost their homes and switched from smoking pot to snorting and/or shooting up crystal methamphetamine. We traded mellow, stoned-out hippies for sick, psychotic thieves and murderers who might never have begun using meth if they had retained their access to marijuana. John Wythe White Haleiwa [end]
Contrary to what you may have heard, the armored vehicles that appeared on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., during the unrest that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown did not come from the Pentagon. "Most of the stuff you are seeing in video coming out of Ferguson is not military," Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department's press secretary, told reporters last week. "The military is not the only source of tactical gear in this country." In other words: Don't blame the military for militarizing the police. [continues 587 words]
In 1996, when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Eric Holder urged the D.C. Council to reinstate mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, which it had abolished in 1994. Two decades later, as an attorney general who has repeatedly criticized "draconian" mandatory minimums and sought to limit their use, he faces resistance from the federal prosecutors he oversees. Holder alluded to that resistance in a speech to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on July 31, saying, "Any suggestion that defendant cooperation is somehow dependent on mandatory minimums is plainly inconsistent with the facts and with history." [continues 571 words]
In 2003, a Nebraska state trooper stopped Emiliano Gonzolez for speeding on Interstate 80 and found $124,700 inside a cooler on the back seat of the rented Ford Taurus he was driving. Gonzolez said the money was intended to buy a refrigerated truck for a produce business, but the cops figured all that cash must have something to do with illegal drugs. Although there was not much evidence to support that theory, under federal forfeiture law the government managed to keep Gonzolez's money based on little more than a hunch. A bill introduced last week by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., would make that sort of highway robbery harder to pull off. [continues 563 words]
I have worked in the addiction field in Hawaii for 35 years and facilitated the Family Program at Hina Mauka Recovery Center in Kaneohe for 12 years. I know well the impact that addiction has on the family and the suffering that families experience while their addicted family member is focusing on their drug of choice. So I read with interest last month's article, "Epidemic Coming," by Rob Perez (Star-Advertiser, June 22). Whether an epidemic is coming or is already here, I certainly agree that drug addiction and drug abuse are very serious public health problems. [continues 472 words]
As thousands of children fleeing violence in Central America seek refuge in the United States, some commentators are blaming American drug users. "If there weren't a lot of Americans seeking marijuana and heroin and cocaine," says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, "there would not be a drug war." Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady seems to agree. "This crisis was born of American self-indulgence," she writes. If so, it was not the self-indulgence of people who consume arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants. It was the selfindulgence of prohibitionists who insist on exporting their disastrous policy to other countries. [continues 581 words]
Hawaii was a vanguard state in the medical-marijuana movement, but soon dropped behind others in the development of drug dispensaries. That may have been a lucky break, in that Hawaii can now capitalize on the lessons learned in other jurisdictions. Hawaii is one of 22 states, in addition to Washington, D.C., to launch medical marijuana programs. Nineteen of those states have set up dispensary systems; Connecticut and Delaware are about to open their first dispensaries later this year. But the time has finally come for Hawaii to take that leap, with the state exploring its entry into a new regulatory responsibility: seeing that a product of reliable quality and fair price gets delivered to those authorized to purchase. [continues 403 words]
In states where medical and recreational cannabis sales are allowed, disquieting new trends and statistics are proving its unique dangers for those most vulnerable to its effects: children. One such statistic is a spike in calls to poison control centers. According to the National Poison Data System, calls about accidental ingestion of marijuana in children 9 and younger more than tripled in states that decriminalized marijuana before 2005. In states that enacted legalization from 2005 to 2011, calls increased nearly 11.5 percent per year. Over the same period in states without decriminalization laws, the call rate stayed the same. In the decriminalized states, such calls were also more likely to result in critical-care admissions. Neurological effects were the most common. [continues 688 words]
Pilot Programs Only Delay Establishment of a Viable System, One Patient Argues With 13,000 people registered for the state medical marijuana program - - among the first in the nation when formed 14 years ago - the time for pilot projects and studies has long passed, said Karl Malivuk, a registered patient. "It's time that we have a dispensary system, not a pilot," Malivuk told fellow members of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force. "A pilot project, to us, is: 'Let's kick the can down the road.'" [continues 524 words]
Nonfatal Overdose Cases in Hawaii Have Jumped Among Adults and Youths First, he started smoking pot because his friends did. Then he turned to prescription pills - mainly powerful painkillers, initially prescribed by his doctor or dentist after he broke a bone or had dental work done. Jeff Nash liked the buzz so much that he soon began raiding family medicine cabinets or exaggerating his health problems to dupe physicians into prescribing more. By the time Nash graduated from high school, he was a full-blown addict, taking pills and shooting heroin. Even when he spent time in a Honolulu hospital for an addiction-related problem, Nash several times a day secretly injected heroin, using an intravenous line that was supposed to be for his prescribed medication. [continues 1264 words]
HILO (AP) - Five Puna residents are suing Hawaii County and the police to get their confiscated marijuana plants back. Two lawsuits seek the return of dozens of marijuana plants or more than $250,000 in compensation. The plaintiffs say police seized the plants during a 2012 raid at the Fern Acres subdivision in Mountain View, even though the plaintiffs had valid medical marijuana cards and permission to grow the plants. One lawsuit filed last month involves 28 plants; another filed last week involves 24. Both ask for the plants to be returned, or for $5,000 per plant. [continues 131 words]
Hawaii's alarming increase in fatal prescription-drug overdoses reflects a national trend that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has described as an epidemic. The dispensing of powerful narcotic painkillers has skyrocketed over the past decade or so, and misuse of these drugs has likewise grown. Opioid analgesic painkillers such as fentanyl, oxycodone and hydrocodone have an important place in the management of chronic pain. But as the rising death rate illustrates, some legitimate patients misuse the drugs, which also are abused by recreational users who have no medical reason to be taking them. Factor in the reality that some doctors overprescribe the painkillers and that young people in particular consider prescription drugs less dangerous than illegal ones and you've got the recipe for our current public health crisis - one that demands a multi-faceted approach to solve. [continues 430 words]
When Alecia Phonesavanh heard her 19-month-old son, Bounkham, screaming, she thought he was simply frightened by the armed men who had burst into the house in the middle of the night. Then she saw the charred remains of the portable playpen where the toddler had been sleeping, and she knew something horrible had happened. Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, who is in a medically induced coma at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, may never wake up. But the appalling injuries he suffered during a police raid in Habersham County, Ga., last week should awaken the country to the moral obscenity that is the war on drugs. [continues 567 words]
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. [continues 812 words]
A Hawaii lawmaker hopes U.S. Customs won't stop the shipment of hemp seeds from China that will launch a research project in Hawaii after a hold was put on seeds headed to Kentucky this week. Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a bill into law last month that authorizes a two-year industrial hemp research project led by the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Lawmakers leery of supporting hemp had their worries put to rest in February when President Barack Obama signed farm legislation that in part permits state agriculture departments and universities to grow hemp for research purposes. [continues 264 words]
The legalized marijuana debate rages on with the inevitable justification of increased tax revenue. Yet should the government's purpose be to seek profit? Imagine the pitfalls of government where individual rights are subjugated to the purpose of profit. One of the few true roles of government is protection from the criminal behavior of others. In Washington state and Colorado, people are overdosing on THC through their pot candies and dying or hallucinating. The ability of THC in higher doses to create hallucinations (a break with reality equaling the legal criteria of temporary insanity) was the reason it was made illegal. Watch these two experiments and learn from their mistakes before rushing to duplicate them. Joseph Ronin McCully [end]
However you come down on the case of Roger Christie - the Hawaii island "cannabis minister" just sentenced for marijuana distribution - a natural response is to breathe a sigh of relief that this part of the saga at least has come to an end. Although appeals in his case and that of his wife likely will follow, the detention and trial simply took far too long. To underscore that point: Christie's very nearly already served his five-year sentence. Also, in the intervening four years since the defendant began detention, the legal stance on marijuana has relaxed in various states. In addition to the two states that have made it wholly legal, there has been an increased acceptance of decriminalization and legal medical use of cannabis. The protracted court fight over Christie seems almost quaint. [end]
Hawaii plans to plant industrial hemp this summer for the first time in 15 years, thanks to a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Senate Bill 2175 authorizes the dean of the University of Hawaii's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to establish a two-year industrial hemp research program and requires a report to the Legislature ahead of the 2016 session. On a single site, CTAHR scientists will begin to explore how hemp pulls contaminants from the soil and will research its viability as a biofuel. [continues 378 words]
Roger Christie Pleads Guilty in a Deal That Allows Him to Appeal A federal judge sentenced marijuana advocate Roger Christie to five years in prison Monday for marijuana trafficking and for failing to file income tax returns for 2008 and 2009. Christie, 64, handed out marijuana at his The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry in downtown Hilo in exchange for donations. He maintains that the marijuana is a sacrament but pleaded guilty in September as part of a conditional plea deal with the prosecutor. [continues 633 words]
Industrial hemp, a versatile crop that can be used to make food, clothing, fuel and thousands upon thousands of other products, may finally have a viable agricultural future in Hawaii. A worthy bill awaiting Gov. Neil Abercrombie's signature capitalizes on an opportunity for hemp research projects by state universities and agriculture departments without the Drug Enforcement Administration permits that are usually required. Hemp, a distant cousin of marijuana, has been demonized for far too long. We're sure tropical-ag scientists at the University of Hawaii could make excellent use of this research window. [end]
If Michael Bloomberg is going to heaven, as he recently assured The New York Times, does that mean I am going to hell? The former New York mayor and I do not agree about much, especially when it comes to his two biggest passions: gun control and "public health," both of which involve restricting people's freedom for no legitimate reason. Bloomberg told the Times he plans to spend $50 million this year against politicians who oppose his gun control agenda. According to the Times, the billionaire busybody's main goal is to "expand the background check system for gun buyers both at the state and national levels." [continues 567 words]
A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition doesn't exist. Another important reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is because prohibition increases hard drug addiction rates. It puts citizens who choose to use the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell hard drugs. Further, the government claims that heroin is no worse than cannabis, and methamphetamine and cocaine are less harmful, by insisting that cannabis is a Schedule I substance along with heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances. [continues 53 words]
Mike Lee calls for "a new conservative reform agenda" based on "three basic principles," one of which is federalism. "The biggest reason the federal government makes too many mistakes is that it makes too many decisions," the Republican senator from Utah explained in a speech at the Heritage Foundation last year. "Most of these are decisions the federal government doesn't have to make - and therefore shouldn't." So why on earth is Lee cosponsoring a bill introduced last month that would ban online gambling throughout the country, instead of letting each state decide whether to allow Internet-assisted poker? [continues 591 words]
Regarding the letter "Don't legalize pot" in the April 3 issue, I'd like to recommend some fact checking on the part of the author, please. First, he/she asks the question, "Is stoned driving somehow okay compared to drunk driving?" First point: no one is advocating for legalization of "stoned driving;" just the freedom we demand as citizens of a democracy to make our own choices as adults. Second, he/she claims "it (marijuana use) has been largely overlooked (legally?) here for years." Second point: according to the most recent data I could access, there were 1,524 marijuana arrests for the year (2007) in the State of Hawaii. That's more than four people a day, 85 percent of which were for simply possessing it. Even for a first-time offender, the punishment was 30 days in jail PLUS a $1,000 fine. [continues 222 words]
In response to Kirk Muse's letter from Mesa, Ariz., Sunday, March 30. Hawaii's adult residents should have the same freedom of using canabis as they do for alcohol. "Drinking and driving a public service warning." I would like to share a personal experience with the community about drinking alcohol and driving. As we all know, some of us have been known to have had brushes with authorities on our way home from an occasional social session over the years. A while back, I was out for an evening with friends and had a few cocktails. Knowing full well I may have been over the limit I did something I've never done before - I took a cab home. [continues 83 words]
A few months is nowhere near enough time to know the effects of legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado, except for the obvious, i.e. millions of dollars collected in pakalolo taxes ("Time to legalize marijuana is now," Star-Advertiser, March 29). I worry about the statistics we'll begin to see in the form of traffic fatalities due to "buzzed" drivers. Don't pretend this won't happen. I ask our lawmakers to act responsibly. After all, we have an innate duty to protect each other. Fill our coffers, but not on the backs of the poor judgment of others. Trish Lopez Kalihi [end]
Talking Story With Theresa Koki What are some of the things happening in those states which passed marijuana legislation, and do we want those things happening here? Theresa Koki, coordinator of Life's Choices Kauai, said that was one of the multi-pronged issues discussed during the 2014 Drug Summit, "The Truth About Marijuana and Other Drugs," that wrapped up this week at the Kauai Marriott Beach Club and Resort. "We are so fortunate Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. and Managing Director Nadine Nakamura are advocates of learning," Koki said. [continues 906 words]
Regarding "Hawaii lawmakers hear about marijuana dangers," (March 26), Kevin Sabet is a professional drug war cheerleader. That's his job. His only job. The re-legalization of cannabis will lead to the unemployment of Kevin Sabit. And Kevin Sabet knows it. I'd like to add the cannabis legalization issue is not about cannabis being completely safe for everybody including children and adolescents. It is not. The issue is the freedom of choice for adults. Hawaiian adults have the freedom of choice regarding legal alcohol. Shouldn't they have the same freedom regarding legal cannabis? Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
Thirty years ago, Neil Abercrombie, then a state legislator, was a guest on the 98 Rock radio station, and when I called in and when asked when he believed marijuana would be legalized, he responded, "Don't hold your breath." Well, I did hold my breath for 30 years, the Legislature is now pretty favorable to legalized pot and Abercrombie is the governor. Now is the time! Over the years, I have written in support of legalized recreational pot; now we should follow the lead of Washington and Colorado and legalize and tax this natural drug. Really now, has either state imploded and been destroyed by legal marijuana? No. In January, Washington collected $2 million in pakalolo taxes. The time is now! Stuart N. Taba Manoa [end]
Dr. Ira Zunin mistakenly concluded that Senate Bill 2574 will somehow expand patient access to medical cannabis because it lists primary care physicians and certain specialists as the only doctors who can recommend cannabis to qualifying patients ("Bill makes progress toward better access to medical pot," Star-Advertiser, Wealth of Health, March 22). SB 2574 lists certain medical specialists as "approved" for cannabis recommendations. Yet state law qualifies substantially more diseases and symptoms for cannabis treatment than these specialists treat. What happened to the cannabis registrations of those patients who now are unable to obtain or renew medical access because their particular diseases are not "approved?" I happen to be one of those patients and I want to know how this legislation can be considered inclusive. Karl Malivuk Moiliili [end]
Part of the reason that some states haven't made much progress reforming their marijuana laws is because the people most engaged in this issue tend to be extremely at odds. On one end there are the advocates demanding that pot be legalized, right now, and on the other there are calls for tougher drug laws, even if that means putting more users behind bars. For Hawaii lawmakers considering this issue from a public-policy perspective, however, it is important to find the sensible middle ground, one that considers myriad legal, social, economic, educational and public health impacts as Americans shift from the "war on drugs" mindset and toward more common-sense regulations, especially regarding marijuana. [continues 513 words]
Drug Summit Explores Consequences of Marijuana LIHUE - The two-day Drug Summit opened on Thursday with a panel presentation on reducing unintended consequences of marijuana policies, and preventing the onset of an industrialized "big marijuana" industry in Hawaii. More than 100 participants representing public safety, education, health and social services were at Kauai Marriott Resort for the event sponsored by Life's Choices Kauai, with the Coalition for a DrugFree Hawaii and Smart Approaches to Marijuana. John Redman, executive director of Californians for Drug-Free Youth and a member of SAM's national team, said his intent is not to vilify marijuana, but to encourage a real discussion of unintended consequences before reforms or legalization is considered. [continues 495 words]
HONOLULU (AP) - A group protesting the possibility of legal marijuana in Hawaii told lawmakers Tuesday that pharmaceutical companies would try to hook people on the drug. The tobacco and alcohol industries serve as examples of what could happen if cannabis is decriminalized, said Dr. Kevin Sabet, co-founder of Washington-based Project SAM, which stands for Smart Approaches to Marijuana. "Addictive industries rely on addicts for profit," Sabet said. "They can only make more money if they addict more people." Bills to decriminalize marijuana were defeated in the Hawaii Legislature this session, but House Majority Whip Sharon Har said the state still must to examine the issue because of advocates' push to legalize the substance in Hawaii. [continues 324 words]
Hawaii Should Learn From Other States, Drug Policy Researcher Tells Legislators National marijuana policy advocates returned to the isles for a second year to urge state lawmakers to take a common-sense approach on marijuana policy that focuses on science, public health and safety rather than legalizing or demonizing the drug. Representatives from Project SAM - Smart Approaches to Marijuana - met with a small group of state legislators Tuesday to discuss ways Hawaii can learn from states such as Colorado, Washington and California. Hawaii lawmakers have been discussing how best to proceed with amending the state's medical marijuana law because many say the drug isn't easy enough to obtain. [continues 615 words]
First, 20 states and the District of Columbia passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use. Then in 2012, voters in Washington state and Colorado approved measures legalizing the sale and possession of marijuana for non-medical use, with state oversight. Now at least a half-dozen states from Alaska to Maine are considering following suit. Marijuana still remains a federally controlled substance, but Attorney General Eric Holder in January said the U.S. Justice Department would soon issue regulations to let state-sanctioned marijuana businesses have access to banking and credit. Can full legalization be far behind? Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, try to answer the question. [continues 508 words]
Hawaii has yet to craft a functional law that addresses medical marijuana for chronic disease. Progress to date has been incremental but in the right direction. Last year the platform for medical marijuana moved from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health, establishing it as a mainstream medical program. SB 2574 SD 1, relating to medical marijuana, permits board-certified pain specialist physicians, oncologists, ophthalmologists and board-certified palliative care physicians to prescribe medical marijuana beginning Jan. 2. Currently, only primary care physicians are authorized to prescribe. [continues 602 words]
Inside Hawaii
