"Merely having a medical marijuana card doesn't mean you're using marijuana. We can't prove you're using marijuana. Our practice of having them turn in their firearms was incorrect," Honolulu police Chief Susan Ballard said of her department's controversial policy requiring medical marijuana patients to relinquish their guns.

Honolulu police Chief Susan Ballard said her department's controversial policy requiring medical marijuana patients to relinquish their guns was wrong.

"It is not illegal to possess the ones you already have," Ballard told the Honolulu Police Commission on Wednesday. "Merely having a medical marijuana card doesn't mean you're using marijuana. We can't prove you're using marijuana. Our practice of having them turn in their firearms was incorrect."

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The Honolulu Police Department is reviewing a controversial policy that requires legal marijuana patients to turn in their firearms.

The reconsideration follows community backlash since the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported earlier this week that HPD has sent letters to at least 30 medical cannabis users who are permitted gun owners telling them to surrender their firearms.

The new police chief, Susan Ballard, hasn't said what her position is on the issue. HPD spokeswoman Michelle Yu said Ballard is reviewing the policy.

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The Honolulu Police Department will not enforce a controversial policy requiring legal marijuana patients to turn in their guns.

The department issued a notice Tuesday, saying it is consulting with other governmental agencies, as well as reviewing recent court rulings regarding the issue. HPD said it will, however, continue to deny new firearm permits to applicants with medical marijuana cards.

"This is a new area of concern for cities across the country, and we in Honolulu want to develop a policy that's legally sound and serves our community," HPD Chief Susan Ballard said in a news release. "Formulating the policy will take time, but we want to do it right."

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Dozens of patients anxiously stood in line - one as early as the night before - to be the first on Oahu to buy products such as Chocolope and Lemon Drop, medical marijuana strains that went on sale Wednesday.

"It's like a candy store," said Kimbreley Timulty, 45, who was among the first to purchase pot at Aloha Green LLC. "It was overwhelming because you walk in there and that's the only thing that you smell."

Timulty, who uses marijuana for insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder, and her 47-year-old husband, Joseph, from Makiki, said they have been waiting 17 years for medicinal pot to be readily available in Hawaii.

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Hawaii history will be made today when the first dispensary opens for business on Maui, nearly two decades after the state legalized medical marijuana.

Maui Grown Therapies, one of eight dispensary licensees, will begin at 11 a.m. the first legal sales of cannabis in the islands. The company was the first to pass a final Health Department inspection Monday, beating at least one other dispensary, Aloha Green Holdings Inc. on Oahu, to be the first to open.

It is a significant milestone for the industry that has struggled to get off the ground since the law establishing dispensaries was passed in 2015. The first dispensaries were allowed to open as early as July 2016, but were delayed for more than a year, frustrating medical cannabis patients and caregivers.

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Thirty-eight percent of the 17,591 patients registered in Hawaii's medical marijuana program were located on the Big Island.

Recently released data by the state Department of Health indicates the trend of medical marijuana patients in Hawaii is changing.

Thirty-eight percent of the 17,591 patients registered in Hawaii's medical marijuana program were located on Hawaii Island, according to the data released Friday. That's down from 40 percent in March and 42 percent in December.

Meanwhile, the percentage of patients hailing from Oahu has jumped from 25 percent in December to 29 percent last month, a more than 1,300-patient increase. The Big Island's patient count increased by about 300 people in that same time, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

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Until Governor David Ige approved the new law, possession of drug paraphernalia ranging from marijuana pipes to plastic bags and needles was a felony that carried a penalty of up to five years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Now, people caught with drug paraphernalia would face no jail time and could be fined no more than $500.

Gov. David Ige has quietly signed a new law that dramatically reduces the penalties for possession of all kinds of drug paraphernalia - a proposal that was opposed by Attorney General Douglas Chin as well as prosecutors on Hawaii island, Maui and in Honolulu.

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Since 2000, the state of Hawaii has had a medical-use-of-marijuana program to provide patients with chronic illness a safe and effective treatment option. As we progress through 2017 and in anticipation of opening dispensaries, it is now the appropriate time to remove the inconsistent treatment of cannabis as an illegal substance from Hawaii law. It would seem the state Legislature agrees, as there are over 10 bills seeking to decriminalize marijuana; over 10 bills expanding the current dispensary program (even though dispensaries haven't opened yet); over five bills trying to open the state in some way to industrial hemp; and several bills claiming portions of the tax revenue from still unopened dispensaries - all alongside two or three bills with a more "boogeyman" and much less science-based approach. For example, House Bill 922 points out that 90 percent of the state's medical marijuana certifications are issued by just 10 doctors, then asserts this is due to some abuse ! of the system instead of the fact that most doctors feel their license will be in danger if they issue marijuana certifications, or the fact that many people choose to seek marijuana certifications from doctors who specialize in cannabis rather than their regular doctor.

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A leader of a ring that conspired to smuggle methamphetamine from San Diego to Hawaii has been sentenced in federal court to 28 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office in Honolulu said today.

Jesse Wade Pelkey, 38, of Imperial Beach, Calif., was sentenced Thursday by Senior District Judge Helen Gillmor. In September, Pelkey pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to a news release from Florence T. Nakakuni, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii.

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The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the payout to the woman, whom LAPD investigators believe is one of at least four women James Nichols and Luis Valenzuela coerced into sex. The Times generally does not name alleged victims of sex crimes.

Nichols and Valenzuela, both 41, were working as narcotics detectives in Hollywood in 2010 when they arrested the woman, according to one of her attorneys, Dennis Chang, and a search warrant affidavit LAPD investigators filed as part of their criminal investigation into the officers' conduct.

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Medical Marijuana Proponents Predict Big Increase in Users

New data from the state Department of Health confirms Hawaii County has nearly twice as many medical marijuana patients as Oahu, with about 11 percent living in Pahoa alone.

On June 30, there were 6,101 patients residing on Hawaii Island, comprising 42 percent of the 14,492 patients statewide. The island has about 13 percent of the state's total population.

Pahoa, with an estimated 14,565 residents in 2014, had 702 of those patients. Meanwhile, Hilo - with roughly three times the population as Pahoa - had 637 patients. Kona had 705 and Oahu had 3,408 patients.

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Afederal appeals court gave medical marijuana advocates what seemed like a big win this week with a unanimous ruling that the federal government cannot prosecute people who grow and distribute medicinal cannabis if they comply with state laws.

The decision affirms a mandate from Congress that barred the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 and 2015 from bringing cases against legitimate pot shops in states that have medical marijuana laws. It makes clear that if operators are meticulously following the rules, they shouldn't have to worry about the feds coming after them.

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I'm writing in response to Mr. McClure's letter to the editor on July 31 regarding Colorado's experience with legalized marijuana.

It must have been a shock for him to return to Denver after almost 30 years and find that the place had changed.

My husband and I moved from Denver to Waikoloa Village 20 years ago but have been visiting almost every year since to see family and friends.

Yes, Denver has changed over the years, but it happened long before the legalization of marijuana three years ago. The population of the Denver Metro area increased by 50 percent between 1980 and 2000. At the risk of stereotyping, traffic really started to get bad in the 1980s when the city received an influx of Californians who brought their driving habits of honking as soon as the light turns green and running red lights regularly with them. And more people means more cars and more traffic on the roads.

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Recently, our state fitted nine favored companies with licenses to cultivate and provide medical marijuana to the sick, which will generate millions of dollars in profits.

If we are going to legalize medical marijuana in Hawaii, the community should benefit from the profits.

Why not team with the state Department of Agriculture to form a medical marijuana agency that would help minimize patients' expenses?

Tony Gonzalez Waianae

[end]

Many Doctors Are Adopting a Risk-Averse Attitude and Want to Wait Until Dispensaries Are Established

Health care providers have been slow to embrace the medical marijuana industry even though July 15 was the legal opening date for the state's first dispensaries. The number of doctors certifying medical cannabis patients only climbed slightly over the past six months. There were 88 physicians who certified 14,492 patients as of June 30, up from 79 doctors and 13,150 patients on Dec. 31, according to the state Health Department.

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On July 7, Gov. David Ige signed into law what might prove to be the most important piece of economic legislation in the past 50 years. Hawaii now enjoys the best hemp law in the nation.

We who have been active in bringing back hemp to agriculture believe that generations will still be saying mahalo to those who worked, some for decades, to get this law passed. Now it's time to implement it.

The hemp industry is growing 1,000 percent per year in the U.S., despite the "research only" provision for hemp in federal law. No place is more ready to lead hemp's resurgence than the Aloha State. Our year-round cultivation climate, small farmer infrastructure, and bottom line need for a regenerative agriculture economy means we have all the pieces of the puzzle.

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DOH Says Inspections Still To Be Completed

LIHUE - The more than 1,600 registered medical marijuana patients on Kauai may not be getting their medicine at a licensed dispensary in July.

Department of Health officials said facility inspections of the state eight licensees have yet to take place. That means dispensaries won't be ready to open a retail establishment by July 15, the earliest date legislators allowed them to start selling medicine to registered patients.

"The Department of Health is unable to predict the progress by each licensee because there are a number of requirements that are outside of our department's control," said Janice Okubo, DOH spokeswoman.

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Legislators Field Marijuana Questions at Meeting in Pahoa

Hawaii's medical marijuana dispensary law isn't perfect - far from it - - but it's a start, and the state needs to begin somewhere.

That's how lawmakers characterized the up-and-coming dispensary system Thursday evening to a fired up crowd in Pahoa, many who pointed out what they called flaws in the way the law was written.

"What we came up with, I don't choose to defend, I think it's extremely imperfect," state Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Puna, told the nearly 100 attendees, which appeared to include several patients and marijuana users. "But it's a step, and we're going to keep taking steps. I think five years from now, the situation is going to look dramatically different than it does now. Meanwhile, it's like walking through mud - you can't run, you gotta keep moving forward."

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The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition.

Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker, said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country.

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The Hawaii Legislature's fixation on marijuana as a medical cure-all is starting to resemble a remake of the Cheech and Chong classic, "Up in Smoke."

As lawmakers meticulously tweaked the medical marijuana law that could see local dispensaries selling pot within months, more pressing medical concerns - failing state hospitals, doctor shortages, bullying insurers - got little relief in the 2016 session.

The Legislature grudgingly threw cash-strapped Wahiawa General Hospital a $2.5 million Band-Aid only because the district's senator was in a position to hold up the entire state budget without it.

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