In 2000, Hawaii's Legislature was the first in the nation to pass medical marijuana legislation to provide medical relief for the state's seriously ill. Existing law recognizes the benefits of marijuana for alleviating pain and other symptoms associated with certain debilitating illnesses, but patients until now have to obtain marijuana on the "black market" or must grow their own supply of medical marijuana. The plain fact is: It does not work. Fifteen years ago, Hawaii led by example and now we must do it again by passing legislation to create a well-regulated cultivation and retail dispensary system. [continues 505 words]
BLOOMFIELD, N.M. - Charles C. Lynch seemed to be doing everything right when he opened a medical marijuana dispensary in the tidy coastal town of Morro Bay, Calif. The mayor, the city attorney and leaders of the local Chamber of Commerce all came for the ribbon-cutting in 2006. The conditions for his business license, including a ban on customers younger than 18 and compliance with California's medical marijuana laws, were posted on the wall. But two years later, Lynch was convicted of multiple felonies under federal law for selling marijuana. He is one of hundreds of defendants and prisoners caught up in the stark conflict between federal law, which puts marijuana in the same class as heroin with no exception for medical sales, and the decisions by many states to authorize medical uses. [continues 654 words]
Froma Harrop should give more credit to the Rand Paul, RKy., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., bill ("Half a heart on marijuana better than no heart at all," Star-Advertiser, March 21). Reducing cannabis (marijuana) from its current discredited classification as a Schedule I substance alongside heroin will allow a chain reaction of credible drug law reform, all by itself. Like the original experiment with alcohol prohibition, the sequel has been not only a failure; it's one of America's worst policy failures. Cannabis prohibition has been reinforced by lies, half-truths and propaganda, perhaps none worse than the Schedule I lie. America cannot move forward without fixing that blatant injustice. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
For Years, Huge Budgets and Plenty of Manpower Were the Norm - but Those Days Are Long Gone The Hawaii National Guard was a pioneer in the war on drugs, flying Huey helicopters in support of a big law enforcement roundup of marijuana plants in a 1977 Hawaii island operation called Green Harvest. Former Gov. George Ariyoshi related in a 1982 New York Times story how 49 National Guardsmen flew into Kauai's mountains by helicopter in 1981 to ferret out a dozen marijuana growers because police were afraid to go. [continues 1036 words]
Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Patients Could See Outlets As Early As Next Year The push to allow for medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii - some 15 years after state leaders permitted medical use of the drug - continues to advance through the Legislature, with key lawmakers in support saying they hope to give the state's nearly 13,000 medical pot patients access to such outlets by early 2016. On Wednesday the state Senate Health and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs committees unanimously voted to approve House Bill 321, which would create a framework to permit medical pot dispensaries across the islands. [continues 595 words]
A bipartisan trio of U.S. senators - New Jersey's Cory Booker, New York's Kirsten Gillibrand and Kentucky's Rand Paul - are sponsoring a bill to classify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, meaning the federal government would allow it be used as medicine. Some critics worry that such a bill could become a "gateway law" to full legalization of recreational weed; defenders say sick patients need the pain relief best provided by marijuana. Should the bill get approval? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue. [continues 531 words]
(AP) - State senators are taking up a proposal to develop a system of medical marijuana dispensaries, which would give patients legal access to the drug nearly 15 years after it became legal in Hawaii. A Senate panel heard the proposal Friday. Maria Eloisa Reyes attended the hearing with her son, who, because of a medical condition, has about 14 seizures per month despite taking several medications, she said. The seizures last as long as a half-hour. Reyes wants her son to try medical marijuana, and she has a degree in agriculture, but she doesn't believe she can grow the plant herself because she doesn't have legal access to the correct strain to help her son, she said. [continues 403 words]
Why is marijuana illegal in Hawaii? It's safer than alcohol. Don't legislators represent the people who elected them? According to a poll of Hawaii voters by QMark Research in 2014, 66 percent of respondents said they endorsed legalizing cannabis. Colorado took in $76 million in marijuana related fees and taxes in 2014. Significant portions of marijuana sales went to tourists. Colorado is also reporting 10,000 new marijuana-related jobs. Couldn't Hawaii benefit from an increase in revenue and job opportunities? [continues 62 words]
Give thanks for the little things, they say. A bill that would stop the feds from going after medical marijuana users in states that permit such activity is something for which we should give thanks. But it is little. Let's not criticize the sponsoring senators - Rand Paul, R-Ky., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Cory Booker, D-N.J. - for such a small reprieve from the war on drugs. They've probably gone about as far as they could within the two-faced confines of our national politics. [continues 538 words]
A Justice Department report released last week makes a strong case that Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, last August. The report suggests that Robert McCulloch, the much-maligned St. Louis County prosecutor, made the right call when he decided not to pursue criminal charges against Wilson. McCulloch nevertheless was the wrong person to make that call. His lack of credibility, as illustrated by the upside-down grand jury process that he orchestrated to clear Wilson, highlights the need for independent prosecutors to review police shootings. [continues 574 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Democratic senators and a possible Republican presidential candidate joined forces Tuesday to push a bill to remove federal prohibitions on medical marijuana in 23 states where it's already legal. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey said their unusual coalition is a sign of growing acceptance of medical marijuana. The lawmakers introduced a bill intended to eliminate uncertainty surrounding marijuana use in states and the District of Columbia that allow it for medicinal purposes. The bill also would allow doctors at veterans' hospitals to prescribe pot for medical purposes and allow banks to provide checking accounts and other financial services to marijuana dispensaries. [continues 109 words]
The Measure Would Allow Patients to Legally Obtain Medical Marijuana A bill to authorize the first legal medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii cleared a critical hurdle at the Legislature this week by winning approval from the House Finance Committee. That nod from the powerful committee that controls state funding means the bill is now positioned for a vote by the full state House of Representatives. Nearly 15 years after state lawmakers approved the prescription and use of medical marijuana, patients still have no legal way of purchasing cannabis. They are in effect legally required to grow their own supply, and officials say many are apparently relying instead on the black market for marijuana to obtain medicinal pot. [continues 526 words]
Last week the newly created Coalition for Public Safety, a bipartisan, transideological campaign to reform the criminal justice system, made a big splash by bringing together political adversaries such as Koch Industries and the Center for American Progress. Notably absent from celebrations of this strange-bedfellows alliance: any mention of actual policy changes the coalition plans to pursue. The lack of specifics was understandable but telling. While there seems to be broad agreement within the coalition about what should be done to "make our criminal justice system smarter, fairer and more cost effective," the current Congress may settle for little more than lip service to those goals. [continues 571 words]
According to the national group NORML, 18 states have decriminalized marijuana, at a minimum. Typically, according to its website, that means "no prison time or criminal record for first-time possession of a small amount for personal consumption" - essentially treating offenses like a minor traffic violation. A legislative bill that would make Hawaii the 19th such state has advanced. Passing it would make sense. Even some of those who look askance at marijuana legalization don't want to see small-time users criminalized and public money spent on prosecuting them. [end]
The city that brought America government shutdowns and all-night filibusters is set to make pot legal on Thursday. But by the time the chaos over implementing the law is settled, most everyone in the District of Columbia might wish they were smoking some. Residents voted overwhelmingly in November to allow growing and possessing small amounts of marijuana. But Congress, using its oversight authority over the nation's capital, inserted a provision into a massive December spending deal that prevented the local government from enacting the law. [continues 148 words]
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) - Republican lawmakers in Florida who once opposed medical pot are now embracing it, motivated by the strong show of support from voters and worried that another constitutional amendment during next year's presidential race could drive opponents to the polls. Last year lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a law to allow low-potency strains of marijuana helpful to a very limited group of patients. But many people argued it was inadequate and took the fight to voters with a constitutional amendment that would have widely expanded the drug's availability to the sick. It got about 58 percent of the vote in November but needed 60 percent to pass under Florida law. [continues 447 words]
The push to develop dispensaries for medical marijuana will be back in the Hawaii Legislature this week when a joint meeting of two House committees takes up the proposal. Supporters say providing legal access to marijuana for patients is long overdue, and House Speaker Joe Souki agreed with that assessment in his opening-day remarks. More than 200 pages of testimony were submitted for and against the proposal by those who feel strongly that access is needed and others who fear marijuana will fall into the hands of susceptible youths. The House's Health and Judiciary committees plan to vote on the measure Tuesday afternoon. [continues 166 words]
One Word Could Help the District Around a Congressional Action WASHINGTON - Last fall, voters in the District of Columbia chose to join a handful of states in legalizing the production and possession of small amounts of marijuana. But unlike in the states, the free will of district voters - no matter how overwhelmingly expressed - is never the end of the story. Congressional Republicans believe they have successfully nullified the law. But officials here, seizing on a single word in the congressional legislation designed to scuttle the policy, beg to differ, setting up one of the most closely watched collisions between the two Washingtons in years. [continues 843 words]
Jari Sugano said she supports a bill that would make dispensing marijuana easier to help her 6-year-old daughter, Maile, who suffers from seizures. "It's time to come together and support this," said Sugano, sitting next to Maile, who was in a wheelchair at a legislative hearing Saturday. State laws allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes and for people to grow or have grown enough to supply 4 ounces at a time. But Sugano and others told lawmakers Saturday that obtaining the drug is difficult because it's illegal to sell it in Hawaii. [continues 270 words]
During her confirmation hearings last week, Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama's choice to succeed Eric Holder as attorney general, called civil forfeiture, a form of legalized theft in which the government takes people's property without accusing them of a crime, "a wonderful tool." Lynch, currently the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, suggested that innocent owners need not worry about getting hammered by this tool, because forfeiture "is done pursuant to supervision by a court," and "the protections are there." [continues 593 words]
The number of drivers on the road with alcohol in their systems has declined by nearly one-third since 2007, but there has been a big increase in drivers using marijuana and other illegal drugs, a government report released Friday found. The report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the share of drivers who test positive for alcohol has declined by more than three-quarters since the agency first began conducting roadside surveys in 1973. But the latest survey, conducted in 2013 and 2014, also found that 22 percent of drivers tested positive for at least one drug that could affect safety. That includes illegal drugs as well as prescription and over-thecounter medications. [continues 241 words]
DENVER (AP) - A Colorado proposal to require warning signs aimed at pregnant or nursing women at pot shops was rejected Tuesday, but the suggestion renewed debate about how to approach maternal marijuana use. The bill would have required dispensaries to post signs warning about "dangers to fetuses caused by smoking or ingesting marijuana while pregnant." Pot shoppers in Colorado and Washington already receive warnings that the drug shouldn't be used by pregnant and nursing women. The new proposal would have added signs and banned employees from recommending medical marijuana to a pregnant woman. [continues 256 words]
Tracy Ryan, chair of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii, points out that our state should put the legalization of marijuana issue to the process of referendum, submitting a legislative measure to the voters for approval or rejection ("It's time to legalize marijuana and reap its many benefits," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, Jan. 29). Our Legislature is too spineless to address this issue at hand, so voters of Hawaii must themselves decide by establishing an initiative, putting this question to the democratic test. Stuart N. Taba Manoa [end]
SIERRA MADRE DEL SUR, MEXICO (AP) - Red and purple blossoms with fat, opium-filled bulbs blanket the remote creek sides and gorges of the Filo Mayor mountains in the southern state of Guerrero. The multibillion-dollar Mexican opium trade starts here, with poppy farmers so poor they live in woodplank, tin-roofed shacks with no indoor plumbing. Mexican farmers from three villages interviewed by the Associated Press are feeding a growing addiction in the U.S., where heroin use has spread from back alleys to the cul-de-sacs of suburbia. [continues 741 words]
It has been a while since we had a governor whose family includes younger children. Hopefully Gov. David Ige will envision "our home" as an extension of his own, and strongly oppose illegal drugs, especially the "gateway" drug of marijuana. Our youth deserve to be launched into a society that corresponds to "just say no" and experience life with clear minds and healthy bodies. Last year our Legislature dealt with drug proposals, including one that proposed making Hawaii a major supplier of marijuana that profits from selling to other communities. [continues 51 words]
The last time the Georgia legislature considered a bill aimed at restricting no-knock search warrants, it was prompted by a 2006 drug raid in which Atlanta police killed Kathryn Johnston, a 92-year-old woman who grabbed a revolver to defend herself against the armed men crashing into her home. This time around, the precipitating event was a 2014 drug raid in which a Habersham County SWAT team burned and mutilated a 19-month-old boy, Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh, by tossing a flash-bang grenade into his crib. [continues 592 words]
Hawaii should not wait any longer to join the list of states that have legalized marijuana. There is simply too much at stake for us to allow our Legislature to peck away at this for five or 10 years without taking real action. Hawaii was once an important exporting state. Many of us remember the period before the Green Harvest eradication program and other measures that ruined this business here. Law enforcement turned us into a net importer from California and paved the way for our meth-amphetamine problems. Public opinion has finally caught up to common sense on marijuana issues with political pressure applied to end the enforcement efforts on the Big Island. [continues 451 words]
(AP) - With virtually no hard proof that medical marijuana benefits sick children, and evidence that it could harm developing brains, the drug should only be used for severely ill kids who have no other treatment option, the nation's most influential pediatricians group says in a new policy. Some parents insist medical marijuana has cured their kids' troublesome seizures or led to other improvements, but the American Academy of Pediatrics' new policy says rigorous research is needed to verify those claims. [continues 98 words]
Money-hungry cops are angry about the forfeiture reform that Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Jan. 6, which suggests it's a move in the right direction. But contrary to initial press reports, the new policy represents a modest change to the rules governing civil forfeiture, which allows the government to take people's assets without accusing them of a crime. "Civil forfeiture is fundamentally at odds with our judicial system and notions of fairness," two former directors of the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Office observed in a Washington Post op-ed piece last fall. "Civil forfeiture laws presume someone's personal property to be tainted, placing the burden of proving it 'innocent' on the owner." [continues 563 words]
Colorado Must Decide How to Deal With Home Hash Oil Efforts That Go Up in Flames DENVER - When Colorado legalized marijuana two years ago, nobody was quite ready for the problem of exploding houses. But that is exactly what firefighters, courts and lawmakers across the state are now confronting: amateur marijuana alchemists who are turning their kitchens and basements into "Breaking Bad"-style laboratories, using flammable chemicals to extract potent drops of a marijuana concentrate commonly called hash oil, and sometimes accidentally blowing up their homes and lighting themselves on fire in the process. [continues 529 words]
Shortages that plagued the start of Washington state's legal marijuana market have eased, sending prices in recreational-pot stores down as much as 40 percent. Seattle's first pot shop, Cannabis City, ran out of marijuana in three days when it opened in July. Since then, the state has licensed more growers, processors and retailers, increasing supply and reducing prices to an average of $15 a gram, said Randy Simmons, deputy director of the Washington State Liquor Control Board. Prices were as much as $25 a gram in July, including taxes. [continues 273 words]
(AP) - A tribe in Mendocino County plans to be the first tribe in the state to grow and distribute a large amount of medical marijuana. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported Thursday's announcement by the 250member Pinoleville Pomo Nation. The deal authorizes a Colorado-based investor, United Cannabis, and Kansas-based FoxBarry Farms to grow and distribute products from thousands of marijuana plants at the tribe's rancheria near Ukiah. FoxBarry president Barry Brautman says the operation will sell marijuana only for authorized medical users and dispensaries, in line with state law. The business will include a 2.5-acre indoor growing facility, the tribe said. [continues 143 words]
Harold Rogers, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, says a rider in the omnibus spending bill that Congress enacted last month stops the District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's congressional delegate, disagrees. So do D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Surprisingly, given the sway that Congress has over D.C., it looks like Rogers will lose this argument, and marijuana will soon be legal in the nation's capital. [continues 589 words]
KAILUA-KONA (AP) - Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force will recommend that licenses for marijuana production centers and dispensaries be offered in 2017, according to the state representative overseeing the group. Rep. Della Au Belatti (D, Moiliili-Makiki-Tantalus) said the task force finished its work this week. She is working on a bill for the House to consider when the Legislature convenes Jan. 21, West Hawaii Today reported Thursday. "The recommendations are really just a starting point," she said. "Some of the recommendations will be taken up, and some of them won't." [continues 198 words]
DENVER (AP) - To see the tax implications of legalizing marijuana in Colorado, there's no better place to start than an empty plot of land on a busy thoroughfare near downtown Denver. It is the future home of a 60,000-square-foot public recreational center that's been in the works for years. Construction costs started going up, leaving city officials wondering whether they'd have to scale back the project. Instead, they hit on a solution: tap $3.2 million from pot taxes to keep the pool at 10 lanes, big enough to host swim meets. [continues 569 words]
CHICAGO (AP) - Randy Gross hopes a new law allowing children into Illinois' medical marijuana program will reunite his family, nearly a year after his wife moved to Colorado so their son could receive a controversial treatment to ease his epileptic seizures. Gross lives and works in Illinois. His wife, Nicole, moved with their two sons so their 8-year-old could legally swallow a quarter-teaspoon of marijuana oil each day. While the medical evidence is thin, some parents - including the Grosses - say marijuana works for their children and they're willing to experiment. [continues 454 words]
For years, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has insisted that people who pay for sex and the intermediaries who facilitate that exchange are responsible for violence against women. Hence his Feb. 26 column celebrating the arrests of men who were guilty of nothing but negotiating terms with cops posing as hookers. In reality, it is prostitution prohibitionists such as Kristof who make the occupation unreasonably dangerous by creating a black market in which vendors are subject to theft and assault without legal recourse. [continues 594 words]
Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task Force Facilitator Hopes Patients Will Soon Have Easier Access to the Drug Susan Chandler says she had no particular opinions about medical marijuana before she agreed to be facilitator for Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Dispensary Task force - and as a formal matter she still is neutral when conducting the business of the legislatively created body. But being on the task force did make her aware of the many Hawaii residents who apparently benefit medically from the use of marijuana but have been having great difficulty obtaining it. [continues 2195 words]
Hawaii medical cannabis patients are at the end of their rope. For 14 years, they have not been able to access safe, efficacious medicine due to a hastily crafted state law that forces them to buy on the illegal market. Even more egregious, if a state dispensary bill is passed in 2015, it would be two to three years before administrative rules are adopted, exacerbating the stress and pain. Patients cannot wait more years. Lawmakers have already demonstrated their lack of compassion and caring for the sick and dying. [continues 67 words]
DENVER (AP) - Chris Easterling was sick of relying on drug dealers in Minneapolis when he needed marijuana to help ease the pain of multiple sclerosis. They were flaky, often leaving the homeless man without the drug when he needed relief the most. So he moved to Denver, where legal pot dispensaries are plentiful and accessible. Easterling is among a growing number of homeless people who have recently come to Colorado seeking its legal marijuana and who now remain in the state and occupy beds in shelters, service providers say. [continues 573 words]
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. [continues 527 words]
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. [continues 1192 words]
LINCOLN, NEB. (AP) - Nebraska and Oklahoma asked the U.S. Supreme Court to declare Colorado's legalization of marijuana unconstitutional, saying Thursday the drug is being brought from Colorado into the neighboring states. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said the states filed a lawsuit seeking a court order to prevent Colorado from enforcing the measure known as Amendment 64, which was approved by voters in 2012. The complaint says the measure runs afoul of federal law and therefore violates the Constitution's supremacy clause, which says federal laws trump state laws. [continues 560 words]
DENVER (AP) - Colorado will spend more than $8 million researching marijuana's medical potential - a new frontier because government-funded marijuana research traditionally focuses on the drug's negative health effects. The grants awarded by the Colorado Board of Health will go to studies on whether marijuana helps treat epilepsy, brain tumors, Parkinson's disease and post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the studies still need federal approval. Though the awards are relatively small, researchers say they're a big step forward. While several other federal studies in the works look at marijuana's health effects, all of the Colorado studies are focused on whether marijuana actually helps. [continues 263 words]
Legal Weed Sales Get Stores Set to Harvest Cash for the Holidays DENVER (AP) - That's not mistletoe. From new marijuana strains for the holidays to gift sets and pot-and-pumpkin pies, the burgeoning marijuana industry in Colorado is scrambling to get a piece of the holiday shopping dollar. Dispensaries in many states have been offering holiday specials for medical customers for years - but this first season of open-to-all-adults marijuana sales in some states means pot shops are using more of the tricks used by traditional retailers to attract holiday shoppers. [continues 675 words]
WASHINGTON (AP - Members of Congress from states with legal pot urged their colleagues Thursday not to stand in the way of legalization and to approve measures that would make it easier for marijuana businesses to operate. Voters in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia approved ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana possession last week. Colorado and Washington state already have legal pot. Amid close midterm elections around the country, "there was one clear winner: ending our failed prohibition of marijuana and instead legalizing, regulating and taxing adult use," Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon said at a news conference with three House colleagues. [continues 293 words]
Of the three jurisdictions where voters approved marijuana legalization last week, Washington, D.C., is the smallest but the most symbolically potent. The prospect of legal marijuana in the nation's capital dramatically signals the ongoing collapse of the 77-yearold ban on a much-maligned plant. The passage of Initiative 71, which voters backed by a margin of more than 2 to 1, presents a challenge to the Republicans who will soon control both houses of Congress. Will they respect democracy and local control, or will they insist that Washingtonians toe a prohibitionist line that is steadily disappearing? [continues 587 words]
The New York Police Department, which has been arresting tens of thousands of people a year for low-level marijuana possession, is poised to stop making such arrests and to issue tickets instead, according to law enforcement officials. People found with small amounts of marijuana would be issued court summonses and be allowed to continue on their way without being handcuffed and taken to station houses for fingerprinting. The change would remake the way city police handle the most common drug offenses and represents Mayor Bill de Blasio's most significant effort since taking office to address the enduring effects of the department's stop-and-frisk practices. [continues 144 words]
ST. LOUIS (AP) - The nation's heartland is ridding itself of the scourge of homemade methamphetamine, with lab seizures down by nearly half in many high-meth states. But any celebration is muted: Meth use remains high, but people are increasingly turning to cheaper, imported Mexican meth rather than making their own. Meth lab busts and seizures are down 40 percent or more in states that traditionally lead the country in the undesirable category, narcotics experts say. Enforcement actions and stricter laws are partly responsible, but the meth now coming through Mexican cartel pipelines is so cheap and pure that it is supplanting meth made in homes or soda bottles inside cars. The cartels have even expanded their meth reach to rural areas and small towns. [continues 625 words]
Medical marijuana advocates are applauding a new law that aims to improve housing protection by voiding provisions in state rental agreements that had allowed a tenant's eviction based on their status as a registered medical marijuana patient. Act 60, enacted by the Legislature and signed by the governor earlier this year, takes effect Saturday. Rafael Kennedy, executive director of the Medical Cannabis Coalition of Hawaii and Drug Policy Action Group, said it is encouraging to see the issue coming to light. [continues 149 words]
