Where do I find information on acquiring a class I and class II license?
Hawaii May Expand Medical Program
- Thread starter vta
- Start date
Thanks for the update VTA, this almost sounds too good to be true! Am I dreaming?? lol
Great news indeed, these bills go a long way to fixing what has been a hollow shell of a program. I'll find the links on the Hawaii.gov site for the full bills language and post them here.
Great news indeed, these bills go a long way to fixing what has been a hollow shell of a program. I'll find the links on the Hawaii.gov site for the full bills language and post them here.
bht.... im in the same boat you are
i thought i would be able to find the data no problem, but alls ive been able to locate have been thru that .gov link... wtf that link isnt working fvor me now....
This link works, just type in the bill's id number in the search function-
www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2011/
You won't find specifics on how to get the various licenses, I don't think the State has the details worked out yet, kinda like AZ's new program.
www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2011/
You won't find specifics on how to get the various licenses, I don't think the State has the details worked out yet, kinda like AZ's new program.
HawaiianGrown
Active member
HawaiianGrown Genetics is getting a class II license!!!!!
Yippy
Yippy
This may not be the right place to ask, but I didn't want to make a separate thread for it.
If you're flying to hawaii, from Oakland and have your 215. Is it legit to fly with some herb. Just a few grams for myself. I've never been and have heard that they search pretty stringently to prevent unwanted flora and fauna from entering and contaminating the island. I'm sure I can find a bit if not. Just a question more than anything. Thanks
If you're flying to hawaii, from Oakland and have your 215. Is it legit to fly with some herb. Just a few grams for myself. I've never been and have heard that they search pretty stringently to prevent unwanted flora and fauna from entering and contaminating the island. I'm sure I can find a bit if not. Just a question more than anything. Thanks
theres a $200,000 fine for transporting undeclared plants, if i remember correctly from the tsa form they make you fill out before you exit the plane.
as for buds, the rules havent been written yet as far as i know regarding allowing interstate transportation....
as for buds, the rules havent been written yet as far as i know regarding allowing interstate transportation....
Thanks Greyskull. I figured as much. Rhode Island has reciprocity with California, so when I've flown out there I feel fairly confident with a small amount. I wasn't sure about Hawaii, but had heard about the tighter restrictions. Definitely not trying to take anything live with me.
I think I'll stick to a few beers and some snorkeling on the reefs while I'm there. If I meet someone, then cool. If not I'm sure I'll appreciate it that much more when I get home.
Best of luck to you guys. I hope that one day you do have clubs out there, and more relaxed regulations. If that's what you guys and girls are looking for.
I think I'll stick to a few beers and some snorkeling on the reefs while I'm there. If I meet someone, then cool. If not I'm sure I'll appreciate it that much more when I get home.
Best of luck to you guys. I hope that one day you do have clubs out there, and more relaxed regulations. If that's what you guys and girls are looking for.
Well I guess it's not all smooth sailing... it looks like all the a-holes are in the House of Representatives. They will intentionally strangle these bills with regulations, to the point where people will think "why bother". Not a good plan if you're trying to take it out of the black market imo. Auwe!
HONOLULU -- Supporters and potential investors in the medical marijuana industry testified Tuesday at a hearing of the House Health and Public Safety Committees.
It was an important test for the proposal, which was easily approved in the state Senate but is being met with more skepticism in the House.
Supporters said the dispensary model now in use in Colorado offers both accessibility for patients and oversight for law enforcement. But public safety and state health experts said they feared growth in the industry would lead to growth of marijuana abuse, particularly among young people.
The state Senate proposed three marijuana bills -- one would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, another expanded the amount of marijuana patients and caregivers could grow for themselves and others, and a third proposed a system of 10 highly regulated and taxed "compassion centers," where certified medical marijuana patients could buy what they need.
The two House committees approved a pilot project in which a single compassion center would be allowed to operate on Maui. It would pay 30 percent tax on all sales and pay licensing fees to Maui County and also pay for the costs of the county to keep video surveillance of the center at all hours.
House Health Committee Chairman Rep. Ryan Yamane said the first two Senate proposals still haven't garnered much support in the House, and the idea for a single test case on Maui would give advocates a chance to prove a marijuana dispensary could operate without the problems associated with such businesses on the Mainland.
Yamane said Maui was chosen because it is the home island for the state Senate's biggest advocate of medical marijuana, Sen. J. Kalani English. Yamane also said a number of Maui residents have come to testify for the dispensary concept.
HONOLULU -- Supporters and potential investors in the medical marijuana industry testified Tuesday at a hearing of the House Health and Public Safety Committees.
It was an important test for the proposal, which was easily approved in the state Senate but is being met with more skepticism in the House.
Supporters said the dispensary model now in use in Colorado offers both accessibility for patients and oversight for law enforcement. But public safety and state health experts said they feared growth in the industry would lead to growth of marijuana abuse, particularly among young people.
The state Senate proposed three marijuana bills -- one would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, another expanded the amount of marijuana patients and caregivers could grow for themselves and others, and a third proposed a system of 10 highly regulated and taxed "compassion centers," where certified medical marijuana patients could buy what they need.
The two House committees approved a pilot project in which a single compassion center would be allowed to operate on Maui. It would pay 30 percent tax on all sales and pay licensing fees to Maui County and also pay for the costs of the county to keep video surveillance of the center at all hours.
House Health Committee Chairman Rep. Ryan Yamane said the first two Senate proposals still haven't garnered much support in the House, and the idea for a single test case on Maui would give advocates a chance to prove a marijuana dispensary could operate without the problems associated with such businesses on the Mainland.
Yamane said Maui was chosen because it is the home island for the state Senate's biggest advocate of medical marijuana, Sen. J. Kalani English. Yamane also said a number of Maui residents have come to testify for the dispensary concept.
Profitable Pot
By Kristen Consillio
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
medical Hawaii -- Medical marijuana has become a lucrative business in Hawaii. Legal users soared to more than 8,000 over the past decade from 255 in 2001, the program's first year. $38 million a year, with patients consuming an average of 1 ounce per month at a street price of $400.
It's a burgeoning business for doctors, who charge as much as $300 to certify medical marijuana patients. The consultation typically lasts an hour and often is not covered by medical insurance.
There were 175 physicians licensed to certify medical marijuana patients as of June, up from 35 in 2001, according to the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the state Department of Public Safety.
The state charges a $25 processing fee for a medical marijuana certificate. Patients are required to be certified annually.
Hawaii's medical marijuana law allows patients with a debilitating condition such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, severe pain or nausea to use the drug if they are certified by a physician registered with the state. It is still illegal to buy marijuana, but patients can grow it legally.
Matthew Brittain, a licensed clinical social worker and substance abuse counselor on the Big Island, has built a niche for himself referring potential medical cannabis users to doctors. Brittain has about 600 active patients and charges as much as $100 for referrals and handling the paperwork.
"We're in this to make money I wouldn't spend the time if I weren't making money because I have to pay my bills," said Brittain, who also is a certified medical cannabis user for a degenerative back condition.
The Big Island, which has 13.6 percent of the state's population, accounts for 57.8 percent of the medical marijuana certificates.
Out-of-state doctors are also benefiting from the increase in Hawaii patients. Doctors from the Hemp & Cannabis Foundation, based in Portland, Ore., make frequent trips to the islands. The company charges $250 for a marijuana certificate, including the $25 state fee.
"There's a big market," said Keith Kamita, deputy director for law enforcement at the Department of Public Safety, which administers the medical marijuana program.
What concerns law enforcement officers is that certain doctors are willing to issue medical marijuana certificates to patients who are not suffering from major illnesses.
"Is there a true doctor-patient relationship, or are they just paying a fee to smoke marijuana?" Kamita asked. "There are some questionable practices."
Kamita said the bulk of marijuana permits are for residents in their 20s and 30s, most of whom cite severe pain as their medical condition.
"We know that the ages are younger and we're getting more and more minors … which concerns us," Kamita said. "Because the term is so broad, doctors are interpreting it in their own manner. We don't see what their diagnosis is. It's not what the original (law) was intended for. It was touted as this would be a last-resort type of drug, but that's not the case."
Dr. Jim Berg, a Big Island physician, has issued the most marijuana certificates since the law was passed, according to state records. The Narcotics Enforcement Division records showed Berg had authorized 2,957 certificates as of June 2010.
Berg disputed that number, but said he doesn't keep count. He said he typically charges between $125 and $150 per office visit.
Once the marijuana certificate is issued, patients in Hawaii have to break the law to acquire the drug. Buying marijuana or the seeds to grow the plant is illegal even with a certificate. Certified patients or caregivers can jointly grow seven plants three mature and four immature, or nonflowering and have up to 1 ounce of usable marijuana per mature plant.
"What they've done is created a law that makes somebody break it in order for the law to be fulfilled. It's a Catch-22," Berg said. "An unbelievably high percentage of my patients are extremely law-abiding patients. People who are coming for medical marijuana usually want to be legal; they're trying to do what the state wants them to do."
Patients or their caregivers often end up buying pot, paying as much as $400 an ounce.
"When I can't grow it … I spend (money) or I don't walk," said Teri Heede, a 55-year-old Makakilo resident and retired computer engineer suffering from multiple sclerosis, which causes her frequent blindness and immobility. "There is no other way to purchase it, except illegally, so there is no legal mechanism for us to comply with the law."
Heede said she used to take 25 to 30 pills a day to alleviate her condition. Now she uses at least one-eighth of an ounce daily and virtually no pills.
"Marijuana holds it at bay and in some cases totally alleviates it," said Heede, who has lobbied lawmakers for the past two years to establish marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii. "Pills weren't working."
Medical marijuana advocates are pushing to make it easier for patients to buy the drug. A bill to allow the distribution of medical marijuana through a single Maui dispensary, or "compassion center," for five years as a pilot program passed out of two committees in the state Legislature last week. It would also establish a 30 percent tax on medical marijuana products.
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana programs. In many states, the industry is growing rapidly with new fields emerging for cutters, growers, rippers, testers and so-called bud tenders, who help patients choose the right strain of weed for their illness.
Illegal cannabis sales nationwide are estimated at $35 billion to $40 billion, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 5, in Californiahas organized 200 medical cannabis members and has another 400 workers whose collective bargaining contracts still must be negotiated, said Dan Rush, Local 5 cannabis division director.
In California, the nonprofit medical cannabis companies "generate a tremendous amount of revenue, which makes them willing to want to pay their workers well," Rush said.
The union has recognition agreements with cannabis companies that will be employing another 2,100 people in California within the next year, Rush said. "What we're trying to do is take that from the black market and bring it to the open market."
VARYING LAWS
Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., have medical marijuana programs, but laws vary from state to state:
California has legalized medical marijuana sales with retail dispensaries and home delivery services available in certain counties. About a dozen counties or cities in California tax medical marijuana products. Most recently, Los Angeles passed a tax measure.
Marijuana sales are illegal in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Vermont and Montana. People can possess or grow a small amount in those states, but not purchase it.
State-sanctioned marijuana sales are legal in Colorado, New Mexico, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Arizona and the District of Columbia.
In Maryland, if people are arrested for possession of the drug, they can use medical necessity as a defense.
Source: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS
Bills related to medical marijuana that are still alive in the Legislature:
HB 1085: Makes Hawaii statutes on controlled substances consistent with federal laws and increases fee for registration.
SB 1458: Creates a five-year pilot program with one medical marijuana dispensary on Maui.
SB 1460: Decriminalizes an ounce or less of marijuana.
SB 175: Moves medical marijuana program from Department of Public Safety to Department of Health.
By Kristen Consillio
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
medical Hawaii -- Medical marijuana has become a lucrative business in Hawaii. Legal users soared to more than 8,000 over the past decade from 255 in 2001, the program's first year. $38 million a year, with patients consuming an average of 1 ounce per month at a street price of $400.
It's a burgeoning business for doctors, who charge as much as $300 to certify medical marijuana patients. The consultation typically lasts an hour and often is not covered by medical insurance.
There were 175 physicians licensed to certify medical marijuana patients as of June, up from 35 in 2001, according to the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the state Department of Public Safety.
The state charges a $25 processing fee for a medical marijuana certificate. Patients are required to be certified annually.
Hawaii's medical marijuana law allows patients with a debilitating condition such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, severe pain or nausea to use the drug if they are certified by a physician registered with the state. It is still illegal to buy marijuana, but patients can grow it legally.
Matthew Brittain, a licensed clinical social worker and substance abuse counselor on the Big Island, has built a niche for himself referring potential medical cannabis users to doctors. Brittain has about 600 active patients and charges as much as $100 for referrals and handling the paperwork.
"We're in this to make money I wouldn't spend the time if I weren't making money because I have to pay my bills," said Brittain, who also is a certified medical cannabis user for a degenerative back condition.
The Big Island, which has 13.6 percent of the state's population, accounts for 57.8 percent of the medical marijuana certificates.
Out-of-state doctors are also benefiting from the increase in Hawaii patients. Doctors from the Hemp & Cannabis Foundation, based in Portland, Ore., make frequent trips to the islands. The company charges $250 for a marijuana certificate, including the $25 state fee.
"There's a big market," said Keith Kamita, deputy director for law enforcement at the Department of Public Safety, which administers the medical marijuana program.
What concerns law enforcement officers is that certain doctors are willing to issue medical marijuana certificates to patients who are not suffering from major illnesses.
"Is there a true doctor-patient relationship, or are they just paying a fee to smoke marijuana?" Kamita asked. "There are some questionable practices."
Kamita said the bulk of marijuana permits are for residents in their 20s and 30s, most of whom cite severe pain as their medical condition.
"We know that the ages are younger and we're getting more and more minors … which concerns us," Kamita said. "Because the term is so broad, doctors are interpreting it in their own manner. We don't see what their diagnosis is. It's not what the original (law) was intended for. It was touted as this would be a last-resort type of drug, but that's not the case."
Dr. Jim Berg, a Big Island physician, has issued the most marijuana certificates since the law was passed, according to state records. The Narcotics Enforcement Division records showed Berg had authorized 2,957 certificates as of June 2010.
Berg disputed that number, but said he doesn't keep count. He said he typically charges between $125 and $150 per office visit.
Once the marijuana certificate is issued, patients in Hawaii have to break the law to acquire the drug. Buying marijuana or the seeds to grow the plant is illegal even with a certificate. Certified patients or caregivers can jointly grow seven plants three mature and four immature, or nonflowering and have up to 1 ounce of usable marijuana per mature plant.
"What they've done is created a law that makes somebody break it in order for the law to be fulfilled. It's a Catch-22," Berg said. "An unbelievably high percentage of my patients are extremely law-abiding patients. People who are coming for medical marijuana usually want to be legal; they're trying to do what the state wants them to do."
Patients or their caregivers often end up buying pot, paying as much as $400 an ounce.
"When I can't grow it … I spend (money) or I don't walk," said Teri Heede, a 55-year-old Makakilo resident and retired computer engineer suffering from multiple sclerosis, which causes her frequent blindness and immobility. "There is no other way to purchase it, except illegally, so there is no legal mechanism for us to comply with the law."
Heede said she used to take 25 to 30 pills a day to alleviate her condition. Now she uses at least one-eighth of an ounce daily and virtually no pills.
"Marijuana holds it at bay and in some cases totally alleviates it," said Heede, who has lobbied lawmakers for the past two years to establish marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii. "Pills weren't working."
Medical marijuana advocates are pushing to make it easier for patients to buy the drug. A bill to allow the distribution of medical marijuana through a single Maui dispensary, or "compassion center," for five years as a pilot program passed out of two committees in the state Legislature last week. It would also establish a 30 percent tax on medical marijuana products.
Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana programs. In many states, the industry is growing rapidly with new fields emerging for cutters, growers, rippers, testers and so-called bud tenders, who help patients choose the right strain of weed for their illness.
Illegal cannabis sales nationwide are estimated at $35 billion to $40 billion, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 5, in Californiahas organized 200 medical cannabis members and has another 400 workers whose collective bargaining contracts still must be negotiated, said Dan Rush, Local 5 cannabis division director.
In California, the nonprofit medical cannabis companies "generate a tremendous amount of revenue, which makes them willing to want to pay their workers well," Rush said.
The union has recognition agreements with cannabis companies that will be employing another 2,100 people in California within the next year, Rush said. "What we're trying to do is take that from the black market and bring it to the open market."
VARYING LAWS
Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., have medical marijuana programs, but laws vary from state to state:
California has legalized medical marijuana sales with retail dispensaries and home delivery services available in certain counties. About a dozen counties or cities in California tax medical marijuana products. Most recently, Los Angeles passed a tax measure.
Marijuana sales are illegal in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Vermont and Montana. People can possess or grow a small amount in those states, but not purchase it.
State-sanctioned marijuana sales are legal in Colorado, New Mexico, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, Arizona and the District of Columbia.
In Maryland, if people are arrested for possession of the drug, they can use medical necessity as a defense.
Source: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
LEGISLATIVE EFFORTS
Bills related to medical marijuana that are still alive in the Legislature:
HB 1085: Makes Hawaii statutes on controlled substances consistent with federal laws and increases fee for registration.
SB 1458: Creates a five-year pilot program with one medical marijuana dispensary on Maui.
SB 1460: Decriminalizes an ounce or less of marijuana.
SB 175: Moves medical marijuana program from Department of Public Safety to Department of Health.
More bad news...
HONOLULU -- State Sen. Josh Green, an emergency room physician from Kona, said he has seen too much abuse of the medical marijuana law, especially by young people who claimed severe, chronic pain in order to get a doctor to certify them as a marijuana patient.
Green, who is the lead member on the senate side of the House-Senate conference committee on the issue, is proposing that chronic pain and nausea no longer be conditions that make a person eligible for a medical marijuana permit.
Green said he supports the use of medical marijuana for people with cancer, muscular-skeletal illnesses such as MS, and for HIV-AIDS. But he is alarmed by a large number of people under 30, and even under 21, who have qualified.
Green's proposal would allow a single "compassion center" marijuana dispensary as a test site for two years. His proposal is a dramatic rollback from the position of the Senate earlier in the session, allowing up to ten highly-regulated compassion centers on all islands.
The state House has been much more conservative on the issue, proposing only a single dispensary as a pilot program, while also stiffening regulation of prescriptions.
Medical marijuana advocates were unhappy with Green's proposal and said it would force thousands of current medical marijuana patients, who have received their cards for pain or nausea, to return their cards and stop using marijuana legally.
Pamela Lichty, of the Drug Policy Forum, said doctors are the "gate keepers" of the program, and she said doctors are careful about who they qualify for the permits. She said Green's proposal seems to be giving in to unverified fears of law enforcement about widespread abuse.
The conference committee will meet again Thursday to try and reach a compromise acceptable to both houses.
Fucking politicians... keep your nose out!
HONOLULU -- State Sen. Josh Green, an emergency room physician from Kona, said he has seen too much abuse of the medical marijuana law, especially by young people who claimed severe, chronic pain in order to get a doctor to certify them as a marijuana patient.
Green, who is the lead member on the senate side of the House-Senate conference committee on the issue, is proposing that chronic pain and nausea no longer be conditions that make a person eligible for a medical marijuana permit.
Green said he supports the use of medical marijuana for people with cancer, muscular-skeletal illnesses such as MS, and for HIV-AIDS. But he is alarmed by a large number of people under 30, and even under 21, who have qualified.
Green's proposal would allow a single "compassion center" marijuana dispensary as a test site for two years. His proposal is a dramatic rollback from the position of the Senate earlier in the session, allowing up to ten highly-regulated compassion centers on all islands.
The state House has been much more conservative on the issue, proposing only a single dispensary as a pilot program, while also stiffening regulation of prescriptions.
Medical marijuana advocates were unhappy with Green's proposal and said it would force thousands of current medical marijuana patients, who have received their cards for pain or nausea, to return their cards and stop using marijuana legally.
Pamela Lichty, of the Drug Policy Forum, said doctors are the "gate keepers" of the program, and she said doctors are careful about who they qualify for the permits. She said Green's proposal seems to be giving in to unverified fears of law enforcement about widespread abuse.
The conference committee will meet again Thursday to try and reach a compromise acceptable to both houses.
Fucking politicians... keep your nose out!
C
CANNATOPIA
Great Post VTA. 
I'll go out on a limb and predict what will happen.
Mr Green's proposal will not pass muster in the Senate. The idea will go nowhere.
The House And Senate will not be able to reconcile their versions of the bills. Even if a bill stripping rights away from certain MMJ users passes...doubtful...Abacrombie will veto.
MJ bill to decriminalize has a chance. A single dispensary...I doubt it.
Once again after much smoke and dust...very little will change. Due to the States dire financial situation the legislature has bigger fish to fry, so the bills will be back burnered and forgotten.
Return to Status Quo.
I could be wrong. The above would be the normal pattern of the way this place works.
Mr Green's proposal will not pass muster in the Senate. The idea will go nowhere.
The House And Senate will not be able to reconcile their versions of the bills. Even if a bill stripping rights away from certain MMJ users passes...doubtful...Abacrombie will veto.
MJ bill to decriminalize has a chance. A single dispensary...I doubt it.
Once again after much smoke and dust...very little will change. Due to the States dire financial situation the legislature has bigger fish to fry, so the bills will be back burnered and forgotten.
Return to Status Quo.
I could be wrong. The above would be the normal pattern of the way this place works.
TheFlyinHaWyn!
Active member
green was one of the staunchest supporters of the MJ initiative, and now he is backpeddaling. i am glad i stayed underground, but the thought is always there for me to try and get my medical.
everyone assumed that pakalolo is so easy to grow here that the 7 plant limit would be enough...it is if you know what you are doing, but most people that smoke the ganj here wouldn't even fathom how difficult it is to pull of a killer crop, much less consistently
i am a skeptic, always have been, always will be...i don't think that the powers that be will allow us to have more than they want to give....and they don't want to give right now...so i think OH is pretty much right, they will agree to disagree, then not do shit about the current med laws...i think the only people truly benefitting in terms of pakalolo output and the MMJ scene here are the guys like OH, who already knew the game, then got into the league.
the thought is still there tho aloha
everyone assumed that pakalolo is so easy to grow here that the 7 plant limit would be enough...it is if you know what you are doing, but most people that smoke the ganj here wouldn't even fathom how difficult it is to pull of a killer crop, much less consistently
i am a skeptic, always have been, always will be...i don't think that the powers that be will allow us to have more than they want to give....and they don't want to give right now...so i think OH is pretty much right, they will agree to disagree, then not do shit about the current med laws...i think the only people truly benefitting in terms of pakalolo output and the MMJ scene here are the guys like OH, who already knew the game, then got into the league.
the thought is still there tho
aloha
And The Song Remains The Same
As reported by David Shapiro of the Honolulu Star Advertiser-
Good for state Sen. Josh Green for insisting on long-overdue accountability for medical marijuana before the Legislature plants the seeds of a dispensary system that could lead to a California-like situation where pot fliers are handed out at malls.
A bill for a single, state-licensed pilot marijuana dispensary died in conference committee last week after lawmakers couldn’t agree on its location and Green, a Kona emergency physician and chairman of the Senate Health Committee, pushed for a tighter rein on the medical conditions for which pot could be prescribed.
At this point the 11-year-old law that allows patients to obtain marijuana prescriptions and grow their own plants in limited numbers is managed in far too loosey-goosey a manner.
Putting the state in the pot distribution business without addressing the concern would be less about medicine and compassion than filling state tax coffers and opening a back door to legalizing pakalolo for recreational use.
The numbers raise troubling suspicions that only a small percentage of medical marijuana in Hawaii is going to patients with the serious conditions that pot is reputed to relieve.
Of the more than 8,000 marijuana permits now in circulation, 57.8 percent are on the Big Island, which has become pakalolo central with 13.6 percent of the state’s population.
Many of the prescriptions, which must be renewed annually, are written by a relatively small group of doctors, some of whom charge up to $300. One Big Island physician had authorized nearly 3,000 marijuana certificates as of last June, according to the state. It’s lucrative enough that doctors are flying in from the West Coast to get in on the action.
There’s little control over what constitutes an illness that benefits from pot, and the Department of Public Safety says most prescriptions are being written for patients in their 20s and 30s, who are demographically the least likely to have the major medical conditions associated with marijuana relief.
Most of these prescriptions are for pain and nausea from common injuries, Green says, citing potential abuses in which more than 500 people under age 21 on the Big Island have been prescribed marijuana.
Green would eliminate general prescriptions for pain and nausea and limit marijuana cards to patients diagnosed with major diseases such as cancer, HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.
This might be too rigid, but he’s on the right track that we need to bring tighter control to medical marijuana lest we end up allowing virtually any recreational user to get a prescription and obtain pot from a state-sponsored dispensary.
If their aim is truly medical compassion and not a back door to legalized recreational pot, promoters of medical marijuana should have no problem with the same accountability placed on any other pharmaceutical product.
As reported by David Shapiro of the Honolulu Star Advertiser-
Good for state Sen. Josh Green for insisting on long-overdue accountability for medical marijuana before the Legislature plants the seeds of a dispensary system that could lead to a California-like situation where pot fliers are handed out at malls.
A bill for a single, state-licensed pilot marijuana dispensary died in conference committee last week after lawmakers couldn’t agree on its location and Green, a Kona emergency physician and chairman of the Senate Health Committee, pushed for a tighter rein on the medical conditions for which pot could be prescribed.
At this point the 11-year-old law that allows patients to obtain marijuana prescriptions and grow their own plants in limited numbers is managed in far too loosey-goosey a manner.
Putting the state in the pot distribution business without addressing the concern would be less about medicine and compassion than filling state tax coffers and opening a back door to legalizing pakalolo for recreational use.
The numbers raise troubling suspicions that only a small percentage of medical marijuana in Hawaii is going to patients with the serious conditions that pot is reputed to relieve.
Of the more than 8,000 marijuana permits now in circulation, 57.8 percent are on the Big Island, which has become pakalolo central with 13.6 percent of the state’s population.
Many of the prescriptions, which must be renewed annually, are written by a relatively small group of doctors, some of whom charge up to $300. One Big Island physician had authorized nearly 3,000 marijuana certificates as of last June, according to the state. It’s lucrative enough that doctors are flying in from the West Coast to get in on the action.
There’s little control over what constitutes an illness that benefits from pot, and the Department of Public Safety says most prescriptions are being written for patients in their 20s and 30s, who are demographically the least likely to have the major medical conditions associated with marijuana relief.
Most of these prescriptions are for pain and nausea from common injuries, Green says, citing potential abuses in which more than 500 people under age 21 on the Big Island have been prescribed marijuana.
Green would eliminate general prescriptions for pain and nausea and limit marijuana cards to patients diagnosed with major diseases such as cancer, HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.
This might be too rigid, but he’s on the right track that we need to bring tighter control to medical marijuana lest we end up allowing virtually any recreational user to get a prescription and obtain pot from a state-sponsored dispensary.
If their aim is truly medical compassion and not a back door to legalized recreational pot, promoters of medical marijuana should have no problem with the same accountability placed on any other pharmaceutical product.
