The deadline for filing a bill in the Hawaii State legislature has now passed and we know that the existing bills have all been assigned to committees. Two bills are of particular interest to medical marijuana patients in the state.

SB 2026 along with companion bill HB 1963 would further restrict Hawaii’s medical marijuana law. Both bills are seeking to remove chronic pain as a stand-alone condition that you can use to qualify to use marijuana medically. It would also limit the number of registered medical marijuana cards to three for any one address. Also increasing would be the charge of misrepresenting information on a medical marijuana application from a misdemeanor to a class C felony.

These bills were written by legislators in response to what they perceive to be abuses in the current system of Hawaii’s medical marijuana program. Medical marijuana advocates in Hawaii say that the passage of these bills would impact over 90% of the current patient roles in some negative way.

But it isn’t all bad in the Hawaiian tropical paradise. SB 2405 would allow the legal transfer of seeds, clones and medicine between patients, as long as it was for no compensation. SB 2406 would actually ADD a condition to the qualifying list, PTSD. And finally, SB 2262 would amend the states patients’ pain bill of rights to include medical marijuana.

Activists in Hawaii are asking voters to please contact their representatives to let them know they would support bills SB2262, SB2406 and SB2405.

Extended Links:

http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2012/01/hawaii-legislative-update-medical-marijuana-issues/

Seventy years ago today, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a day President Roosevelt said, “would live in infamy”. The next day, Congress declared war* and America, which had been reticent to get involved with foreign wars just a generation after “the Great War”, was at war in the Pacific, and days later, in Europe as well.

My grandfather was a part of that “Greatest Generation” and fought in the Pacific.  He’s passed on years ago, but I always remember him when this day comes around.  As a child, I saw his sergeant’s uniform, clean and pressed, hanging in a plastic bag in his closet.  That was as much as I knew about his involvement in World War II; unlike some men who never see war, he didn’t talk about it much.

My friends often kid me that I can find a marijuana angle in any news story.  Today is no different.  On December 7, 1941, cannabis had been federally prohibited for four years already.  Most states had begun eradicating and prohibiting cannabis even before 1937.  A nation founded by hemp farmers, whose first hemp plantations were sewn in 1611, had criminalized hemp farming for the first time in its history.  It hadn’t much effect; American farmers had long since switched to corn, wheat, soy, and other more profitable crops.  Hemp was cheap enough to get from overseas farmers and plenty of modern new synthetic fibers made from bountiful and cheap petroleum were too much competition for hemp in most cases.

Except warfare.  Ocean warfare require battleships and they require rigging that withstands rot, seawater, and is extremely strong, something only hemp robe and canvas can provide.  It was just a few months after Pearl Harbor that the Japanese had captured the Philippines, and with it, our primary source of illegal-to-produce-in-America hemp, so desperately needed for ships engaged in the Pacific theater.  So in the summer of 1942, America mustered up a little Hemp for Victory!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The tale of the first US Hemp for Victory mill in Polo, Illinois:

The hemp mill program was assigned to the Department of Agriculture. The program for planting and processing the hemp plant was directed by the Commodity Credit Corporation. There were to be forty-two mills in the Midwest, eleven of which were to be in Illinois. The plant in Polo, Illinois, was to be the pilot mill for the entire program. It was the first of its kind.

The Polo Hemp Mill, which began operation on November 20, 1943, consisted of mill buildings, a dryer, storage buildings, and a boiler house. The overall cost was $350,000.

At first, farmers were reluctant to raise hemp because they knew nothing about it. They feared a labor shortage at harvest time and also feared that hemp prices would be lower than those of corn prices. To acquaint the farmers with raising hemp, meetings were held at the Polo High School. The farmers were reassured that the necessary equipment would be provided for every one hundred acres of hemp. The farmers in the area then joined in the attempt to produce the fiber crop, something entirely new to the area’s agriculture.

The first carload of Kentucky hemp seed arrived in Polo in April 1943. Farmers were soon busy planting. The hemp seed was drilled into prepared ground between oats and corn planting. Soil which is suitable for growing corn is usually suitable for raising hemp.

Of course, after World War II, there was no more need for Hemp for Victory.  Oil was still cheap and plentiful and so was overseas hemp.  It’s sad that it takes something of the magnitude of a world war to return us to our hemp heritage.  Let’s hope it doesn’t take climate catastrophe to bring back the next return.

And thanks, Grandpa, for your service.

* Remember that quaint little part of the Constitution?

16 states, the Capitol, and 750,000 legal marijuana users.

We don’t know his or her name, but somewhere in one of sixteen states and the District of Columbia is America’s 750,000th legal medical marijuana patient.  The United States reached the three-quarter-million-patients mark as Arizona began issuing patient registry identification cards online in April 2011.

Fourteen of the seventeen medical marijuana jurisdictions have mandatory registries while two (California and Colorado) offer optional registries and one (Washington) has no registry system.  Delaware, New Jersey, and D.C.’s programs are not operational yet.  Most of the other state’s programs produce reports of patient registry numbers.  With Arizona signing up over 3,600 patients since mid-April, when it’s online-only registration went into effect, the fourteen operational programs have served well over 750,000 legal medical marijuana patients.

Quick Facts about Medical Marijuana States:

The 754,799 estimated and registered medical marijuana patients in America are legally entitled to cultivate 11,200,739 cannabis plants and possess 197.78 tons of harvested buds.

The seventeen jurisdictions with medical marijuana encompass over 90 million Americans and 162 votes in the 2012 Electoral College.

Patients make up over 3% of the population of Montana, almost 2.5% of Colorado, and over 1% of California, Oregon, and Washington.  After Michigan at 0.76% of population, every other medical marijuana state has less than 0.3% patients in its population.

Rhode Island and Vermont, two states where over 10% of the adult population uses marijuana monthly, have patient populations of 0.29% and 0.05%, respectively.

Most importantly, in all of these states, trains still run on time, fewer teenagers are using marijuana, economies still produce goods and services, traffic safety has increased, and hoardes of pot zombies aren’t roaming the streets in search of sttrraaiinns!

AND medical marijuana doctors make house calls?

The ACLU is fast becoming a powerful friend of the marijuana legalization movement.

hawaiinewsnow The American Civil Liberties Union says Hawaii’s government has answered its demand to change “heavy-handed” medical marijuana policies.

The ACLU of Hawaii announced Tuesday that the Department of Public Safety will no longer prohibit physicians who prescribe marijuana from performing house calls.

The group also said the state is ending its practice of requiring physicians to register locations where they see patients and discuss marijuana.

ACLU senior staff attorney Daniel Gluck said in a statement that marijuana should be treated the same as other prescription drugs.

He said physicians who recommend medical marijuana may do so at any location, even if it isn’t registered with the Department of Public Safety.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. APRIL FOOLS: Hawaiian police issue warrant for President Obama’s youthful cocaine and marijuana use
2. Montana Senate passes medical marijuana repeal 29-21, procedural vote awaits before sending to the governor
3. Delaware Senate passes medical marijuana bill 18-3
4. Harris Poll shows 3-out-of-4 majority support nationwide for medical marijuana

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The evidence

HONOLULU - At a press conference today, Honolulu Police Chief Louis M. Kealoha revealed a warrant issued for the arrest of President Barack Obama on charges of cocaine and marijuana distribution.

Chief Kealoha stood with copies of Mr. Obama’s memoir, Dreams from my Father. Police spokesman Jeffrey Spicoli recited the passages where the president recounted his drug crimes as a teenager at the exclusive Punahou prep school in Honolulu:

I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it.

I had discovered that it didn’t make any difference whether you smoked reefer in a white classmate’s sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you’d met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney briefly dismissed news of the arrest warrant.  He told reporters that the president was forthright about his youthful indiscretions in interviews as well as his books, but that the statute of limitations on crimes of drug possession and distribution have since passed.

Chief Kealoha brushed aside Mr. Carney’s concerns about Mr. Obama’s youthful cocaine and marijuana use.  He noted the president’s continued rejection of drug legalization means Honolulu police officers are charged with arresting young people no different than a young Barry Obama.

The chief observed that since becoming president, Mr. Obama has not taken a drug test.  ”If we’re going to ask something from you,” Keahola told a young reporter, “we ourselves need to be ready to do it ourselves.”  Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing are available for many of Mr. Obama’s employees in the Executive Branch but no one has verified that Mr. Obama can pass a drug test, Kealoha explained.

The chief believes Mr. Obama’s admitted use and distribution of cocaine and marijuana to minors make him a prime suspect for continued drug abuse.  The chief pointed to Mr. Obama’s failure to accompany his family on a December trip to Oahu as evidence the president was aware of the forthcoming Hawaiian warrant and chose to avoid the bad publicity.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reference for Hawaiian marijuana laws states that Mr. Obama’s distribution of marijuana, if it happened today, would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. Any amount of marijuana greater than one ounce is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.  The possession and distribution of any amount cocaine by Mr. Obama, according to CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, would be a felony with a possible 5 year prison term; for an eighth-ounce it’s 10 years and if Mr. Obama possessed an ounce or more of cocaine in Hawaii today, he could face 20 years in prison.

Even on April Fool’s Day.

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Hemp Headlines

1. Illinois House Committee forwards medical marijuana bill on 6-5 vote
2. New Jersey doctor busted for growing 58 plants, smoked “30 joints a day”
3. Hawai’i Senate passes five pro-marijuana bills with near unanimity

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Five for five is a great stat in any sport. In proposing positive reforms to marijuana law, it is damn near a miracle. But today, Hawaii’s Senate did it, with two unanimous votes and three votes with a total of just two senators in opposition. As CannaBob would write, The Legalization Train Rolls On!

Hawai’i News Daily: SB 1460 – decriminalization of one ounce of marijuana: 24-0-1 (Shimabukuro was excused). It now moves over to the house.

No arrest and a $100 fine for one ounce or less.  Even for healthy people!

SB 58 – increases plants, dried ounces, patient-caregiver ratio, clarifies transportation language. The bill was waived by the Senate Judiciary Chair, Clayton Hee, which allowed it to move on for a floor vote, and it passed third reading 24-0-1 (Shimabukuro was excused). It now moves to the house.

Adds a “transfer for no consideration” clause similar to Oregon that allows any cardholder to freely exchange medicine and plants with any other cardholder.

Adds protection for cardholders transporting medicine from island to island.

Allows caregivers to be reimbursed for expenses incurred in providing medicine to a patient, again, similar to Oregon.

Increases plant limits from 3 mature + 4 immature to 10 total cannabis plants (any stage) and possession limits from 1 ounce to 5 ounces.

Specifies that a doctor signing for medical cannabis need not be the patient’s primary care physician.

Specifies that a doctor need only attest to the fact that a patient has a qualifying condition and shall not actually name or describe the condition in the registration.  (Wow!  No more of these “Look, only 2% get cards for cancer and AIDS!” scares.  All they will know is how many patients there are.)

Increases caregiver:patient ratio from 1:1 to 1:3 (caregivers could serve three patients).

Changes the word “marijuana” to “cannabis” everywhere in the medical marijuana law.  I mean, medical cannabis law.

SB 175 – moves medical marijuana program from Public Safety to Health: 24-1 (Kouchi voted “no”)

Hawai’i is the only state where medical marijuana is run by law enforcement.  This would move the program to the Health Department.  Imagine: medical marijuana in a health department!

SB 1458 – licenses medical marijuana compassion centers, producers and infused products makers. Passed third reading, 24-1 (Slom voted “no”). Moves to house.

Creates three classes of licenses.  Class 1 would be dispensaries that sell cannabis to patients.  Class 2 would be producers that grow cannabis for Class 1 and Class 3 licensees.  Class 3 would be “infused products manufacturers” similar to what Colorado has, who could sell to Class 1 licensees.

There would be a Class 1 dispensary on every island.

Non-Hawai’i patients could shop at Class 1 dispensaries after acquiring a temporary registration certificate.  (Hello, medical marijuana vacation packages!)

Those with felony drug conviction in past ten years couldn’t be licensed.  (Boo!  Who do you think are the people who are the best marijuana growers?  Why prevent them from growing legally now just because they grew marijuana illegally and got caught and paid their debt to society?)

At most, there would be 22 dispensaries in Hawai’i (Hawaii 6, Kauai 2, Maui 3, Molokai 1, Oahu 10).

Medical marijuana will be subject to sales tax.

Various inspection, testing, and security requirements.

SB 113 – creates a 3-year Cannabis research program. Passed third reading with 23 ayes, 23-2 (Slom and Kouchi voted “no”). Moves to house.

Weird, is it not, that the bill with the greatest opposition was a mere three-year study program?

This letter to the editor was published in the The Maui News.  If I was a tax paying citizen of Maui, I would be greatly disturbed that the Police Department was stationing an armed officer at Walmart to hand out anti marijuana pamphlets instead of being available for real police business.

The actual flyer, with the stapled-on opposition to pro-medical marijuana bills (click for full-size PDF, thanks to Brian Murphy for the scans)

I saw a Maui police officer at Walmart handing out pamphlets and asking people to speak out against certain medical marijuana bills currently under consideration.

This Maui County employee, using a Maui Police Department cruiser, wearing a gun under color of authority, was handing out pamphlets funded by federal block grants and nonprofits. They included a message from Chief Gary Yabuta claiming that marijuana is not medicine despite state law and medical reports recognizing that marijuana is a legitimate medicine.

Are Maui police officers allowed to use county or federal funds to spread misinformation to their financial advantage? Do we want to allow our Police Department to intimidate us into creating a police state?

If you have ever complained to a police officer about a law, you almost certainly heard the cliche that the police do not make the laws, they only enforce them. What do we do now that they are trying to influence bills that protect and serve only the police?

What is the real story here? Is it all about MPD trying to protect its funding at the expense of Maui’s medical community? Or is it about the millions of dollars in tax revenues that could save our schools and rescue our crippled economy?

We live in an ideal climate for cannabis cultivation, and that has given us this opportunity to create a model of both compassionate care and financial sustainability.

Brian J. Murphy

Paia

If I had a dime every time some cop said that, I could afford a dimebag.  Yet time after time when legislatures come into session, there are the cops, in uniform, testifying against medical marijuana and decriminalization or re-legalization of cannabis.

(Maui News) After seeing more and more bills in the Legislature intended to liberalize marijuana use, Maui Police Chief Gary Yabuta said the department is taking a more “proactive stance” to show the public its opposition to marijuana by reaching out to Maui residents at public places.

On Monday, officers went to Walmart to pass out pamphlets on what experts say about marijuana as medicine and related health risks, a news release said. They will be there again today.

Yabuta did not know the cost of the brochures that are being passed out but said they were nothing fancy. Funding came partly from a grant that initiated the brochure, as well as county funds.

Chief Gary Yabuda thinks medical marijuana sends "the wrong message to the youth that it's socially OK to use marijuana." Click Gary to tell him otherwise.

Nice to know that the taxpayers of Maui County are buying brochures to convince themselves that medical marijuana is bad.

“It’s something that we feel is an important message for the public to know from what we believe is the reality of marijuana, that if we continue to have an attempt to lax the marijuana law, we are going to be advocating the wrong message to the youth that it’s socially OK to use marijuana. We feel that it will be contradictory to character building, job skills, academics, all the skills necessary to become a productive citizen,” Yabuta said Monday.

Like, say, a 17-year-old kid named Barry who grew up in Hawaii using marijuana and cocaine with his friends… that guy never amounted to anything!

The police department also is voicing its opposition to two Senate bills, one (SB 58) that would increase the amount of medical marijuana that one could possess; and the other (SB 175) that would transfer the jurisdiction of the medical marijuana laws from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health.

Now, why would we want to have something called medical marijuana run by something called a Department of Health? In Yabuda’s mind, the medical marijuana should continue to be run by the Department of Public Safety.

The police pamphlet quotes agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration saying that “smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment.”

It also says the American Medical Association discourages medical marijuana use and that cannabis is a dangerous drug and is a public health concern.

Could that be the same AMA that said, “short term controlled trials indicate that smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis,” and “the Schedule I status of marijuana be reviewed with the goal of facilitating clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines, and alternate delivery methods”?