I am writing in response to West Hawaii Today’s Oct. 23 letter to the editor from Andrea Tischner. I agree with her that Act 421, the state’s new medical marijuana dispensary law, “needs to be fixed.” On Nov. 17, I plan to bring before the County Council two resolutions proposing several changes to this state law. If passed, these resolutions would then be forwarded to our state legislators for consideration and hopefully submitted as state bills. I have been in touch with one state legislator who will possibly introduce one or more of the changes.
I am writing in response to West Hawaii Today’s Oct. 23 letter to the editor from Andrea Tischner. I agree with her that Act 421, the state’s new medical marijuana dispensary law, “needs to be fixed.” On Nov. 17, I plan to bring before the County Council two resolutions proposing several changes to this state law. If passed, these resolutions would then be forwarded to our state legislators for consideration and hopefully submitted as state bills. I have been in touch with one state legislator who will possibly introduce one or more of the changes.
Having just attended the Oct. 22 hearing on the implementation of this law, it is clear to me, state legislators intend to introduce amendments to the law. Accordingly, the proposals I am suggesting could be considered at the same time.
One change I suggest we consider supporting addresses the concern of the author of the Oct. 23 letter to the editor. According to the law as currently drafted, as of 2018, it would prohibit patients from obtaining marijuana from a caregiver and would require them to instead obtain the marijuana from a dispensary (other than in the case of minors and certain disabled individuals).
This would be a big change from the current law that allows primary caregivers to cultivate marijuana for one qualifying patient. At this time, my preference would be to allow this caregiver relationship with one qualifying patient to continue, rather than add to the monopoly arrangement of the dispensaries.
Other changes I believe should be considered are 1) allowing the counties, by way of an ordinance, to have some control over where the dispensaries and grow areas may be located; and 2) allowing the counties to collect taxes of up to 5 percent on the marijuana sales to cover their expected increased burden of social and emergency services.
Examples of the type of changes to this law that I anticipate the state Legislature will make are: 1) a measure to reduce the excessive period of time for patient registration with the state’s Department of Health, which is now about a 30-day turnaround period, and 2) modification of the current total prohibition on interisland transportation of small amounts of marijuana.
I urge you to come testify about this state legislation when my resolutions come before the council — likely on Nov. 17. Weigh in on these proposed changes and suggest any other changes you think we as a county should support. For more information, contact my office at 887-2043 or Margaret.Wille@hawaiicounty.gov.
Margaret Wille is the Hawaii County Council member for North and South Kohala.
My Turn articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.