Hawaii’s two chambers have both passed medical marijuana legislation. This bill, which includes other modifications, would allow for patients to join the program if their doctor believes cannabis could benefit any condition.
HB 302, recently revised by a bicameral committee of conference, allows patients to get medical cannabis recommendations via telehealth instead of having to meet with a doctor in person.
The Senate on Wednesday voted 23–1 in favor of the proposal, from Rep. Gregg Takayama (D) and others. Brenton Awa, a Republican senator from Hawaii, was the only one to vote against. The House of Representatives also passed the bill revised later in the day. Five lawmakers voted against its passage.
The Senate did not hold a discussion on the bill prior to voting. The House was divided by two votes.
Rep. Kim Coco Iwamoto, (D), said that she was against a provision which would allow the Department of Health of California to have access to medical marijuana records kept by doctors.
“This is unprecedented given the degree of respect our state has previously demonstrated for patient–doctor privileges, and how often the state defers to the expertise of physicians and healthcare providers,” Iwamoto said.
The medical cannabis community expressed their opposition to this violation of confidentiality, she added. “Especially since it was authorized without any suspicions of wrongdoing or a warrant. It will discourage patients and doctors from participating in the program.
Rep. Della Au Belatti (D) echoed Iwamoto’s opposition.
She said that she was deeply concerned about allowing administrative staff, in essence, to have access to patients’ personal records. This is similar to the Trump Administration granting employees of the Department of Government Efficiency to view Americans’ tax information.
The lawmaker said, “I think this is a big step we shouldn’t cross, and for these reasons I am in opposition to House Bill 302, Conference Draft One.”
Prior to the amendments made last week, members of a conference panel adopted a new version. Cannabis reform advocates were generally in favor.
At one stage, the bill was going to redefine “debilitating condition” in state medical marijuana laws so that it would include any conditions that a physician believed could be treated with cannabis. The measure was changed by an amendment to allow only the treating physician of a patient to recommend cannabis for any condition other than those listed in state law.
Marijuana Policy Project, which had previously submitted testimony supporting earlier versions of HB 302, now opposes the bill. Karen O’Keefe is the MPP’s director of state policy. She noted that MPP’s research suggests only a tiny subset (of Hawaii’s physicians) are willing to recommend marijuana.
In Hawaii, she said to MEDCAN24: “Less than 250 doctors have made recommendations accross the state.” In practice, most patients must consult a medical cannabis specialist to get a recommendation.
This provision may also make it more difficult for veterans who have primary doctors working for the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain a recommendation.
O’Keefe stated that MPP would likely have supported the bill regardless of these changes. However, the conference committee made other changes to the revised bill, which the group believes go too far.
The revised bill allows the Department of Health “to inspect a patient’s records that are held by a physician, an advanced practice registered nursing, or a hospice provider, who has issued a certification in writing for the patient.”
If a provider does not provide the records requested by the Department, their license to distribute medical cannabis may be suspended.
A new Class C crime is created for the unlicensed operation a marijuana dispensary. This adds another serious charge to existing state laws that prohibit illegal distribution of cannabis.
In addition, the revised conference committee bill will appropriate up to $750,000 (or whatever amount is necessary) to hire and recruit five investigators and one analyst to “enforce and minimize nuisances in relation to illegal hemp and cannabis products”.
After receiving approval from the House and Senate on Wednesday, this bill will now be sent to Governor. Josh Green (D), who last year announced a plan to expand access to marijuana in light of the legislature’s failure to pass recreational legalization measures.
“This would make it very available—that’s marijuana—for those who choose it in their lives,” the governor said in an interview, “and it would still keep kids safe, which has been everyone’s priority.”
Green at the same time reiterated his full support of recreational legalization. He said: “I’m in favor of legalizing marijuana for responsible adults.”
Hawaii passed a law legalizing medical marijuana in its state legislature. This was done by the Hawaii State Legislature.
The two legislative chambers also approved a SB 1429 bill on Wednesday, which would permit medical marijuana caregivers, instead of the one currently in place, to cultivate marijuana for up to five different patients.
Lawmakers also recently sent a bill to the governor that would help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses—a proposal Green signed into law earlier this month.
That measure, HB 132, from Rep. David Tarnas (D), is intended to expedite expungements happening through a pilot program signed into law last year by Gov. Josh Green (D). The program will eliminate the distinction made between marijuana and Schedule V drugs in the context of expungement.
Bill’s supporters said that the existing wording in the law requires state officials to manually comb through thousands criminal records to determine which ones are eligible to be expunged under the pilot project.
Hawaii’s Senate back in February narrowly defeated a separate proposal that would have increased fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of criminal charges. The body voted 12–11 against the decriminalization measure, SB 319, from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D).
If the bill had become law, the amount of marijuana decriminalized would have been increased from 3 to 15 grams. Possession up to the 15-gram limit of marijuana was a civil infraction punishable by $130.
A Senate Bill that would have allowed marijuana use by adults to be legalized, however, was ultimately blocked for the entire session. SB 1613 failed to pass out of the committee before a deadline.
While advocates felt there was sufficient support for the legalization proposal in the Senate, it’s widely believed that House lawmakers would have ultimately scuttled the measure, as they did last month with a legalization companion bill, HB 1246.
Last session, a Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House.
This year’s House vote to stall the bill came just days after approval from a pair of committees at a joint hearing. Before the hearing, nearly 300 pages were submitted by state agencies and advocacy groups, as well as members of the public.
This past fall, regulators solicited proposals to assess the state’s current medical marijuana program—and also sought to estimate demand for recreational sales if the state eventually moves forward with adult-use legalization. The move was interpreted by some as an indication that the regulators were preparing for a possible reform.
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