{"id":74654,"date":"2024-04-25T03:54:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T11:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/hawaii-governor-floats-plan-to-allow-medical-marijuana-for-any-condition-after-recreational-legalization-bill-fails\/"},"modified":"2024-04-25T12:46:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T20:46:03","slug":"hawaii-governor-floats-plan-to-allow-medical-marijuana-for-any-condition-after-recreational-legalization-bill-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/hawaii-governor-floats-plan-to-allow-medical-marijuana-for-any-condition-after-recreational-legalization-bill-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii Governor Floats Plan To Allow Medical Marijuana For Any Condition After Recreational Legalization Bill Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Following the failure of a Hawaii bill to legalize cannabis for adults<\/a>, Gov. Josh Green (D) says he has \u201ca possible solution\u201d to the issue: vastly expanding the state\u2019s existing medical marijuana system to allow people to register based on any<\/em> health concern rather than needing to have one of a specific list of conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would make it very available\u2014that\u2019s marijuana\u2014for those who choose it in their lives,\u201d the governor said in an interview with Hawaii News Now, \u201cand it would still keep kids safe, which has been everyone\u2019s priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Green reiterated his support for full recreational legalization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for adults who can responsibly use marijuana, it should be legal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s comments came immediately following House lawmakers\u2019 decision to kill a Senate-passed cannabis legalization bill earlier this month. Earlier this week, the Senate also voted to scuttle a separate measure that would have expanded the state\u2019s existing marijuana decriminalization law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t anticipated that,\u201d Green said when told on-air that the legalization bill had fizzled out. And though he said House members\u2019 vote was \u201ctheir prerogative,\u201d he also floated what he called \u201ca possible solution on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of people do want recreational marijuana. A lot of law enforcement folks feel it\u2019s a big danger,\u201d the governor said. \u201cI think probably there is a place to find a more happy medium, and that is to expand people\u2019s capacity to get medical marijuana under any circumstance that they deem necessary with their physician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green likened such a policy to reproductive rights in Hawaii\u2014saying he\u2019s been \u201cadamant that women be able to make their own decisions about their bodies with their healthcare provider\u201d\u2014and also the state\u2019s medical assistance in dying law for terminally ill people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make that decision with their healthcare provider, and I think we could apply that same principle to the medical use of marijuana, which would significantly expand people\u2019s legal use of marijuana but would still leave regulation in place regarding children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d probably see a doubling of medical marijuana use,\u201d he speculated, \u201cbut it would be legal and safe. I have shared that idea with people in case the [legalization] bill died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently Hawaii\u2019s medical marijuana program requires patients to be diagnosed with at least one of about 10 qualifying conditions for the medical marijuana program.<\/p>\n

Green said he believes the change could be made by regulators without needing to pass a bill through the legislature. It would open eligibility to \u201cany disease state that they felt they wanted to discuss with their physician or nurse practitioner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI might be able to do that through rulemaking,\u201d he explained, \u201cwhich I think would be fairly OK with the law enforcement community. I have talked to them about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the House vote on adult-use legalization, he said: \u201cI think that we should trust adults but be mindful of the collateral concerns we have with marijuana, and that\u2019s probably why they still aren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green said he\u2019d been working on the medical marijuana expansion proposal and \u201cpreparing for that kind of compromise\u201d but waited to air the plan \u201cbecause I didn\u2019t want to disrupt the dynamic at the legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSee how sensitive and careful I am?\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

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The change would also allow patients more privacy around the specifics of their medical histories or diagnoses, Green added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen, in many different disease states, people not wanting to get healthcare because they were afraid that they were going to be judged by society,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cThat was the case with HIV\u201d\u2014one of the current qualifying conditions\u2014\u201dfor a long time. It\u2019s been the case with mental illness for a very long time. And any kind of drug consumption, because some people still judge individuals who use medical marijuana under any circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates said Green\u2019s idea is one reform among many that could improve the state\u2019s medical marijuana system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging that Governor Green is committed to exploring ways that his administration can strengthen Hawaii\u2019s overly restrictive medical cannabis statute to help facilitate greater access,\u201d Nikos Leverenz, of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai\u2019i and the Hawai\u2019i Health and Harm Reduction Center, said in an email to Marijuana Moment. \u201cGiving medical professionals the latitude to recommend medical cannabis for conditions where its use may be of benefit is an important step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leverenz also encouraged Green to look at other adjustments that could be accomplished administratively.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of the past half decade there have been many proposals considered by the legislature that can also benefit patients,\u201d he said, \u201cincluding delivery services, access to cuttings for home grow, and increasing the amounts that dispensaries are able to transfer to one another. These could also conceivably be done through regulatory changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other changes that could benefit patients in the state, Leverenz added, include \u201cauthorization of access to dispensary-produced edibles and tinctures made by patients in facilities providing hospice care,\u201d as is allowed in California under a 2022 law, as well as providing employment protections to medical cannabis patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven non adult-use states like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia ensure that patients are not subject to workplace discrimination,\u201d he said. \u201cThis reform likely requires legislation, but it could be part of his administration\u2019s legislative package next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

As supporters and opponents of cannabis reform have pointed out, this past session has marked the furthest any marijuana legalization measure has made it through Hawaii\u2019s legislature.<\/p>\n

The more-than-300-page cannabis bill was formally introduced in both chambers in January<\/a> and was based on a legalization plan written by state Attorney General Anne Lopez (D), who was appointed by Green in December 2022. It would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and up to five grams of cannabis concentrates.<\/p>\n

Ahead of a legislative deadline earlier this month, Rep. Kyle Yamashita (D), who chairs the House Finance Committee, announced that his panel would not hear the legalization measure, SB 3335.<\/p>\n

The decision effectively killed bill, which had already passed the full Senate and several House committees this session before only barely advancing in an initial House floor vote.<\/p>\n

Much of the pushback came from law enforcement and politicians who seized onto warnings about the potential harms of legalization, Rep. Gene Ward (R), for example, warned that if the bill becomes law, \u201chomelessness is going to be catalyzed by the increase in use of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward said that among unhoused people in Hawaii, \u201cthe most accessible thing to them is marijuana, even though it\u2019s the cheap wine and the booze that they\u2019re doing also.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward also noted in his floor comments that\u00a0AG Lopez\u2019s office itself has said that she does not support the reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The attitude reflects warnings that law enforcement and some other state agencies made in testimony about the bill.<\/p>\n

Some Democratic leaders also vocally opposed the reform. Democratic Majority Whip Rep. Scot Matayoshi, for instance, said before last month\u2019s House floor vote that he didn\u2019t think colleagues \u201cshould vote with reservations or vote in favor of this bill just to see it move along.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be voting on a bill that has some good parts but also has an incredible harm to our society in the form of legalizing recreational marijuana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In November, the AG\u2019s office\u00a0defended an earlier version of the legislation it put forward<\/a>\u00a0earlier that month after Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said law enforcement were firmly against legalizing marijuana. David Day, a special assistant with the attorney general\u2019s office, said at the time that the legalization measure deliberately took into account law enforcement perspectives.<\/p>\n

Advocates previously struggled under former Democratic Gov. Dave Ige, who resisted legalization in part because he said he was reluctant to pass something that conflicts with federal law. But since Green took office, activists have felt more emboldened. The current governor said in 2022 that he\u2019d sign a bill to legalize cannabis for adults and already had ideas about how tax revenue could be utilized.<\/p>\n

Last April, Hawaii\u2019s legislature also approved a resolution calling on the governor to create a\u00a0clemency program for people with prior marijuana convictions on their records<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for other drug policy matters, lawmakers in February advanced a bill that would provide certain\u00a0legal protections to patients engaging in psilocybin-assisted therapy<\/a>\u00a0with a medical professional\u2019s approval. The measure would not legalize psilocybin itself but would instead create an affirmative legal defense for psilocybin use and possession in the case of doctor-approved use under the guidance of a trained facilitator.<\/p>\n

The legislature did pass two other measures that would take steps toward expunging certain marijuana-related criminal records<\/a>, however. Last week the House approved\u00a0HB 1595, which would create a pilot program around marijuana expungements. It cleared the chamber on a 41\u20139 vote, with one member excused and now proceeds to Gov. Josh Green (D), who has said he supports legalization.<\/p>\n

Senators also signed off this week on SB 2706, which would create a so-called Clean Slate Expungement Task Force charged with crafting legislation for a state-led record-clearing program. While that expungements bill does not explicitly mention cannabis, marijuana-related offenses are widely expected to be included in the would-be task force\u2019s discussions.<\/p>\n

The new body would include state officials\u2014including the attorney general, chief justice, public defender and various prosecutors\u2014as well as representatives from various advocacy groups, including ACLU, LPP, the Hawaii Innocence Project and others.<\/p>\n

The governor can sign the bills, veto them or allow them to become law without his signature.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018No Evidence\u2019 That Marijuana Legalization For Adults Increases Youth Cannabis Use, New Research Published By American Medical Association Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Hawaii Governor Floats Plan To Allow Medical Marijuana For Any Condition After Recreational Legalization Bill Fails<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Following the failure of a Hawaii bill to legalize cannabis for adults, Gov. Josh Green (D) says he has \u201ca possible solution\u201d to the issue: vastly expanding the state\u2019s existing medical marijuana system to allow people to register based on any health concern rather than needing to have one ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74655,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74654\/revisions\/74655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}