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Hawaii health officials are affirming their support for federal marijuana rescheduling\u2014a policy change that the Trump administration is actively considering.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a state lawmaker who sponsored a cannabis legalization bill in the most recent session says he\u2019s actively gathering input on how to revise the legislation in the hopes it can pass next year.<\/p>\n
On rescheduling, the Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) told The Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it \u201crecognizes that cannabis\u2019 current classification as a Schedule I substance, defined as having no accepted medical use, conflicts with the growing body of scientific evidence and the reality of its lawful medical use in Hawaii and many other states.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf cannabis were reclassified to Schedule III, it could reduce certain barriers to research, allow for more standardized medical guidance, and potentially ease banking and insurance challenges for the industry,\u201d DOH said. \u201cAt the same time, federal reclassification would not change Hawaii\u2019s medical cannabis laws or program requirements unless the Legislature amends state law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDOH would continue to prioritize patient safety, product quality, and public health regardless of cannabis\u2019 federal classification,\u201d the statement said<\/a>.<\/p>\n At this stage, it\u2019s unclear when a decision from President Donald Trump on the federal rescheduling proposal will come. The president, who endorsed rescheduling on the campaign trail, said last month that it would be decided within weeks\u2014but there\u2019s since been no public comments about that status of the reform.<\/p>\n Additionally, a GOP-controlled House committee last week approved a spending bill that contains provisions to block the Justice Department from rescheduling marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the state level, meanwhile, legalization proposals have consistently advanced in the legislature only to fall short of final passage. But Rep. David Tarnas (D), sponsor of one recently defeated reform measures, said voters \u201care very interested in moving forward with legalizing adult-use.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStatewide, I\u2019d say the industry that is already legal\u2014the hemp industry and the medical cannabis industry\u2014would like to see better regulatory framework,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to input all the improvements that people wanted to put into it and also I\u2019ve checked in with all the other states to make sure I\u2019m learning the latest and best practices elsewhere,\u201d the lawmaker said, adding that the \u201cchallenge\u201d is that \u201cthere are a lot of skeptics\u201d about legalization in the legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody who wants to obtain cannabis for recreational use or adult use is able to do so. One of the main things I am advocating for establishing a legal framework for adult use is to ensure that we\u2019ve got quality control and that the consumer is purchasing something that they can depend on being accurate to what the label says it is, and that it does not have contaminants.\u201d<\/p>\n Other lawmakers also addressed the ongoing cannabis legalization debate this week.<\/p>\n Jarrett Keohokalole (D-HI) told Island News that it\u2019s a \u201cpolarizing issue, and there are strong feelings on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s an obvious trend across the country that\u2019s moving in the direction of legalization, but Hawaii isn\u2019t ready yet,\u201d he said. \u201cBy my read of things at the Legislature, based off of the last several years, it just doesn\u2019t look like we have enough support in both chambers of the Legislature to move it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Adam Tam (D), however, said he believes there \u201cis a path forward for legalization.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons why I support it is because I want to take it out of the black market so that we can regulate it, and ensure that it passed all quality health standards,\u201d said Representative Adrian Tam. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of how to regulate it and how to address those concerns that is on everyone\u2019s mind right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Brenton Awa (R), for his part, said<\/a> that while the policy change could create jobs and tax revenue, legislation that has been filed to date leaves a lot to be desited.<\/p>\n \u201cI think people just need to come out with better plans, better bills, that are focused on people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2014 Meanwhile, Hawaii regulators are launching a series of courses designed to educate physicians and other healthcare professionals about medical marijuana<\/a> as the state\u2019s cannabis program expands.<\/p>\n The underlying medical marijuana expansion bill signed by the governor<\/a> in late June, in addition to allowing more patients to more easily access cannabis, also contains a provision that advocates find problematic.<\/p>\n Before lawmakers sent the legislation to Gov. Josh Green (D), a conference committee revised the plan, inserting a provision to allow the state Department of Health to access medical marijuana patient records held by doctors for any reason whatsoever.<\/p>\n In May, Green signed separate legislation to\u00a0allow medical marijuana caregivers to grow marijuana on behalf of up to five patients<\/a>\u00a0rather than the current one.<\/p>\n And in July, the governor signed another bill that\u00a0establishes a number of new rules around hemp products in Hawaii<\/a>, including a requirement that distributors and retailers obtain a registration from DOH.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also sent a bill to the governor this session that would\u00a0help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses<\/a>\u2014a proposal\u00a0Green signed into law in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n That measure, HB 132, from Tarnas, is intended to expedite expungements happening through a pilot program signed into law last year by Green<\/a>. Specifically, it will remove a distinction between marijuana and other Schedule V drugs for the purposes of the expungement program.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s proponents said the current wording of the law forces state officials to comb through thousands of criminal records manually in order to identify which are eligible for expungement under the pilot program.<\/p>\n Hawaii\u2019s Senate back in February narrowly defeated a separate proposal that would have\u00a0increased fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of criminal charges<\/a>. The body voted 12\u201311 against the decriminalization measure, SB 319, from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D).<\/p>\n Had the measure become law, it would have increased the amount of cannabis decriminalized in Hawaii from the current 3 grams up to 15 grams. Possession of any amount of marijuana up to that 15-gram limit would have been classified as a civil violation, punishable by a fine of $130.<\/p>\n A Senate bill that would have legalized marijuana for adults, meanwhile, ultimately stalled for the session. That measure, SB 1613, failed to make it out of committee by a legislative deadline.<\/p>\n While advocates felt there was sufficient support for the legalization proposal in the Senate, it\u2019s widely believed that House lawmakers would have ultimately scuttled the measure,\u00a0as they did in February with a legalization companion bill, HB 1246<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last session, a\u00a0Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House<\/a>.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s House vote to stall the bill came just days after\u00a0approval from a pair of committees at a joint hearing<\/a>. Ahead of that hearing, the panels received nearly 300 pages of testimony, including from state agencies, advocacy organizations and members of the public.<\/p>\n This past fall, regulators solicited proposals to\u00a0assess the state\u2019s current medical marijuana program<\/a>\u2014and also sought to estimate demand for recreational sales if the state eventually moves forward with adult-use legalization. Some read the move as a sign the regulatory agency saw a need to prepare to the potential reform.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Hawaii Health Officials Push For Federal Marijuana Rescheduling As Trump Weighs Reform<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Hawaii health officials are affirming their support for federal marijuana rescheduling\u2014a policy change that the Trump administration is actively considering. At the same time, a state lawmaker who sponsored a cannabis legalization bill in the most recent session says he\u2019s actively gathering input on how to revise the legislation inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":83353,"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\/83352"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83354,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83352\/revisions\/83354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Hawaii Health Officials Push For Federal Marijuana Rescheduling As Trump Weighs Reform<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"