Marijuana Bills Dead in Legislature

A measure creating medical dispensaries could fuel illegal sales, some lawmakers say

By Mark Niesse
Associated Press 

A proposal to create medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii has gone up in smoke.

The idea is dead because the House Judiciary Committee refused to consider the measure before a legislative deadline Thursday.

Lawmakers were worried that medical marijuana dispensaries would fuel illegal sales of the drug to recreational users, said Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jon Riki Karamatsu.

"I can't let the free market control this when it's only for patients," said Karamatsu (D, Waipahu-Waikele).

Advocates for medical marijuana patients argued that Hawaii needed to reform its decade-old law allowing them to smoke and even grow the drug, but prohibiting them from buying it.

"The more than 7,000 patients in the state are extremely disappointed," said Pam Lichty, president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii. "People really felt like this was going to be the year things would change in Hawaii. Maybe next year."

The bill passed the Senate and two House committees before stalling.

It would have created California-style medical marijuana dispensaries, calling them "compassion centers."

Lawmakers backed off after law enforcement officials from Los Angeles held summits on Maui and Oahu telling local leaders their problems with California's medical marijuana law, Lichty said.

Police departments in Hawaii warned against relaxing marijuana enforcement until the federal government changes its drug laws, even though the Obama administration announced last year that patients wouldn't face federal arrest in states that allow medical marijuana.

"Until the feds come out and say what they're going to do, it will be hard to enact anything like this," said Keith Kamita, chief of the Narcotics Enforcement Division for the state Department of Public Safety. "You don't want individuals to open dispensaries and then get arrested on the federal level."

Hawaii is one of eight states with limited laws permitting patients to grow marijuana or get it from a caregiver while prohibiting sales at stores, according to the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project. Six other states have authorized dispensaries for use by licensed medical marijuana patients.

Medical marijuana dispensaries would have brought in cash to the state by taxing the weed at a rate of $30 per ounce along with a 4 percent sales tax, generating $50 million in annual revenue.

"They didn't want to take it up this year. ... Whether that's a change of heart or cold feet, I can't say," said Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa-Ewa Beach-Lower Waipahu), the primary sponsor of the dispensary measure. "It's possible that it's because it's an election year or because of opposition from law enforcement."

Besides the medical marijuana proposal, the Judiciary Committee also wouldn't hear another marijuana bill passed by the state Senate decriminalizing possession of less than an ounce. The measure would have treated minor marijuana possession similar to a traffic ticket, with a maximum fine of $100.