HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0102.054 2000-2002 ifs
RHONllA M ROBISON
3 4 1 5 9 K A H A U L I PLACE ~ ~P~i_____ dy
K A I L U A K O N A, HAWAII 9 6? 4 0- 8 4 0 8
~oun4yv Counc~#
October 3, 2002
Ted Sakai -Director of Public Safety
State of Hawaii
Department of Public Safety
919 Ala 1~loana Boulevard, 4th Floor
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
Dear Mr. Sakai:
Thank you for your response of my letter to your office dated September 5, 2002. Some of
your responses were not clear enough for me and I wanted to ask you to please help me
understand some of them.
Response #1 to County Councils Condition #5
You expressed your strong reserz-ations about its viability and wisdom. What our County
Council has done in even making reference to this condition is recognize that the law to
some extent was made for the people and not against the people and basically lets us, the
people of Hawaii county know that our lawmakers are hearing our voices. You additionally
stated that the State would not be able to control the supply level or the quality of the
product, hexe again, if the state would contract with independent people to solely grow
medical marijuana far patients only, focusing on the patients who cannot grow ties plant for
themselves. Having qualified, contracted independent people grow it, would eliminate
hundreds and hundreds of medical marijuana grow sites, (an issue recently raised in funding
of the Marijuana Eradication Grant}, which would in turn save time and money in having to
investigate a "medical marijuana grow site". And eliminate the State liability of poor
judgment calls on medical patients. This way the State stays in control of the situation,
and it takes away the risk of unnecessary litigation because of the high risk of individual
officers making unlawful arrests, unlawful seizures of medical cannabis and even the
possibility of infringing on State and Federal Constitutional rights. You further state that
the possession and distribution of marijuana is still illegal under the Federal law, that it
would truly be unwise and irresponsible for the State government to knowingly engage in an
activity prohibited by lazy My response is, do you think this was on Governor Cayetano's
mind when he signed it in to law? It would seem as though the spirit of the law speaks for
itself. The law was made for the patients. Obviously, Governor Cayetano signing this into
law has recognized it. Our Federal Constitution, Annend~ent X, Rights Reserved to
State Rights reserved to states or people. 'I`he powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people. What Governor Cayetano did was use the States
right to do this. Basically our State has used its freedom and right to make this into law and
knowing that the possession and distribution is still against Federal law It would seem as
?3 4157 KAI-i_ACI,I YLACF, KA71,CA KONA, IlA\VA11 9674U-N4~7sa~YIr1. N - -Q_
PFIONIi: RUN-325-1661 `f~'
;file No.
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Ref. Date 0 8 2002
- 2 - October 3, 2002
though by using the Federal Law against our State law, even knowing our rights as a State,
you would be suppressing the spirit of the law of the 2000 Medical Marijuana Act.
I'd would also like to remind you, Hawaii County Police Department has indeed participated
already in the distribution process by giving us back what they confiscated and I believe that
was done after consulting with the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the Public safety
Department and the Hawaii County Prosecutor's office for the return of medical cannabis.
Did they, if any, experience any ramifications federally for doing such a thing?
Response #2 -The Medical Marijuana Program is Currently in the Wrong Department
Although you state that in the last stages of the 2000 Legislature, it was decided that your
department would become responsible, you stated that you believe that the legislature made
this decision because it wanted to establish the program as a demonstration at first. The
fact is, this is no longer a demonstration, this is law in effect and the only thing we can do
now is improve faults and loopholes in them. I understand we are among one of the very
first states to implement such a program. I believe with the program running ahnost 2 years
now, and as you have stated yourself, that it is n.Ln_ning smoothly. A transfer of the medical
marijuana program could be possible, still with strict guidelines to be followed through the
Department of Health. By the way, I have not been successful in getting an answer on
who does handle the Methadone clinics here in Hawaii, your answer would be very helpful
in my quest to place this program into the Department of Health.
Out of all the other states that implemented a medical marijuana program, our state,
I-lawaii, is the on state that has its medical marijuana program under the Department of
Public Safety Narcotics Enforcement Division. Would it hurt so much to contact the
administrators of these programs in other states to examine how their program is working?
I would think that if we are for the people, this would be the least you or someone at your
capacity level could do.
Rest~onse #3 -Flaws in the Current Law & Response #4 -Medical Marijuana Supplement
Program
I have enclosed a copy of a draft of amendments to the current law I will address your
responses, along with suggestions that could bring a clearer picture of what we the people
need. I understand there is an adequate supply limit. The law Section 23-202-2 also states
under adequate supply, "that is reasonably necessary to assure the uninterrupted availability
of marijuana for the purpose of alleviating the symptoms". There is one snag, assure
uninterrupted availability but you can only do that with 7 plants, and only 4 immature and 3
mature. Now what happens when one day we wake up and God has decided that it is time
and this natural plant will begin to mature? Not everyone knows how to master this grow
cycle. Not everyone knows how to grow it. This doesn't in anyway account for the sex of
the plant. We need to take into consideration the ratio of successful planting. You can
plant 10 seeds, and out of that you can expect at least 5, from that 5 you can expect 2-3 of
them (odds against you) to be male, which is a waste of time and not useful for medical
purposes, at which this process can take up to 3 - 4 months given the time of year.
73 4159 KAIiAULI PLACti KAILUA KONA, HAI~'AII 96740-R4u8
PHON!?: SOR-325-1061
_ 3 _ October 3, 2002
Having a controlled distribution facility, for the patients, the risk of being in violation would
be none and not too much concerns on whether all 650+ patients are in compliance
because they are growing it at the location of their choice and not the States. (saves
taxpayer's money and government time in unnecessary litigation and investigations.) There
are coops doing this, I asn not suggesting that we do this also, but there is some success in
the distribution process within medical marijuana states, with no interruption at the county
and state levels.
I want to express to you, that Hawaii is a Health State. I take pride in saying that because of
my personal connections to the Department of Health here in Kona. You need to
understand that there are just as effective ways of consuming cannabis besides smoking it.
We cook with it, we have tea from it, and we make butter with it, oils with it. I am sure I
speak on behalf of hundreds of patients, if there were an opportunity to grow enough
medicine so we could eat it and drink it instead of smoking it, we would. The limit the
current law puts on us hinders the medical patients from achieving a more healthy way of
consuming cannabis. Exaxrxple, it would take about a half ounce of usable medicine to
achieve llb of butter, we know lIb of butter does not last long, once used to make butter
the cannabis is no longer usable.. No one patient I know can possibly sacrifice half once
for butter without an interruption of usable medicine, with these types of restrictions put
on us now Enforcing such a small amount for us to possess only pushes legitimate users
back to the black market, when supplies have been exhausted, one which I believe patients
don't like to utilize and support..
As you can see this is an attempt to work closely with you and your department to
effectively keep this program running with fewer and fewer liability, please keep an open
mind when reviewing correspondence and ideas, as there are responsible medical users.
I look forward for your response and I also thank you again for your time you have
dedicated to this issue with me and behalf of many concerned patients.
erel~ ~
Rhon obison
Enclosures
cc: Hawaii County Council Member
Dominic Yagong
Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd
Jaynes Arakaki -Chairman
Aaron Chung
Gary Safarik
Julie Jacobson
Nancy Pisicchio
J. Curtis Tyler III
Leningrad Elarionoff
Keith Kamita - NED Administrator
Herman Moore, Deputy Director -Law Enforcement
Jack Schweigert, Esq.
73 4]59 KAl1AW.1 YI,ACli KAILt3r\ KONA, tIA~~AII 96740-A408
P{IONIC: SOR-325-1661