HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 1348.004 2004-2006
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BOB JACOBSON~~ 333 Kilauea Avenue, Second Floor
Councilmember .i Ben Franklin Building, Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Chair, Environmental Management Committee Mailing Address: 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 200
~+iy•w~+~ Phone: (808) 961-8263
Vice-Chair, Finance Committee
Fax: (808) 961-8912
E-Mail: jjaco@co.hawaii.hi.us
HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL
County of Hawai `i
Sr ; i
MEMORANDUM t.
Date: July 31, 2008
To: Pete Hoffmann, Chair
and Members of the Hawaii County Council
From: Bob Jacobson, Council Member
District 6
Re: Transmitting proposed amendments to a Bill for an Ordinance relating to the
Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis
Attached for your review are proposed amendments to Bill 335 relating to Enforcement Priorities
of the Hawaii County Police Department as amended by the following:
In Section 3 sub section (c) the apostrophy in the word "it's" has been removed;
In Section 8, subsection (a) an "s" has been added to the word "section";
In Section 8, subsection (b) the "ing" has been removed from the word "reporting"; and
In Section 10 the word "whom" has been replaced with the word "who".
BJ/bl
Att.
Comm. No. 43 4eO • s4
Ref. To: Cook
Ref. Dote r G 1
District 6 - Upper Puna, Ka `a, and South Kona
Hawaii County Is An Equal Opportunity Provider And Employer
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COUNTY OF HAWAII STATE OF HAWAII
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BILL NO.
ORDINANCE NO.
A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE HAWAI'I COUNTY CODE (2005 EDITION, AS
AMENDED), BY ADDING AN ARTICLE RELATING TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, THAT SHALL
BE KNOWN AS THE LOWEST LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY OF CANNABIS ORDINANCE
SECTION l: TITLE
This Article shall be known as the LOWEST LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY OF
CANNABIS ORDINANCE
SECTION 2: PURPOSE
The purpose of this Article is to;
(a) Provide law enforcement more time and resources to focus on serious crimes.
(b) Allow our court systems to run more efficiently;
(c) Create space in our prisons to hold serious criminals;
(d) Save taxpayers money and provide more funding for necessities such as education
and health care.
(e) Reduce the fear of prosecution and the stigma of criminality from non-violent citizens
who harmlessly cultivate and/or use Cannabis for personal, medicinal, religious, and
recreational purposes.
SECTION 3: FINDINGS
(a) The Institute of Medicine has found that Cannabis (marijuana) has medicinal value
and is not a gateway drug.
(b) According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the use of Cannabis (marijuana)
directly results in 0 (zero) deaths per year.
(c) According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the marijuana eradication
program has not stopped Cannabis cultivation in the County of Hawai'i, rather the
program has only decreased the availability of the plant, which increases its "street"
value, resulting in more crime.
(d) The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) also reported that a large increase of
the use of methamphetamine, crack cocaine, and other hard drugs was related to the
marijuana eradication program's implementation.
(e) According to public record, the "mandatory program review" for the marijuana
eradication program, required by Section 3-16 of the County Charter to be performed
at least once every 4 years, has never been performed in the 30 years that the
program has existed.
(f) Law abiding adults are being arrested and imprisoned for nonviolent Cannabis
offenses, clogging our court dockets, overcrowding our prisons, tying up valuable law
enforcement resources and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in
Hawaii County alone each year.
(g) The citizens of the Cities of Hailey, Idaho; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington;
Columbia, Missouri; Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Santa Barbara, Oakland, Santa
Monica and Santa Cruz, in California, and the citizens of Missoula County, Montana,
all voted for Cannabis (marijuana) to be placed as law enforcement's lowest priority
within the past five years.
SECTION 4: DEFINITIONS
(a) "Adult" means any individual who is 21 (twenty one) years of age or older.
(b) "Adult personal use" means the use of Cannabis on private property by adults. It
does not include:
(a) distribution or sale of Cannabis;
(b) distribution, sale, cultivation, or use of Cannabis on public property;
(c) driving under the influence; or
(d) the commercial trafficking of Cannabis, or the possession of amounts of
Cannabis in excess of the amounts defined as being appropriate for adult
personal use...
(b) "Marijuana", (as defined in the Hawaii Revised Statutes of Chapter 712-1240)
means Cannabis.
(c) "Cannabis" means all parts of the Cannabis plant, whether growing or not; the seeds
thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the Cannabis plant; and every
compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its
seeds, or its resin.
(d) "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority" means a priority such that all law enforcement
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activities related to all offenses other than the possession or cultivation of Cannabis
for adult personal use shall be a higher priority than all law enforcement activities
related to the adult personal use of Cannabis. The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority
regarding possession or cultivation of Cannabis shall apply to any single case
involving 24 (twenty four) or fewer Cannabis plants at any stage of maturity or the
equivalent in dried Cannabis, where the Cannabis was intended for adult personal use.
(e) The "dried equivalent" of 24 or fewer Cannabis plants shall be presumed to be 24
(twenty four) or fewer ounces of usable Cannabis, excluding stems and other non
active parts. A greater amount may also fall under the Lowest Law Enforcement
Priority provisions described herein if such amount is shown by competent evidence
to be no more than the dried equivalent of 24 plants.
SECTION 5: LOWEST LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY POLICY RELATING TO
THE ADULT PERSONAL US OF CANNABIS
(a) The cultivation, possession and use for adult personal use of Cannabis shall be the
Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for law enforcement agencies in the county of
Hawai' i.
(b) The County of Hawai'i's County Council, the Police Commissioner, the Chief of
Police and all associated law enforcement staff, deputies, officers and any attorney
prosecuting on behalf of the County of Hawaii shall make law enforcement activity
relating to Cannabis offenses, where the Cannabis was intended for adult personal
use, their Lowest Law Enforcement Priority. Law enforcement activities relating to
Cannabis offenses include but are not limited to the prosecution of Cannabis offenses
involving only the adult personal use of Cannabis;
(c) Neither the Chief of Police, the Police Commissioner, nor any attorney prosecuting
on behalf of the County of Hawai' i, nor any associated law enforcement staff,
deputies, nor officers shall seek, accept or renew any formal or informal deputization
or commissioning by a federal law enforcement agency for the purpose of
investigating, citing, or arresting adults, nor for searching or seizing property from
adults for Cannabis offenses subject to the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of
Cannabis where such activities would be in violation of that policy, nor shall such
authorities exercise such powers that may be ancillary to deputization or
commissioning for another purpose.
(d) The Hawaii County Council shall not authorize the acceptance or the issuing of any
funding that is intended be used to investigate, cite, arrest, prosecute, search or seize
property from adults for Cannabis offenses in a manner inconsistent with the
county's Lowest Law Enforcement Priority policy.
SECTION 6: COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS
To the full extent allowed by the Constitution of the State of Hawai' i, the people,
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through their county government, request that neither the County Prosecuting
Attorney nor any attorney prosecuting on behalf of the County of Hawaii shall
prosecute any violations of the sections of Chapter 712-1240 of the Hawaii Revised
Statutes regarding possession or cultivation of Cannabis in a manner inconsistent
with The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority, as described in Section 4 and 5 of this
article; in cases where the amount possessed or grown is less than 24 (twenty four)
plants or the dried equivalent, possession for adult personal use shall be presumed.
SECTION 7: EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS FOR CANNABIS ENFORCEMENT
(a) Neither the Hawaii County Council, nor the Police Commissioner, nor the Chief of
Police, nor any attorneys prosecuting on behalf of the County of Hawaii, nor any
associated law enforcement staff, deputies, or officers shall spend or authorize the
expenditure of any public funds for the investigation, arrest, or prosecution of any
person, nor for the search or seizure of any property in a manner inconsistent with
the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority as defined in Section 4 and 5 of this article.
(b) The Hawaii County Council shall not support the acceptance of any funds for the
marijuana eradication program.
SECTION 8: COMMUNITY OVERSIGHT
The Hawaii County Council shall ensure the timely implementation of this chapter
by working with the Chief of Police and/or the Police Commissioner to;
(a) provide for procedures to receive grievances from individuals who believe that they
were subjected to law enforcement activity contrary to the Lowest Law Enforcement
Priority of Cannabis, which is described in Sections 4 and 5 of this Article;
(b) publish a report semi-annually on the implementation of this chapter every first
day of June and every first day of December, from this day forward, with the first
report being issued June 1, 2009. These reports shall include but not be limited to:
the number of all arrests, citations, property seizures, and prosecutions for all
Cannabis offenses in the county of Hawaii, the number of complaints regarding
marijuana eradication over-flights; the breakdown of all Cannabis arrests and
citations by race, age, specific charge, and classification as infraction, misdemeanor,
or felony, the estimated time and money spent by the County on law enforcement
and punishment for adult Cannabis offenses, and any instances of officers or deputies
assisting in state or federal enforcement of adult Cannabis offenses. These reports
shall be published with the cooperation of the County of Hawai'i's Prosecuting
Attorney, the Chief of Police, and all associated law enforcement staff in providing
needed data.
SECTION 9: NOTIFICATION OF LOCAL, STATE, AND FEDERAL OFFICIALS
After the enactment of this Article, the County Clerk shall send letters on an annual basis
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(every June 1St of each year) to the Mayor of the County of Hawai' i, the County of
Hawaii voters' Congressional Delegation, Hawai'i's U.S. senators, the County of
Hawaii voters' representatives in the Hawaii State Legislature, the Governor of
Hawaii, and the President of the United States. This letter shall state; "The citizens of
the County of Hawai' i have passed an initiative to make Cannabis offenses the Lowest
Law Enforcement Priority, where the Cannabis is intended for adult personal use, and
request that the federal and state branches of government remove criminal penalties for
the cultivation, possession and use of Cannabis for adult personal use; the citizens also
request that Cannabis policies here within the county of Hawaii be dealt with from our
local law enforcement only." The letters may also state, be it the will of the County
Council; that according to the 3 year study performed by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, more people used methamphetamine as a result of the marijuana eradication
program; they may also express that methamphetamine is a growing problem in our
community and more help would be appreciated in that area, and
that the first action that would help in that area would be to end the marijuana eradication
program.
This duty shall be carried out until state and federal laws are changed accordingly.
SECTION 10: STATUTORY AND CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION
All provisions in this article shall only be implemented to the full extent that the
Constitution of the State of Hawai' i and the Hawai' i Revised Statutes allows, and in the
event, and only in the event, that a court of competent jurisdiction determines that any
provision in any section of this article may not be directed by voter initiative or by action
of the County Council, then that specific mandatory provision only shall be deemed
advisory and expression of the will of the people that the provision shall be implemented
into law by whichever government branch or official who has the power to implement
it, and that the Hawai' i County Council shall take all actions within their power to work
with those branches of government to express the will of the people and encourage,
support, and request the implementation of those provisions.
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SECTION 11: SEVERABILITY
In the event, and only in the event, that a court of competent jurisdiction should find one
or more of the sections, or parts of the sections of this Article illegal, or any provision of
this Article or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
remainder of the Article and the application of such provisions to other persons or
circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
INTRODUCED BY:
COUNCIL MEMBER, COUNTY OF HAWAII
Hawai `i
Date of Introduction:
Date of 1 sc Reading:
Date of 2°d Reading:
Date of 3`d Reading:
Effective Date:
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