Dispensary bill not dead, Green removed from committee

Hawaii may get medical marijuana dispensaries after all.

In a highly unusual move, House and Senate leaders resurrected medical marijuana dispensary legislation Friday night. Senate President Donna Mercado Kim and House Speaker Joseph Souki decided to extend negotiation deadlines on House Bill 321, and Senate conference chairman Josh Green has been removed from the process.

Lawmakers extended the negotiation to a noon Monday conference, in political drama that played out well past newspaper press deadlines.

“My colleagues decided it was important to get past the impasse I reached with the House chair,” said Green, D-Kona, Ka‘u, on Saturday. “I trust they’ll keep the more compassionate parts of the bill.”

Oahu Sen. Will Espero, formerly the co-chairman of the conference committee wrangling the bill, will take Green’s place.

The measure appeared dead following a committee deadlock Friday just before 6 p.m., the deadline for when negotiations were supposed to be finished. The bill had been deferred and conferees were licking their wounds and looking forward to next session when a little-used procedural move by the leadership kept the legislation hanging on.

Green was hopeful the final bill would keep a timetable for dispensaries to open within a year, along with provisions for two grow sites per license. Green and House conference chairwoman Della Au Belatti were at loggerheads this past week on how many dispensaries there should be and the process for their approval. In his final position, Green wanted to limit the field to 10 dispensaries statewide — two on the Big Island — with applicants approved on a first-come, first-served basis. The House side sought more dispensaries and merit-based approval of applications.

The state Department of Health would be tasked with reviewing and approving applications.

Medical marijuana has been legal for 15 years in the state but patients have lacked access to the drug unless they or a caregiver grow it.

Hilo resident Andrea Tischner is chairwoman of the Big Island Chapter of Americans For Safe Access, and says she thinks the current bill will keep many medical marijuana patients visiting the black market.

“Many patients will never be able to afford the prices of the dispensaries,” she said. “Who’s supposed to drive 50 miles to a dispensary?”

“Let’s make it so there’s a little dispensary in every community,” she said. Tischner said she also hopes the final bill preserves the current system of designated medical marijuana caregivers and contains no tax on the product. The legislation contains a 15 percent special excise tax and 10 percent special sales tax.

“This bill should be about the patients,” she said, “no one else.”