The state Department of Health on Tuesday released 63 pages of rules governing medical marijuana dispensaries, detailing the application process, security, quality control, auditing of records and operations for grow centers and dispensaries.
The rules are detailed, but they’re not enough to satisfy a group of Kohala residents who say their voices will be heard come Election Day, and possibly in the courts as well.
Jeff Coakley, president of the North Kohala Community Association, said rules requiring medical marijuana to be grown in an “enclosed indoor facility” are not enough to allay concerns about an increase in crime and the disruption of what currently is a quiet rural community. Coakley said the association is meeting with other community groups throughout the state and on the mainland, and might challenge the new law in court.
“Indoors, outdoors, suspended from the ceiling doesn’t really matter. What matters is they took away our right to vote on this,” Coakley said. “We’re trying to keep Kohala Kohala, and it is rural.”
The state Legislature and Gov. David Ige earlier this year paved the way for eight dispensaries statewide. Two licensees on the Big Island will each be able to operate two production centers, with a maximum of 3,000 plants on each, and two dispensaries.
There are approximately 13,800 registered medical marijuana users in the state, with most living on the Big Island.
The application period to apply for a dispensary license is Jan. 12-29. A review panel selected by the DOH will evaluate the proposals and award points for each criterion.
The interim rules are effective immediately and will remain in effect until July 1, 2018, or until more final rules are adopted, the Health Department said in a news release.
According to Health Director Dr. Virginia Pressler, the interim rules were written “first and foremost” to effectively implement the medical marijuana dispensary law and get the dispensary system up and running.
“The rules have also been drafted to ensure patient safety, product safety and public safety, and prevent marketing to our keiki,” Pressler said in a statement. “This product is intended to be used for registered patients who need it for medical purposes and the rules are written specifically to accomplish that goal.”
The interim rules explain the criteria and process for awarding dispensary licenses, security requirements, the standards for certifying laboratories that will be responsible for ensuring the safety of the marijuana or manufactured marijuana products distributed at the retail dispensing locations, requirements for operating the dispensaries, including tracking each dispensary’s inventory of products from seed to sale or disposal and other requirements.
A dispensary licensee can dispense marijuana only in the form of dried matured processed flowers of female cannabis plants. Licensees also can dispense marijuana products limited to capsules, lozenges, pills, oils and oil extracts, tinctures, ointments and skin lotions, under the rules.
The Hawaii County Council earlier this month passed a nonbinding resolution 8-0 asking the state Legislature to amend its law to allow counties more say about where the dispensaries and grow operations could be located. The resolution, sponsored by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, also asks the Legislature to remove the ban that starts in 2019 on patients assigning “primary caregivers” to grow their pot for them.
Wille also said rules requiring the marijuana to be grown in an indoor secured facility such as a warehouse or greenhouse aren’t enough to satisfy her or her constituents.
“It’s not that people can run into the field and get it, but that we’re here to grow food, and we have a serious drug problem,” Wille said Tuesday. “We don’t want this additional step.”
Rep. Joy San Buenaventura, D-Puna, a member of the conference committee that put the finishing touches on the bill, reiterated her earlier statements that the Legislature won’t be making big changes to the law during the legislative session that starts Jan. 20.
“The current view is we want to see how it works first,” she said.
To view the rules, visit http://health.hawaii.gov/medicalmarijuana/wp-content/blogs.dir/93/files/2015/12/Dispensary-Rules-Chapter-11-850-signed-by-Gov-12-13-15.pdf.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
