The state Department of Health named the five people tasked with deciding who gets to open Hawaii’s first medical marijuana dispensaries.
The five-member selection panel, which includes a professor and a retired state Supreme Court associate justice, have a big job ahead — tasked with choosing eight of 66 applicants statewide to receive medical marijuana dispensary licenses. The DOH will announce selections April 15.
Passed in 2015, Hawaii’s dispensary law will give medical cannabis patients a way to purchase the drug for the first time since it was legalized for medical use in 2000. Under the law, dispensaries can begin operating starting July 15. On Hawaii Island, 14 applicants are vying for two licenses, each of which allows up to two dispensaries and two production centers.
“It will be a tremendous amount of work for these panelists,” said DOH spokeswoman Janice Okubo. “We’re extremely grateful they’ve committed to putting in the time and effort to make that selection.”
Okubo wasn’t sure if any panel members have ties to Hawaii Island, but upon first glance it appears most reside on Oahu. Okubo said the DOH selected panel members based on their background, relevant experience and knowledge. The DOH chose people who did not have any connections to applicants, she said.
Okubo said panel members will mostly be working in isolation and not consulting with each other.
Panel members are as follows:
• H. David Bess, a professor of Management and Transportation at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
• James E. Duffy Jr., a retired associate justice of the state Supreme Court.
• John Fisher III, Pharm. D., the scientific director of Keystone Laboratories and a lab inspector for the College of American Pathologists.
• Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser, listed as deputy to the chairperson of the Hawaii Board of Agriculture.
• Keith R. Ridley, chief of the Office of Health Care Assurance with the DOH.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
