HILO —The Hawaii Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Hookena medical marijuana patient who was arrested at Kona International Airport when he tried to take his pakalolo on a flight to Honolulu.
In a 30-page ruling issued Friday, the Supreme Court majority ordered a lower court to acquit Geoffrey Woodhall, stating that state law, while unclear and contradictory, nonetheless allows for the transport of marijuana by individuals carrying a state “blue card” certifying they are medical marijuana patients.
“Chapter 329, Part IX, as enacted, does not clearly carry out its purpose, leaving qualified patients vulnerable to prosecution,” said Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna, writing for the majority. “It is especially unclear how medical marijuana is transported to the homes of qualified patients in the first instance, or by qualified patients anywhere outside their homes.”
The court cited arguments made in the lower court by former Deputy Public Defender Sheri Lawson that, “A plain meaning reading of these two statutory provisions leads to an absurd result because it seemingly requires a qualifying patient’s marijuana to somehow magically appear wherever he may be so that it may be used.”
The deputy public defender who successfully argued the case at the Supreme Court, Kirsha Durante, did not return a phone message Monday for comment.
Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, in a separate opinion, disagreed that the state Legislature intended for medical marijuana patients to carry their marijuana with them except when transporting an initial supply of the plants to their homes for use or cultivation.
“Accordingly, construing the chapter to prohibit transportation through public places for the purpose of obtaining an initial supply of medical marijuana would render the statute meaningless,” Recktenwald wrote in his opinion. “Respectfully, however, nothing in the statute or legislative history supports the majority’s extension of this analysis to transportation of medical marijuana in other places open to the public for any other purpose.”
Woodhall, 44, was arrested at the airport in 2010, when Transportation Security Administration employees found 2.12 grams of marijuana in a clear plastic bag in his possession at an airport checkpoint, according to court records. Woodhall showed his valid medical marijuana card to the TSA agents and then to a Hawaii Police Department officer, according to the facts stipulated in the case.
He was found guilty of the petty misdemeanor drug charge after a bench trial in Kona District Court. He was fined $50 and assessed $280 in court costs. The Intermediate Court of Appeals had sided with the lower court, saying simply possessing a blue card did not prove the need to transport the marijuana through a public place.
Under state law, medical marijuana cards can be issued for debilitating medical conditions, but distribution is limited to the transfer of marijuana and paraphernalia from the qualifying caregiver to the patient. Patients are allowed to possess an “adequate supply,” defined as three mature plants, four immature plants and 3 ounces of usable marijuana. They are not allowed to smoke it or ingest it in public.
State Sen. Josh Green, D-Kona, a physician who has been working on medical marijuana bills in the Legislature, said the two bills passed this session do not specifically address transport of medical marijuana, but he does plan to introduce a bill in a future session addressing the transport issue.
Two similar cases of medical marijuana users transporting their drug through Hilo International Airport were dismissed by a Hilo District Court judge in December 2010. More than 12,000 Hawaii residents have medical marijuana cards, Green said.
Pamela Lichty, President of the Drug Policy Action Group, which formed the Medical Cannabis Coalition of Hawaii, was pleased by the ruling.
“We are still analyzing the ruling and we hope it will bring more legal clarity to the details around possession and use of medical marijuana within the state,” Lichty said in a statement. “As an island state, all of us — including Hawaiis medical marijuana patients — need to travel, and need to know what is permissible in bringing their medicine from one location to another.”
