Get the dispensary bill right
State legislators are in the final throws of creating a greatly needed and long overdue statewide medical cannabis dispensary system. On its face, it sounds good. However, HB321, the dispensary bill if passed in its current form will actually make it worst for patients thus pushing them more to buying on the black market.
As the bill is proposed, there will only be one dispensary on each island and each dispensary will be required to grow all the medicine to sell in its store. This is doomed for failure.
The reasons:
1. It will require many sick people to drive long distances. There should be small dispensaries scattered throughout the islands and be convenient to access.
2. Growing all the cannabis under one roof could easily result in crop failure (mold, contamination), shutting down supply. Cannabis needs to be supplied by many smaller growers who grow the strains patients need. And, with lab testing of all products, growers will need to grow organically and have strict quality controls.
3. One dispensary creates a monopoly, leaving quality, choices and especially pricing up to the store. Many dispensaries will allow patients to have a choice of whom to buy from and benefit from competition.
4. One big dispensary will bring in big corporations to run the operation and take away from locally owned businesses. Profits will leave the island. Dispensaries should be owned by the residents and, separately, local growers should supply them.
5. And, tacking on a proposed 25 percent sales tax burdens patients further. Cannabis medicine should be taxed the same as pharmaceuticals.
HB321 passed as proposed will be a great time for drug dealers.
We have to get it right from the beginning, legislators, or it’s not worth doing. Please pass a dispensary bill that works for patients and the community.
Andrea Tischler
Chairwoman, Big Island Chapter, Americans for Safe Access, Hilo
What one-party dominance gives us
Every single legislator who has had his hands (paws may be more appropriate given the greed involved) on the amendments to what House Bill 321 has become should be ashamed of themselves. I am speaking of the medical marijuana issue. It was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. The initial application fee of $20,000 and annual renewal fees of $30,000 for dispensaries first mentioned in January was the giveaway.
Establishing standards and regulation for medical marijuana was always about the money. Oh sure, it started out seemingly well-intentioned to get medical marijuana to those who need it without having to grow it themselves or break the law to obtain it. I have personal experience with a sister who relies on medical marijuana for her multiple organ cancer to relieve pain and help with nausea, appetite and sleep issues.
What happened is exactly what happens over and over at the Legislature in our one-party dominated state where there is no viable opposition to counter the Democrat’s thirst for taxation and over-regulation.
With the Legislature’s old habit of gut and replace and the destructive iterations that bills go through in the committee process we may not see the sausage making but we pay the price for what comes out at the other end. Greed (never cutting spending or waste) has taken a good and necessary cause and turned it into a money maker for the state. The Senate committees who have amended this bill are looking at special general excise tax rates and surcharges amounting to 25 percent. This is outrageous and confiscatory on sick people. There should be no GET or surcharges on medical marijuana.
Michelle “Mikie” Kerr
Waikoloa
Volunteers doing job gov’t doesn’t
It’s ironic that your paper published the article about Maui Humane Society’s launch of its cat sterilization program April 16, on the same day Advocats Hawaii was holding its spay/neuter clinic in Kona after doing a clinic in Ocean View the day before — almost 200 cats in two days and 17,000 cats since 1999.
Advocats is a small organization that gets little help from the government or the community. In fact, many of the compassionate people that feed and trap are harassed. Wake up, have some pride in our community cats, support our local organizations that are trying to solve the homeless cat problem with compassion and common sense.
Margie Wolfe
Kailua-Kona