Search Results: hawaii (79)

Photo: J. Kalani English
Sen. Kalani English: “I took this up because I saw people who were suffering”

​The latest attempt to set up a medical marijuana dispensary system in Hawaii — more than a decade after the state legalized cannabis for medicinal use — was snuffed out in committee this week on Oahu.

East Maui Sen. Kalani English had said the bill had a “really good chance of passing,” pointing out that it would generate needed revenue and give patients safe access to medicine, reports Jacob Shafer at Maui Time.
“I took this up because I saw people who were suffering, sometimes in the last months of their life,” English said.
Medical marijuana has been legal since 2000 in Hawaii, with an act removing state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation by patients who have a signed statement from their physician affirming they suffer from a debilitating condition and that the “potential benefits of medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks.”
Senate Bill 1458 would have created a limited, five-year pilot program for medical marijuana dispensaries providing safe access to authorized patients. The proposal would have started the dispensary program in an unspecified county of Hawaii.

Photo: Zazzle

​A bill that would reduce the penalty for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana to the status of a traffic violation has been approved by two Hawaii Senate committees.

The Committee on Judiciary and Labor with the Committee on Health to pass SB 1460 on Friday afternoon, February 4, reports the Hawai’i News Daily. The bill establishes a civil violation for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana that is subject to a fine of not more than $100.
The bill would also delete reporting requirements of the board of education for students possessing an ounce or less of pot, and clarifies that medical marijuana patients and primary caregivers may assert an affirmative defense to prosecution, criminal or civil, involving possession of one ounce or less.
Possession of more than an ounce of marijuana would be excluded from the state courts and state paroling authority to require defendants or paroled prisoners to undergo and complete substance abuse treatment.

Photo: www.medicalmarijuanablog.com

​An arrogant Hawaii judge said the court wouldn’t recognize the medical marijuana card of a man who was ordered to perform 500 hours of community service as part of five years’ probation in a pot case.

Kaleo Roberson, 35, was also ordered to pay a $2,000 fine as part of his sentence imposed July 29, reports The Maui News.
Second Circuit Judge Shackley Raffetto followed a plea agreement in sentencing Roberson, who had pleaded no contest to two counts each of “first-degree promotion of a detrimental drug” (when did medical marijuana become a “detrimental drug”?) and possessing “drug paraphernalia.”
Officers got a search warrant to search professional surfer Roberson’s home after marijuana plants were seen on the property by police in a helicopter during a marijuana eradication mission, according to court records.

Graphic: Media Junkie

​A Honolulu, Hawaii police officer was convicted Wednesday in Las Vegas of misdemeanor driving under the influence and marijuana charges, resulting from his arrest last August while taking part in a softball tournament.

A felony driving under the influence charge was dropped for 38-year-old Kevin Fujioka because it conflicted with the misdemeanor DUI charge, according to prosecutor Bruce Nelson, reports Fox 5 News.
Fujioka was found guilty Tuesday of the two misdemeanor charges by a Las Vegas justice of the peace, who fined the police officer $580.
A misdemeanor marijuana possession charge against another Honolulu police officer, 47-year-old Shayne Souza, was dropped last month after he pleaded guilty to “obstructing a police officer.”
Souza and Fujioka were arrested August 15 as they smoked pot in a van near a park several miles west of the Last Vegas Strip.
Clark County Police said they spotted the stoned officers in a van at Desert Breeze Park.

Photo: Big Island Video News
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle: “Compassion centers” are an “insult,” because they are really “pot stores”

​During a recent speech before the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle took a hardline stance against the recent legislative effort to legalize and establish medical marijuana dispensaries for the state’s patients.

Governor Lingle pointed to the situation in California, where she claimed marijuana dispensaries now “outnumber both McDonalds and Starbucks,” reports Baron Sekiya at Big Island Video News.
The hard-hearted governor said the term “compassion centers” given to these dispensaries is an “insult,” because in reality, she says, they are simply “pot stores.”
Lingle also claims that today’s marijuana, which she says is 26 percent THC, is far more potent than the herb which was around “when we were in college,” which she claimed ran 2 to 3 percent THC.

Graphic: 300zxFreak

​Two zealously anti-pot Los Angeles police officers on Wednesday warned Hawaii it could “see an increase in crime” if it legalizes medical marijuana dispensaries and softens its marijuana laws.

“It’s so bad in L.A.,” claimed Sgt. Eric Bixler of the Narcotics Division of Los Angeles Police Department. Bixler said law enforcement officers there “deal daily with the effects” of California’s Proposition 215, which allows patients and caregivers to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use, reports Melissa Tanji at The Maui News.
People driving while smoking, and teens buying marijuana at dispensaries to resell on the street are just some of the problems caused by California’s medical marijuana law, the officers claimed.
Of course, since they’re good honest cops, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they really believe nobody in California history ever drove a car while high until the medical marijuana law passed in 1996. Maybe they’re just a little slow in getting around to actually reading the language of the law, which prohibits sales to anyone without a doctor’s recommendation to use pot.

Photo: Roger Christie’s MySpace

​At least six and as many as a dozen homes were raided Wednesday during a federal drug sweep on Hawaii’s Big Island, reports John Burnett at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

“I know of about six others who were raided,” said Roger Christie, founder and director of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, whose downtown Hilo sanctuary and Wainaku residence were searched by federal agents, assisted by local police.
Wednesday’s police log showed 12 report numbers indicating police assistance to federal agents between 4 a.m. and just past 3 p.m. Five incidents occurred in Puna, four in South Hilo, and one each in North Hilo, Hamakua and Ka’u.

Photo: mixed meters
The door to the THC Ministry’s upstairs space at 94 Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo was locked.

Federal drug agents raided the downtown Hilo sanctuary of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry Wednesday morning, assisted by local police.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Muehleck said that no one had yet been arrested or charged in connection with the raid, reports John Burnett at Stephens Media.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Muehleck declined to provide other details and would not say whether THC Ministry director and founder Roger Christie had been detained.
“There’s gonna be no comment from our office talking about anything that’s occurred in Hilo or on the Island of Hawaii at this point,” Muehleck said.

Photo: Cannabis Culture

​Medical marijuana would be taxed $30 an ounce and sold at county-licensed “compassion centers” that would grow and sell marijuana to qualified patients and caregivers under a bill passed Tuesday by the Hawaii State Senate.

The bill to allow the sale and taxation of medical marijuana, Senate Bill 2213, was passed by lawmakers as they try to add up enough money to stop the state’s projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall, reports Richard Borreca at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
The marijuana bill, after provoking debate on the Senate floor, eventually passed 20-4.
“I don’t think this is helping to alleviate the drug problem,” said Sen. Norman Sakamoto (D-Salt Lake/Foster Village), who had evidently wandered into the wrong debate.
Windward Oahu Republican Sen. Fed Hemmings said the FDA should test medical marijuana before people sell it.

Photo: The Fresh Scent

​Possession of small amounts of marijuana would be decriminalized under legislation advancing through the Hawaii State Senate.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday passed a measure setting the fine for possession of less than an ounce of the herb at $100, reports the Honolulu Advertiser.
In separate legislation, a bill which would permit “compassion centers” to operate as medical marijuana dispensaries cleared its final Senate committee Monday.
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