HAWAI'I STATE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL:

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HAWAI'I STATE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE PASSES MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL:
Another Major Legislative Hurdle Is Cleared
Reported from the Hawai'i State Capitol By Pam Lichty

HONOLULU - House Bill 1157, HD1: RELATED TO MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA was passed out by the Hawai'i House Judiciary Committee late Tuesday, February 29, 2000, on a 7-4 vote. The Chair, Eric Hamakawa, circulated a "proposed draft" and explained his proposed changes include some amendments suggested by the Department of Health, American Civil Liberties Union, and the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai'i (DPFH). Other amendments are apparently designed to assuage various expressed concerns. One amendment reads, "law enforcement agencies seizing live plants as evidence shall not be responsible for the care and maintenance of such plants." "They're police, not gardeners," the chair quipped.

They are adding to the definition of "adequate supply" by
specifying that it "shall not exceed an aggregate amount of BLANK oz. at
any time." Hamakawa explained that they want to check with other states to
see what their experience has been thus far with the various amounts in the
initiative statutes (usually 1-2 oz. plus a specified number of plants).

The third significant, and worrisome, change is that they have
restored a patient registry provision from an earlier version of the bill
that would require a physician who issues written certification to register
the name and address of a patient with BOTH the Department of Public Safety
AND the Department of Health.

Hamakawa noted, as Committee members questioned the various
provisions, that there is a lot of refinement left to do in the language,
so this version is by no means set in stone. It goes next to the House
floor for a vote after this Friday (Mar. 3). If it survives that vote, it
crosses over to the Senate.

Meanwhile at the Senate: The Judiciary Committee will hold public
decision-making on _their_ bill, SB 862, SD1, on Friday, March, 3, 2000 .
Don Topping, President of DPFH said, "When and if these two bills make it
to the House and Senate floors, each and every vote will count (the hemp
bill passed in the Senate last year, by just one vote). So contact your
Representative and Senator or anyone you know there and ask them to support
the legislation."