STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3482

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.C.R. No. 48

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 48, H.D. 2, entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE CONVENING OF A TASK FORCE TO DEVELOP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A REGULATED STATEWIDE DISPENSARY SYSTEM FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request that the Public Policy Center in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa convene a task force to develop recommendations for the establishment of a regulated statewide dispensary system for medical marijuana to provide qualifying patients with safe and legal access to medical marijuana.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from The Mestizo Association.  The Legislative Reference Bureau and the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu submitted written comments on the measure.

     Your Committee finds that through Act 228, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000, the Legislature established a state medical use of marijuana law to provide medical relief for seriously ill individuals in the State.  Your Committee also finds that many of the State's nearly thirteen thousand qualifying patients are unable to obtain or grow their own supply of medical marijuana.  Your Committee believes that a regulated statewide dispensary system for medical marijuana would benefit qualifying patients in the State by enabling them to obtain an inspected, safe supply of medical marijuana.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by adding the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, or the Prosecuting Attorney's designee, to the membership of the task force.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 48, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 48, H.D. 2, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair