STAND. COM. REP. NO 509

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 189

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 189 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SCHEDULING OF MARIJUANA,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to remove marijuana and its intrinsic cannabinoids from schedule I and requires the Department of Public Safety, in consultation with the Department of Health, to issue a recommendation for the rescheduling of marijuana.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Alternative Pain Management Pu‘uhonua, LLC; Hawaii Medical Association; Green Futures; The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry; Americans for Safe Access, Big Island Chapter; Drug Policy Action Group; and twenty-four individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Public Safety; Department of the Attorney General; Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, City and County of Honolulu; Maui Police Department; Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii; and three individuals.

     Your Committees find that the medical use of marijuana has existed in the State since 2000 when Hawaii became the first state to accept the medical use of marijuana by the legislative process.  However, despite fourteen years of medical use by thousands of patients in the State, marijuana still remains in schedule I, while coca and poppy, plants that contain substances far more dangerous than any substance found in marijuana, are listed in schedule II.

     Your Committees note that the intent of this measure is to reschedule only marijuana and no other drugs or controlled substances.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting findings related to the involvement of the Department of Health in the process of making recommendations to the Legislature on the scheduling of controlled substances;

     (2)  Deleting language related to the Department of Health being required to work in consultation with the Department of Public Safety in recommending or rescheduling the schedule of a substance, including the rescheduling of marijuana;

     (3)  Inserting language that reschedules marijuana as a schedule II controlled substance;

     (4)  Inserting a savings clause;

     (5)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 189, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 189, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair