STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2702

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2772

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2772 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL CANNABIS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to update the definition of "usable cannabis" to mean the dried leaves and flowers of a plant from the genus Cannabis.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Kush Hawaii; We are One, Inc.; The Drug Policy Forum of Hawai‘i; and four individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Akamai Cannabis Clinic.

Your Committee finds that the State exercised its authority to decide the medical use of controlled substances in 2000 when it created a state-regulated medical use of cannabis program. Since then, improvements to the program have helped to clarify its original intent to ensure safe and legal access to medical cannabis to qualified patients. Therefore, it is necessary to update the definition of "usable cannabis" to ensure that a qualified patient can decide what constitutes the usable materials for the patient's preferred form of cannabis medicine.

Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying the definition of "usable cannabis" to allow a qualified patient to designate the necessary form of cannabis for medical use.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2772, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2772, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair