STAND. COM. REP. NO. 168

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 629

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 629 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:

 

     (1)  Align with recent enactments that provide a process for the voluntary or involuntary sale or transfer of a dispensary license, remove the exclusion from dispensary employment for certain class C felony convictions, and repeal certain restrictions on medical cannabis dispensary siting;

 

     (2)  Include primary caregivers, qualifying out-of-state patients, and caregivers of a qualifying out-of-state patient as covered individuals; and

 

     (3)  Better serve the needs and protect the safety of Hawaii's seriously ill patients.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Big Island Grown Dispensaries, and Hawaii Cannabis Industry Association.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure will allow family members, caregivers, or other assistants to help patients into retail medical cannabis dispensaries while preventing unauthorized access to medical cannabis.  Your Committee also finds that this measure will clarify that each day of a violation of Hawaii's medical cannabis dispensary system laws under chapter 329D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is a separate offense, thus facilitating oversight of dispensary compliance.

 

     Your Committee also notes the Department of the Attorney General's concerns of allowing individuals convicted of felonies – the highest grade of offense under the penal code – to handle or sell marijuana.  Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting section 3 of the measure that would allow for the transfer of dispensary licenses;

 

     (2)  Deleting the amendment that would allow individuals convicted of a felony to work in a medical cannabis dispensary;

 

     (3)  Deleting section 7 of the measure, as that proposed amendment was previously implemented by Act 70, Session Laws of Hawaii 2020; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 629, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 629, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

 

 

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair