Title:
Ask Governor Abercrombie to support efforts to reclassify marijuana
Message:
As you may
have heard, Governors Christine Gregoire of Washington and Lincoln Chafee of
Rhode Island recently
submitted a petition asking the federal government to change its policy
with respect to medical marijuana. Marijuana is currently considered a “Schedule
I” drug, with a high potential for abuse and “no currently accepted medical use
in treatment in the United States.” As the roughly 8,000 patients currently enrolled
in Hawaii’s medical marijuana program can tell you, that is patently false.
Unfortunately,
the petition only asks that marijuana be moved to Schedule II, which would
still leave it very difficult for patients to obtain medicine. And
regrettably, Chafee and Gregoire have used the petition as cover for their
failure to implement laws passed by their state legislatures that would have
made medical marijuana available to patients through well-regulated channels.
Nonetheless, moving marijuana out of Schedule I is an important step in the
right direction that other governors should support.
Please ask Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie
to join other governors in asking the federal government to reclassify
marijuana.
Hawaii’s lack of a regulated network
of dispensaries makes it difficult for patients to safely obtain marijuana, and
there are 34 states with no medical marijuana laws at all. Reclassification
would make it possible for marijuana to be prescribed and dispensed through
traditional channels. Governor Pete Shumlin in Vermont has already
said he will join the rescheduling effort, and you can ask Governor Abercrombie
to do the same by emailing him now.
