Dispensary Talking Points
Below you will find instructions on how to submit testimony
to the House Judiciary Committee. Talking points are found below.
Two ways to submit testimony (please keep comments less than five pages in
length):
- You can e-mail your testimony to JUDtestimony@Capitol.hawaii.gov
with a cover indicating your name and the following information: “Judiciary
Committee, March 22, 2011, 2:00 p.m., Room 325, SB 1458 SD2 HD1 Relating to Health,
2 copies.”
- You can submit your testimony via the internet at http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony/. If you use this method, please note in the additional comment box that you
“prefer the Senate version of this bill.”
Please use the following header for your written testimony (NOTE: Be
sure to use the subject line that corresponds with the bill for which you are submitting
testimony):
To: Rep.
Gilbert Keith-Agaran, Chair
Rep.
Karl Rhoads, Vice Chair and
Members
of the Committee on Judiciary
From: (your
name)
RE: “SB
1458 SD2 HD1 Relating to Health”
Hearing: Tuesday, March 22, 2011, 2:00 p.m., Room 325, 2 copies
Position: Support Senate version
Talking points in support of SB 1458 – a bill that would create a
state-licensed medical marijuana dispensary system
Please explain your reasons for wanting the compassion
centers. It is always a good idea to include information about personal
experience if you or a loved one has a serious illness that can be relieved by
medical marijuana. Feel free to use some or all of the talking points below in
your letter of support.
- The amended House version of SB 1458, or the “pilot
project” would not help patients on all islands. It would only provide safe access
to medical marijuana for patients living on Maui.
- The experience of New Mexico and Colorado have
proven that states can adequately regulate medical marijuana dispensaries
negating the need for a pilot project.
- A 30% tax is an exorbitant rate to charge on a
medicine that insurance will not pay for. If medical marijuana is taxed at all
in Hawaii, it should be taxed at the standard excise tax rate for most goods
and services.
- The most urgent need according to most patients
and the Medical Cannabis Working Group is the establishment of a legal, safe,
and reliable source for their medicine.*
- Patients should not be forced to go to the
criminal market for their medicine.*
- A state-regulated system of medical marijuana
distribution should be safe from federal interference since Attorney General
Eric Holder advised U.S. Attorneys in states with medical marijuana laws against
investigating and prosecuting federal marijuana violations if individuals are
acting in clear compliance with state law. This bill would provide the law with which to
act in compliance.
- Hawaii’s law requires patients to grow their own
medicine or have a caregiver grow for them. Many patients do not have the
horticultural expertise necessary to grow their own medicine and do not know
anyone who could grow it for them.
- For patients suddenly stricken with a serious
ailment, the months it takes to cultivate and harvest medical marijuana is
prohibitive. Dispensaries will allow immediate access and prevent patients from
having to go to drug dealers for their medicine.
- According to an October 2010 CNBC article, tax
revenue from medical marijuana dispensaries are bringing in about $50,000 a
month for the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- The Senate version of SB 1458 provides adequate
state oversight to ensure that medicine is not diverted into the criminal
market.
*Talking points
supplied by Jeanne Ohta
