Letter: Fix Medical Marijuana Program
Jeanne Y. Ohta, Executive Director, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii
July 5, 2009
Star Bulletin (Honolulu, HI)
The governor stubbornly clings to outdated federal policy to justify her veto of a bill establishing a task force to make recommendations to improve the current medical marijuana program. Let's be clear: nothing in federal law prevents the formation of this task force. Recent court rulings, a change in the federal administration, and progress in other states indicate that the rationale for her possible veto doesn't hold up.
Rhode Island legislators, for example, overwhelmingly overrode a gubernatorial veto so that seriously ill patients will be able to obtain medical marijuana legally from three dispensaries. Until the passage of this courageous legislation, patients there were in the same predicament as Hawaii patients: with no legal way to purchase their medicine, patients and caregivers are forced to grow it themselves or buy it on the streets.
Other states are making progress in addressing patients' concerns. In nine years, Hawaii hasn't addressed even one. On behalf of the almost 5,000 seriously ill patients registered with the program, we urge the governor to rethink her veto and legislators to override it if it happens. |
