News & Events
NEWS FLASH
September 2023 Newsletter
Aloha Members. It’s an exciting time right now. We are working with a professional staff to write a bill to overhaul the current Hawaii medical system, removing the current commercialized dispensary system and establishing local cannabis farms and businesses which will ensure a program that is fair to all who want to participate. The current model in place has failed in every state and Hawaii’s dispensaries are unaffordable to its residents. Along with the current failed medical model, Hawaii is pushing towards legalization, which will only benefit the dispensaries while preventing a thriving small business cannabis economy. Our medical program proposal will provide thousands of jobs and supply abundant amounts of affordable medicine to the medical cannabis users of Hawaii who depend on cannabis to live a happy and healthy life. Hawaii may be the only state that has a chance to build the right system, learning from the 25 years of failure in states like California, Washington, Oregon, etc. Right now, we have a huge hurdle. Representative Della Belatti, lead on the medical program, has refused to meet or listen to the alliance to share our proposal and the vision of the new medical program. After attending all bills last year regarding medical cannabis and legalization, and providing written testimony, we have been ignored a sit-down to talk story. Your job, if you should take it, is to contact Rep. Belatti’s office, share your concerns with her assistant, and ask that Care Waialua and the Oahu Cannabis Farm Alliance be at the table. Please be cordial. Her staff can be reached at Phone: 808-586-9425 or by email.repbelatti@capitol.hawaii.gov
Here is the general outline of the bill but will be quite complete as we bring in the details. Imagine being able to open your own cannabis business and providing medical cannabis products to patients as a small business. A dream!!! Remember the most important part of any dual use program combining legalization, is that the local people are involved 100% and big business is not able to set up shop. Our current medical dispensary system is big business and dispensaries will not stop trying to influence people like Rep. Belatti and the current system that is in place. There is no future for locally-owned small business without our medical program bill being passed. Aloha Buddy J. Keep up the fight.
Hawaii Proposed Medical Laws
Personal Grow
- Adult medical cannabis patients may cultivate, process, possess and consume the cannabis and cannabis products from 250 sq ft canopy flowering space at their home in an enclosed cultivation area.
- Privacy: Patients shall register with the state and shall provide inspectors the appropriate documentation demonstrating their status as a patient and their age when justified by circumstances.
- Possess up to 250 sq ft of harvested cannabis per TMK.
- Possess cannabis paraphernalia.
- Furnish to another patient* (or accept from another patient) up to 1 ounces of harvested cannabis for no remuneration.
- Provide samples for testing or harvested cannabis for processing.
- Manufacture cannabis products (other than using inherently hazardous substances).
- Transport cannabis plants or harvested cannabis
- Use cannabis in any form.
Reciprocity/ visiting patient.
- Visiting qualified patients - patients who are authorized for the medical use of cannabis in another state and possess valid documentation (valid certification and valid ID) are permitted the same rights as resident cannabis patients. Purchases are limited to 4 ounces of harvested cannabis every 15 days.
- The Department of Health must maintain a list of states with medical cannabis laws and a description of related documentation required of patients.
- Visiting qualified patients do not need to register with the Hawaii cannabis program at all.
Medical Registration Fees / Confidentiality and non-discrimination.
- The annual registration fee for medical patients should be standard between $20 - $50.
- Patients or licensees may not be required to disclose identifying patient information to law enforcement without a warrant.
- May not discriminate in housing, employment, education, or child custody or parental rights for an individual’s status as a medical cannabis licensee, assistant, or patient unless failing to do so would put that school, employer, landlord in violation of federal law or cause it to lose a federal contract or funding or unless (in the child welfare context) the conduct is contrary to the best interests of the child.
Cultivation license (any person may cultivate, manufacture, deliver, or sell to a medical patient under this license)
- Cost of any Cultivation license shall be no more than $2500 a year
- Indoor cultivation sites limit to 1000 sq ft flowering canopy per license per individual or entity per tmk
- Outdoor cultivations sites limit up to 5000 sq ft flowering canopy per license per individual or entity per tmk
- All provisional licensees shall be inspected for compliance to approve cultivation site
- May transfer for sale or accept from another licensed cultivation sites harvested cannabis in a wholesale transaction (unlimited).
- Manufactured products such as edibles, tinctures, solventless hash, etc., may prepared at the cultivation site or under a cultivation license and do not require further licensing.
- Must retain records of all transactions in a way that protects patient confidentiality but permits the regulator(s) to identify the chain of a cannabis product throughout its life through to sale.
- May not utilize pesticides in the cultivation of medical cannabis.
- Tax on all cannabis products shall be a flat tax as if operating a retail store
- Limit of 4 oz per transaction per medical patient per day
- Limit of 4 oz per transaction every 15 days for out of state medical patient
Labeling & Packaging
- All products sold will have labels on all packaging to prevent the accidental use by a minor or non-medical cannabis patient.
- THC content warning
- Child Safety warning
- If the label contains any information about potency, contaminants, or the cannabinoid profile, that label must be verified by a cannabis testing facility.
- Label must state net contents of the container. Ie cannabis flower, tincture, etc.
Transport (Cultivation site to Cultivation sites wholesaling)
- transport of any product to any other Licensed Cultivation site must have a trip ticket for inspection by law enforcement inspection.
- There are no limits to the amount of product that can be transported.
- The person transferring the cannabis plants or harvested cannabis, including the person's registry identification number.
- The person receiving the cannabis plants or harvested cannabis, including the person's registry identification number or, if the person is not required to register, a unique identifier assigned to the person.
- A description of the cannabis plants or harvested cannabis being transferred, including the amount and form.
- The time and date of the transfer; and the destination of the cannabis plants or harvested cannabis
Testing
- Testing may be done voluntarily by the Cultivation sites or by the patient of the receiving medicine from the Cultivation sites licensee.
- No state imposed mandatory testing. Recommendation is a spot check of product provided to the Dept of Health.
Tracking
- No “seed to sale tracking” for medical cultivation sites. Cultivation sites will employ internal tracking and records of patients visited to site. Some states accomplish this through cannabis software online payment system. Many states have rejected METRC being required due to cost and workforce burden compared to value of data to state/patients.
Business Formation
- A cultivation licensee may be organized as any type of legal business entity recognized under the laws of the State.
- Individuals or entities may not hold more than one cultivation license per TMK
- Disclosures are required to ensure multiple licenses of same type not held by any individual person/entity.
Recordkeeping
- shall keep a record of all transfers of cannabis plants and harvested cannabis and cannabis products.
- Cultivation sites shall make the books and records maintained under this subsection available to inspection by the department upon the department's demand.
- Records kept under this section must avoid identifying qualifying patients. Any records of patients able to be removed from state recordkeeping.
SAVE THE DATE! November 18, 2023
Click here for important legislature updates and OCFA's latest newsletter
Visitors and supporters of OCFA and Care Waialua
Ikaika Anderson in the house!
Ikaika Anderson He is running for Lt Governor. Educating our politicians is the most important thing we can do. They honestly just don't understand cannabis. He gets it. Build marijuana policy that supports our medical patients with affordable medicine and easy access to it. Doing so helps create thousands of cannabis-based jobs for our local community.
He asked me what I thought of recreational cannabis. I said, "make sure we have a horizontal, local system in place, not a monopolized vertical system, to keep big business in check. (Cookies) Haha.
We talked about poverty, homelessness and solutionsHe's a good human. It's very obvious, he cares.
Lieutenant Governor Josh Green Supports Hawaii's Local Farms
On Dec. 17, 2021, Lt. Gov. Josh Green came to visit Care Waialua, Oahu's foremost medical cannabis co-op.
As local cannabis co-ops like Care Waialua, on the island of Oahu, continue to help their patients receive their medicine in a safe, clean and caring environment, their success is evident in their steadily growing patient base that now serves over 1,000 patients island-wide. These patients rely on Care Waialua to provide safe and affordable medicine as an alternative to the state-run cannabis dispensary system.
These farms put in a ton of work, money and above all, fight, to continue to make this medicine available to its community. Unfortunately, with looming legislation already written into state statutes, the ability these co-ops have to provide for its patients is now in the hands of the same legislators that wrote these statutes.
On Friday December 17, 2021, Lt. Gov. Josh Green toured Care Waialua's facilities located on the North Shore of Oahu. He was really impressed with everything he saw and is in complete support of Oahu's farms and the mission of OCFA.org to change these dangerous statutes. We're thrilled to have his support at OCFA.
With the help of Lt Gov. Josh Green, our Senators, and other heads of State, we can have these statutes rewritten or stricken from the legislation altogether. To learn more about these efforts and how you can help, visit www.OCFA.org.
State Senators, Donovan M. Dela Cruz and Michelle Kidani, toured Care Waialua Farm to better understand patient based farms. They were amazed at the compassion and professionalism they encountered at our facility. We are humbled and grateful to now have their full support in our mission.
Patients fear losing access to medical cannabis amid push to restrict amateur grow operations
