Hawaii lawmakers are reportedly giving up the ghost on legalizing adult-use marijuana this year, but they still want a significant expansion of the state’s medical cannabis program, along with a crackdown on the illicit market.
State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, who chairs the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, told HawaiiNewsNow this week that his peers are pivoting from recreational marijuana to reforming the medical system, including enforcement measures that they hope will drive more patients to licensed dispensaries instead of gray market CBD shops.
One proposal, for instance, would do away with the state’s list of eligible medical ailments for which patients can purchase marijuana, in favor of allowing physicians to recommend cannabis for any ailment they deem appropriate.
Some of the most common maladies that marijuana is used to treat – including anxiety, insomnia and depression – aren’t currently on the list of qualified conditions, HawaiiNewsNow reported. By eliminating the restrictive list of conditions, that could bring a wave of patients into medical dispensaries.
Lawmakers are also weighing the possibility of allowing more dispensaries, on top of the 25 currently operating on four of the state’s main islands.
There’s also a proposal to restart the medical caregiver program, another possible carrot to draw consumers back to the legal marijuana market from the burgeoning illicit trade.
Lawmakers don’t have much time left before the current session adjourns on May 2, but there are two bills still pending with which they could implement such changes: House Bills 302 and 1482.
[[{“value”:”Proposals include eliminating the qualified conditions list and expanding the number of dispensary licenses.
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