A law allowing medical marijuana caregivers to provide cannabis for patients in Hawaii will expire on Dec. 31 without legislative action.
“It really was a failure that we did not address this impending deadline, and now we have the crisis upon us,” state Rep. Della Belatti, who chairs the House Public Safety Committee, told Hawaii News Now.
Hawaii’s caregiver program serves patients who either can’t grow cannabis at home or choose not to shop at state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
As of Oct. 31, when the latest data was published by the Hawaii Department of Health, 2,628 caregivers were providing registered patients with medical cannabis.
Caregivers and registered MMJ patients in Hawaii are allowed to grow up to 10 cannabis plants.
Under Hawaii law, patients utilizing the caregiver program must designate a single cannabis-cultivation facility, which can be:
- The patient’s residence.
- A registered primary caregiver’s residence.
- A site the patient or primary caregiver controls.
Currently, eight companies are licensed to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in Hawaii, and 30,065 patients had a valid MMJ registration as of Oct. 31.
In addition to the Dec. 31 expiration date, Hawaii’s caregiver program faces the Jan. 17 start of the next legislative session and swearing in of a new set of elected officials.
In the meantime, state Rep. David Tarnas told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he’s drafted a bill to legalize recreational marijuana.
An adult-use bill passed Hawaii’s Senate in March, but the state House of Representatives did not vote on a companion bill a month later.
