STAND. COM. REP. NO. 727

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 113

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 113, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL CANNABIS RESEARCH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a three-year pilot program by which medical cannabis research involving local qualifying patients can be conducted under the protection of state law.

 

     Your Committee received comments in support of this measure from Jeanne Ohta, Executive Director, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii; Pamela Lichty, MPH, The Drug Policy Action Group; and thirty individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from Jodie Maesaka-Hirata, Interim Director, Department of Public Safety.

 

     Your Committee finds that the use of medical cannabis warrants further research.  Your Committee also finds that this measure authorizes formal peer-reviewed research to investigate the chemical composition and therapeutic effects of medical cannabis in a controlled pre-clinical and clinical laboratory setting.  Your Committee further finds that it is important for research to be conducted on the unique strains of cannabis that have been developed in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the dollar amount of the fee the Department of Public Safety may charge to cover the costs of overseeing the licensing process during the pilot research program from $3,000 to an unspecified amount;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that medical cannabis research facilities may be inspected by departmental staff authorized by the Director of Public Safety;

 

     (3)  Clarifying a statutory citation;

 

     (4)  Specifying that each primary caregiver under the pilot research program shall be responsible for the care of no more than one hundred qualifying patients at any given time;

 

     (5)  Changing a reference to the term "patients" to "qualifying patients";

 

     (6)  Changing a reference to the term "pilot program" to "pilot research program";

 

     (7)  Changing the date that the pilot research program ceases operations from December 31, 2014, to December 31, 2015;

 

     (8)  Changing the sunset date of the measure to December 31, 2015; and

 

     (9)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 113, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 113, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair