BIG ISLAND BIG ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

HILO -- The state law regulating the medical use of marijuana is
fatally flawed, according to patient advocates, but a bill that might
improve it faces a potential veto.

Gov. Linda Lingle announced Tuesday that among the 52 bills she is
considering vetoing is one that would create a medical marijuana task
force to consider improvements to the law and also study the
feasibility of developing safe growing facilities on six Hawaiian
islands. The final veto list will be announced by July 8.

A brief summary of Lingle's objection to the bill stated that the task
force would "study ways to cultivate and transport medical marijuana,
contrary to federal prohibitions against cultivation, possession and
transportation of this federally prohibited drug."

Prosecuting Attorney Jay T. Kimura, Police Chief Lawrence
K. Mahuna and Department of Public Safety Clayton A. Frank all
testified against this bill when it was before the
Legislature.

"The idea that the state will potentially be involved in the
production of a Schedule 1 drug, illegal under federal law, is
interesting because there are many other areas of need in the state,"
Kimura said in his testimony.

Added Mahuna in February: "The message could be interpreted as the state of
Hawaii Legislature providing funding for research into legalizing drug
trafficking within the state."

Yet the law is silent on how medical marijuana users acquire their
plants, making potential lawbreakers out of the 4,200 Hawaii residents
who are licensed to use medical marijuana.

Of those 4,200 people, 2,640 of them live on the Big Island, according
to a database that the Department of Public Safety provided to
Stephens Media on Tuesday that lists the name of each patient, the
location of their marijuana plants, license information and the names
of their physicians.

The Big Island has 13 percent of the state's population but 63 percent
of the licenses, the database shows.

A small number of doctors are responsible for most of the marijuana
licenses issued. Topping them all is James Berg, of Hawi, who by
himself has issued current licenses to 1,822 patients, 1,767 of whom
live on the Big Island. Two out of every five medical marijuana
patients in the state have received a license from him.

The physician who's issued the second-most number of licenses for Big
Island residents is Dr. Yvonne Conner, whose office is in Hilo. The
DPS database counts 389 marijuana patients under Conner's care, all
except nine on the Big Island.

Under existing law, patients applying for medical marijuana must be
diagnosed with either cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, cachexia (a wasting
syndrome), severe pain, severe nausea, seizures or severe muscle spasms.

"I follow these criteria," Conner said in her office last week. "If
they qualify, I say 'OK,' they can be given an appointment, and come
in."

If a physician is unwilling to help a patient apply for a certificate,
that doctor can refer the patient to other physicians like Conner.

"I get their medical records, and I review them before I even give
them an appointment," Conner said of patients who aren't her own.

The patient fills out a five-page application indicating that he
understands the restrictions of the medical marijuana law. The
applications are sent to the Department of Public Safety's Narcotics
Enforcement Division, which oversees the medical marijuana program,
along with a $25 registration fee.

"Within six weeks a card comes, a blue card," she said. This card,
valid for one year, allows the patient to possess no more than three
mature marijuana plants, four immature plants and one ounce of usable
marijuana for each mature plant.

When physicians and patients follow the law, they are protected from
criminal prosecution by the state, although the law gives them no
protection from federal statutes.

Conner doesn't see the marijuana plants that her patients use, since
there's no legal place to get them.

That troubles people like Matthew Brittain, a licensed clinical social
worker in Hilo. He helps patients prepare the medical records to bring
to their physicians.

Brittain is working with four doctors and is in negotiations with
three others, and is looking to expand to Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Reno,
Nev.

Brittain once worked with the late Dr. William Wenner, an early
proponent of medical marijuana. When Wenner died, Brittain saw that
"hundreds and hundreds of (Wenner's) patients" needed help in filling
out the paperwork.

"Their doctors don't want to be bothered with all this paperwork,"
Brittain said, and saw an opportunity.

"Over the years that I've been doing this, I've been helping probably
8(00) or 900 patients get certified," he said.

Both Conner and Brittain talked at length about the benefits of
medical marijuana, and Brittain said the government's enforcement of
the law made no sense.

"The way the law is set up, there's no way to get seeds or starters,"
Brittain said, calling it an "inherent flaw in the program.

"To even get started, a medical marijuana patient has to break the
law," he said.

Of the 12 states that allow for medical marijuana, only two provide a
"sensible" way of doing it, Brittain said. In New Mexico, the state
government grows it. In California, it's grown and distributed by
co-ops. Brittain favors the California model.