POPULARITY GROWS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

In Pot-Friendly State, Bulk Of Prescription Weed Is On Big Island

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 the 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 the Tribune-Herald 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, who is also a minister under the Universal Life Church, was
trained as a pediatrician but has always treated adults as well, she
said. When she sees a patient, "I examine them. I ask what their
issues are and how it affects their life," she said.

"We have local people," she said when asked to describe her patients.
"We have all different races and ethnicities. We have a couple
retired police officers, firefighters."

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

"They usually know somebody," she said.

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

"I fill out the application forms by the state, and I book the
patient to see the doctor for the actual medical review," he said
Monday. "The doctor then reviews the record, certifies that the
record is legitimate," and fills out the registry identification form.

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.

Serving as a coordinator between patients and physicians is one part
of Brittain's work, along with psychotherapy, treating attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder, human sexuality, and anxiety and depression.

"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.

Hawaii's limit of three mature marijuana plants strikes Brittain as
unusually stringent, since 3 ounces is not a sufficient amount of
marijuana for people's needs.

Kimura, the prosecutor, disagreed with any attempts to change the
medical marijuana law.

"My position is that the current medical marijuana law is adequate,
and the reasons for expanding it, to me, are not justified."

Kimura also said he wouldn't want any changes in the law.

"I think it's still an issue between the federal and the state
(governments) as to what is a controlled substance," he said. "Some
have exceded the allowed amount, and some have become victimized
because they're growing something that other people want."

Asked whether he followed the debate over the medical benefits of
marijuana, Kimura said there were "pluses and minuses."

From a law enforcement perspective, "especially among young people,
second only to alcohol, marijuana is the most abused substance that
children report using," Kimura said.

Brittain disagreed with Lingle's possible veto of the bill.

"The Legislature came to a reasonable conclusion that there need to
be changes made, and for her to veto this bill would be vindictive
and against all logic and reason," he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday.

"Her veto would forestall meaningful, balanced dialogue on the
subject, and keep medical marijuana in the realm of shadows, where it
should not be. It should come out in the light, with all parties,
both for and against, able to provide meaningful input such that a
balanced and true product can result in a good change to the medical
marijuana law."