MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS REQUIRE RELIEF

In passing a so-called medical marijuana law this year, it's clear the
Legislature didn't intend its implementation to be endlessly bottled up by
people who hate the idea.

The law sets up a process by which patients with certain conditions can get
authorization from their physician to obtain marijuana. The Hawai`i Medical
Association and some law-enforcement agencies opposed the legislation, but
it's a law now.

Lawmakers were convinced by testimony that smokable marijuana is an
effective treatment for some conditions, including glaucoma and relief from
pain and nausea.

The rule-making to generate the proper procedures and forms is a necessary
exercise. But it's unconscionable that it's being used by some to frustrate
patients in their hopes to obtain this legally mandated medication.

The rules now being proposed, says Jeff Crawford, a former clinical
psychologist who treated AIDS patients who use marijuana, "would turn the
compassionate act passed last April into an expensive and risky
bureaucratic maze for patients and physicians. These unworkable rules
represent an arrogant slap in the face to the governor, our legislators
and, most of all, the sick and debilitated patients who have spent the past
five months needlessly suffering while law-enforcement bureaucrats ignored
public input and wrote these draconian restrictions."

Part of the problem is that the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the state
Department of Public Safety has been given the job of formulating the rules.

This agency's entire reason for being is to keep drugs -- including
marijuana -- out of the hands of Hawai`i citizens. It is understandable
that thereis no strong motivation to see this very narrow instance of
legalization move ahead.

It now appears the medical marijuana law won't be fully in effect until
just before the next legislative session opens. If the topic is opened
again, lawmakers should consider moving management of the law out of the
Narcotics Division and into some other agency, perhaps within the Health
Department.

This isn't rocket science and it should not take the better part of a year
to get fair and workable policies and procedures in place. This
compassionate law deserves to take full effect, and soon.