A push is underway within the Hawaii Legislature to broaden the state’s medical marijuana program after efforts to legalize adult-use once more did not advance.
In keeping with Hawaii Information Now, payments within the Senate and the rather more conservative Home include a number of provisions aimed to spice up enrollment within the MMJ program whereas thwarting unlicensed and unregulated provide channels.
Proposals embody:
- Permitting medical professionals to advocate hashish for sufferers as a substitute of adhering to a restrictive listing of qualifying situations.
- Permitting licensed cultivators to wholesale medical marijuana merchandise on to retailers.
- Including dispensaries in rural areas.
One other invoice would increase enforcement of unlawful CBD shops by requiring licenses, seizing merchandise containing THC and shuttering such institutions, Hawaii Information Now reported.
All of the laws, based on lawmakers, is designed to prop up the state’s stagnant MMJ market.
The variety of registered medical sufferers in Hawaii has been step by step falling since no less than September 2023.
On the finish of February, there have been 29,820 in-state sufferers, down from 31,581 in February 2024, or roughly 5.5%, based on the most recent statistics from the state’s well being division.