Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) has signaled his intent to veto a controversial marijuana bill that would have allowed patients to enroll in the state’s medical cannabis program for any health condition their doctor sees fit—but which critics warned also raised serious privacy concerns.
In an effort to increase access to medical marijuana, the HB 302 bill would have allowed patients to get medical cannabis recommendations via telehealth instead of having to build a relationship in person with a doctor.
But lawmakers on a conference committee revised the plan, inserting a provision to allow the state Department of Health to access medical marijuana patient records held by doctors for any reason whatsoever—what Green called „a grave violation of privacy.”
Governor included this bill on his list of 19 bills he intends to veto. However, he still has to decide by July 9 whether to actually reject these bills.
„This administration remains committed to Hawai‘i’s existing medical cannabis program and supports efforts to expand access to medical cannabis for any medical condition,” the governor’s office said in a statement. Although this bill expands access by allowing medical cannabis certifications to be done via telehealth it is a serious violation of privacy.
Green noted patients could be concerned about the removal of privacy protections, as marijuana remains illegal on a federal level. He also stated that this concern may limit enrollment into state-legal programs.
His office stated that „patients may be deterred from taking part in the program due to their reasonable fear of negative consequences based on information obtained from the inspection of personal medical records.”
Some members of Congress warned, at the time the change was made by the conference committee, that the medical record provision could be problematic.
Kim Coco Iwamoto, a Democratic Representative from California said that the medical cannabis community had expressed their opposition to this breach in confidentiality. „Especially since it’s authorized without suspicion or warrant.” It will discourage patients and doctors from participating in the program.
She called the proposal „unprecedented given the degree of respect our state has previously demonstrated for patient–doctor privileges, and how often the state defers to the expertise of physicians and healthcare providers.”
Initially, reform advocates supported HB 302 in order to increase access for patients who have conditions other than those covered under the state’s law. The majority of reform advocates withdrew their support once the revised conference committee version was released.
The bill specifically authorized the Department of Health, „to examine the medical records of a qualified patient held by the doctor, advanced practice nurse or hospice provider that issued the written certification of the qualifying patient.”
Medical cannabis providers who did not comply with the request of a Department for records on a patient could lose their license to distribute medical marijuana.
The state would also add a Class C crime for the unlicensed operation a marijuana dispensary. This is a major addition to its existing laws on illegal distribution.
Karen O’Keefe of Marijuana Policy Project’s state policy director, Karen O’Keefe said that her group „was encouraged to see HB302 on Governor. Green’s list if bills that he could veto.
In an email, she said that while „we strongly support allowing for medical cannabis certifications through telehealth” and „trusting doctors to certify marijuana as a treatment option,” the new bill is more harmful than beneficial. The bill would give the health department the right to look into the medical records of medical cannabis users without a single allegation that they have done anything wrong, and it would siphon $750,000 away from the fund for cannabis or hemp enforcement agents.
The bill approved by the bi-cameral conference committee also limits the doctors who can recommend marijuana for patients with conditions that are not specifically listed.
This bill is a significant reversal of HB 302 and its vital provisions that allows physicians to practice. [advanced practice registered nurses] „To certify that medical cannabis is effective for all medical conditions, but limit it to only primary treatment medical providers. It will be ineffective.”
O’Keefe has said in the past that in Hawaii, only „about 6% of actively treating physicians are recommending medical cannabis… So in practice, the vast majority of patients have to go to a specialist for their medical cannabis recommendation.”
It could also have complicated the process of getting a medical cannabis recommendation for those patients who do not have a primary physician or veterans whose primary physicians work at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
SB 1429 was also recently sent by the Governor to his desk. This bill would have allowed medical marijuana caregivers the opportunity to grow marijuana in the name of as many patients as five instead of just one. Green signed this bill last month.
Lawmakers also recently sent a bill to the governor that would help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses—a proposal Green signed into law in April.
That measure, HB 132, from Rep. David Tarnas (D), is intended to expedite expungements happening through a pilot program signed into law last year by Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat. The program will eliminate the distinction made between marijuana and Schedule V drugs in the context of expungement.
Bill’s supporters said that the existing wording in the law requires state officials to manually comb through thousands criminal records to determine which ones are eligible to be expunged under the pilot project.
Hawaii’s Senate back in February narrowly defeated a separate proposal that would have increased fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of criminal charges. The body voted 12–11 against the decriminalization measure, SB 319, from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D).
If the bill had become law, the amount of marijuana decriminalized would have been increased from 3 to 15 grams. The possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana would be considered a civil offense punishable with a $130 fine.
The Senate’s bill to legalize marijuana for adults was halted for the rest of this session. SB 1613 failed to pass out of the committee before a deadline.
While advocates felt there was sufficient support for the legalization proposal in the Senate, it’s widely believed that House lawmakers would have ultimately scuttled the measure, as they did last month with a legalization companion bill, HB 1246.
Last session, a Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House.
This year’s House vote to stall the bill came just days after approval from a pair of committees at a joint hearing. The panels had received almost 300 pages of testimonies from various state agencies, advocacy groups and the general public.
This past fall, regulators solicited proposals to assess the state’s current medical marijuana program—and also sought to estimate demand for recreational sales if the state eventually moves forward with adult-use legalization. The move was interpreted by some as an indication that the regulators were preparing for a possible reform.
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Philip Steffan is the photographer.