Thousands of Hawaii medical cannabis patients depend on caregivers to grow and process marijuana for them as medicine.
But those caregivers will be illegal in just a few weeks, along with the large community grow sites many of them depend on.
Lawmakers say that was a mistake that they will try and fix as soon as possible, according to House Public Safety Chair Rep. Della Belatti.
“It really was a failure that we did not address this impending deadline, and now we have the crisis upon us,” she said.
Registered caregivers are allowed to raise up to 10 medical marijuana plants for patients who can’t, as an alternative to dispensaries some say are too expensive or inconvenient.
Lorraine, who didn’t want her last name used in this story, grows marijuana at Care Waialua, the state’s largest community grow site. She is also a caregiver for her mother. Both feel cannabis has eased their pain, depression and anxiety.
“The change at the end of the year is going to affect me big time because if I can’t grow it here. I can’t grow it at home,” she said.
She said she feels “very desperate” knowing she won’t be able to legally help her mother.
Jason Hanely founded Care Waialua eight years ago as a place patients and caregivers could share space, recordkeeping and expertise. Much of the cultivation is by caregivers.
“Caregivers will no longer be able to help people grow, plain and simple. So, if you’re a handicapped person or a bedridden person you have to grow your own medicine. There’s no caregiving for you,” Hanley said.
Care Waialua is under a legal cloud after a federal raid 14 months ago that still hasn’t led to charges. Hanley said more than 500 patients and caregivers stopped coming after the raid.
“They are all in the black market,” he said. “They can’t afford dispensaries or they can’t get their medicine it’s as simple as that.
The Dec. 31 “sunset” deadline will also ban grow sites for more than five patients.
“We will probably shut down, yeah, yep,” Hanley said.
State Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, who chairs the Health and Human Services committee, agrees the deadline will impact thousands of patients.
“Especially for Oahu patients who live in condos where they are dependent upon caregivers to grow their medical cannabis for them, they won’t be able to have that access and that’s huge,” she said.
Although law enforcement officials expressed suspicion that caregivers and community grow sites were leading to the black market, lawmakers say they will try to make them legal again as soon as possible to protect patients.
“They’re left either to the black market, which we know is unregulated and untested and unsafe potentially,” Belatti said. “Now the we’re faced with the situation and we’re going to have to deal with it.”
