Hawaii pioneers medical marijuana legislation
Hawaii became the first state to enact a medical marijuana law crafted by its state legislature. The law, SB 862, signed by Gov. Ben Cayetano in June, protects seriously ill patients who grow, possess, and use marijuana from arrest and originally cleared both houses of the state legislature last April.
While seven other states and the District of Columbia have similar legislation, Hawaii is the first to pass a bill without a ballot initiative. Patients who use marijuana in Hawaii will be subject to federal law and could be arrested by a Drug Enforcement Agency agent, but Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics show that 99% of all such arrests are made by state and local officials, says Chuck Thomas, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, DC, a national organization dedicated to passage of medical marijuana laws at the federal level.
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