Hawaii Cannabis Expo presents the Hawaii Legislature Panel Discussion about current Cannabis in Hawaii.
Hawaii Legislature Panel Hawaii Cannabis Expo – Blaisdell Exhibition Hall (Honolulu, HI) February 2-4, 2024Â
Feb 4 – Room 1: 3pm Discussion with Hawaii Legislatures about Cannabis in Hawaii Featuring Representative Cedric Gates, Representative Della Au Bellati, and Senator Joy San Buenaventura, Moderated by former Senator Will Espero Representative David Tarnas – Chairman of the Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs Committee. Representative Cedric Gates is Chair of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food Systems. Representative Della Au Belatti – Chair of Health and Homeless Committee Senator Joy San Buenaventura – Chair of Health and Human Services The Panel will be moderated by the former senator Will Espero.
Our 2024 Hawaii Cannabis Expo Legislative panel Transcript
Our 2024 Hawaii Cannabis Expo legislative panel my name is Will Sparrow I’ll be your moderator I am a former lawmaker I Serv19 years in the legislature and I think my most significant impact was being a part ofthe 2015 uh team that passed the medical cannabisbill and thank [Applause]you but today we have four individualswho have been very supportive of cannabis in one way oranother and these individuals if anything is past thissession uh these individuals will be key players in crafting any legislation oramendments or additions or whatever the case may be whether it’s medicalcannabis H legalization or whatever else is outthere so let’s start by introducing ourpanelist from the Hawaii state senate she represents District 2 Puna the BigIsland she’s chair of the Health and Human Services committee state senatorJoyce SanuVentura thank you will um like will and Bella we we are the Pioneers I thinkhere of um passing the dispensary law that finally passed the homeyes yes we’ll talk more about that yeah so so it’s really fitting that um thethree of us who have um are still here today and we would I seem to besurrounded by Representatives well rightfully so because the senate for those who have been following havealways passed the Cannabis bills and somehow have S sort of died in the house so it’s kind of fitting that the housemembers who are supporting are here because we really need to have it past the house and a Senate President wouldtell you we’ve got 23 out of 25 of the Senators who will be voting this um weneed the house to step up to the plate because it’s about time Hawaii was the first state to legalize medicalmarijuana the first state and it seems to me we’re going to be one of the last to actually um pass small possessionrecreational um hopefully this would be the year that we do it thank you thank you thank youSenor thank you Senator and on the far left we haverepresentative DEA aladi she represents District 26 which is the makiki punchbowl area and she’s the chair of the house health and homeless committeerepresentative [Applause] belat to all the conversations goinghave this afternoon thank you thank you and next to representative badi from theWest Side representing District 45 y i Makaha and he’s the chair of theAgriculture and Food Systems committee representative CedricGates [Applause] every and last but surely not least fromthe Big Island District 8 he represent present uh many areas ja halaula yaamakah Hala y woa kabay High andMahan the chairman of the important Judiciary and a Hawaiian Affairscommittee and he’s also the main introducer ofhb26 which could be a vehicle for legalization representative David tarnishello everyone thank you for beinghere now these are your Champions these are your Advocates atthe state legislature if you ask a 100 people that opinion on candidas you’ll get a 100opinions so you may not agree with what everyone says or thinks just like a lotof people didn’t agree with with the medical Candace Bill we passed in 2015 but the point is it was a startingpoint and so today we’re here to listen to what our lawmakers have to say seewhat’s on their mind and as the legislative sessionprogresses it’s going to be important that you keep in touch withthese individuals they all have emails and more importantly contact your ownlawmaker okay that’s how we’re going to get things passed and sometimes it takeslonger than normal but this is as good a year asany that we can get a legalization bill passed we’llsee and just briefly as everyone knowscannabis has been around for thousands of years thousands of years it was usedin Asia Europe in the Americas and used for recreationspiritual and medicinal for thousands of years yes it wasn’tuntil American industrialist for the sake of greed andeconomic gain they shut down the Cannabisindustry first by taxes it in the 1940s and that taxation eventually ledto the ban and it was individuals who wanted to make money in other Industries WilliamHurst for example he owned forest and made paper that competed withhemp and hemp is a better paper than tree paper because hemp isn’tyellow and you could grow more on an acre of hem than an acre of trees andthe harvesting time is quicker but he was one of those who worked with othersto kill the canvas industry Lamont Dupont LamontDupont the DuPont company and one of their products thatthey were working on nylon and what does nylon compete with hcannabis clothing and other materials then you have AndrewMelon now these are all people from the 30s and 40s Andrew melon was the Secretary of treasur under PresidentHoover and he owned the sixth largest bank and he was the primary Banker bythe way to who Dupont but remember Henry Ford he wantedto build a car out of him using him and use hemp to fuel thevehicle and that scared the hell out of a lot of these people okay it’s Againpart of why they shut it down and Harry anslinger he work forPresident Hoover he was first appointed to the Federal Bureau ofNarcotics and he by the way was Andrew melons the niece was married Andrewmelon’s niece was married to Harry anslinger so you can see how these richwealthy industrialists and government officials banded together to destroy the Canabis andmarijuana industry and it was based onlies it was based on what we call today fake news because William heard first whatelse does he known as newspapers and he put the lies and propaganda and rhetoric in hisnewspapers and Harry anslinger when he was testifying to Congress used much ofwhat was in these newspapers to testify and kill the Cannabis industry so you can see that if this hadnever done been done this world would certainly be a different placeespecially when it comes to energy and fuels but we’re heretoday to try to take this process full circle and by the way racism was also abig part of what they were saying in the 40s racism against the blacks HispanicsFilipinos in order to scare the white population just thefacts and if you even look at what what’s happening now thelaws the rules are negatively impacting people of color and this was astrategy that’s being carried on today so with these Champions to my left weare hoping that we can make some changes and put Hawaii at the Forefront ofcannabis because as a global commodityit’s in its infancy in its infancy and we can be a leader with the properlegislation and we could be the leader with the proper legislation that can Elevateeveryone we don’t want this just for the wealthy and the rich we want this forthe working class for the small Farmer for the Legacygrower so that that person who might want to do a home invasion or steal yourcar might decide he can grow some cannabis and that can be the differenceon whether people in Hawaii stay or have to moveaway it is a quality of life issue so what I want to do today is justhear their thoughts on him medical cannabis and then I’m sure the both ofthe discussion will be the legalization efforts and since he is the chairman ofthe agriculture committee I’d like to ask CRA Gates do you have anything siron on him here in Hawaii and hemp the session and how it can go forward in2018 the federal government passed the farmers act but hemp hasn’t really takenoff like many people have wanted it to but there are still many people who want to in Hawaii representative Gates thankyou for the question uh so last year I worked with uh our D morawa my colleagueon him and trying to really flush out the issues with growing the hempindustry whether it’s the testing regulations whether it was uh the inspections all of those differentpieces that the hemp Association and and those in the hemp industry came to us and and asked us to address so we passeduh act 263 which is the hemp Omnibus Bill and that includes all of therequests that were brought forth by The Advocates um that includes the thetesting lowering the testing issues and dealing with him as fiber and as all ofthe other things it can be rather than CBD which is where I thinkthe AG is going with this um cannabis bill that we have right now it’s it’slooking at it in a more uh stringent way of CBD rather thanwhat it actually is in terms of all of the different um properties it can provide for us so on the hemp side Ithink that we have to work with all of The Advocates right now because movinginto the Cannabis build HB 2600 we’re trying to include him into thebill so we need to flush out some of the concerns which U rep Taris and I metwith the hemp association with the Department of Agriculture with all of The Advocates to try to see wherethey’re coming from and we we took that back and we’re going to offer some amendments to try to create a betterbill with HP 2600 for him thank you representative and as many of you knowyou’ve heard of hemp creete and hemp creek is the possible way of buildingaffordable housing in Hawaiiand let me ask um Senator um do you think the statewould have an interest in supporting and assisting the fundingof a hemp processing plan in Hawaii because that’s a big issue on what doyou do with the hemp it’s you could grow it but what do you with it once it’s grown okay so so thank you very much forthe question but I’d like to also point out the senate had an informational briefing to days ago regarding hemp andwe had the attorney general and that’s on YouTube by the way so I want to make sure because I’m wearing hemp okay so Ido support hemp um that basically Industrial Hemp is not going to beregulated that was made sure by the Attorney General at the informationalbriefing watch it on YouTube you could see them testify to that so for thosehemp farmers who are concerned we are not regulating Industrial Hemp okay andas um representative Gates has pointed out it’s not it’s not just CBD but hempoil and the reality is if you look at the state RS we are supposed to alreadybe regulating that the quest the idea is to use the existing RS and move it intoone Authority so it’s not supposed to be any different okay so the concerns thatpeople are seeing or hearing are are are not brought out by the bill and by theway um the SB 3335 which is sort of the companion ofHB 2600 we’re going to hear it on February 13th at 9:30 at 9:00 am. in themorning at um the state capital for so look that up submit your testimonybecause we hope to be able to pass it this session and hopefully we’ll be able to flesh it out by the time um housegets to it and it’s already an sd1 so we already put in some of the concerns of the hemp farmers in there we’ve alreadyput in also um an expungement provision which wasn’t there okay so we wanted tomake sure that it is as robust as what we wanted it to be when umrepresentative carnis and I went with the AG to to Massachusetts to reallywork out the kind of cannabis build comes out regarding the hemp creekum you know we do want to help the farmers and so it’s same same thing withum with I I’m sorry theADC um Agricultural developmentor Development yes ADC yes so so over onthe Big Island we’ve already helped uh some of the farmers regarding bread fruit okay creating a processing plantand of course the more robust um the H industry becomes Hawaii will also be inthe Forefront because like everybody here we want to make sure that local farmers are protected so thank you thankyou thank you representative representative the lob would you like to add anything onhim there are other questions but I just get keepgoing great so so hemp is moving it it’s it’s viability and andwhether commercially can really make it here I think it’s still an open question so we’ll see what happens there now aswas mentioned in the year 2000 Hawaii was the first legislature to pass medical cannabisbill and that was actually my first year in the legislature but um after thatnothing happened and let me give you a little historicalfootnote Senator Chun Oakland was the only one who introduced that bill byrequest which means it wasn’t her idea someone asked her and you could see how things have changed you know the last 24years by request means it’s not my bill guys but someone asked me and I’m going to introduce it for you okayin the Senate at the midpoint that bill passed the Senate 13 to 12 it was thatclose it almost died and then ultimately um the Senatewent passed it 15 to 10 and the house supported it but it was 30- 20 with 20no votes that was the year 2000 2015 came representative sui fromMaui introduced the bill representative badi representatives and W vura both supported that bill and theywere co-introduced in 2015 and that was the medical cannabis bill and again little historicalfootnote at the end of session in 2015 the medical canvas Billdied I was the vice president at this Senate at that time and I was also chair of the public safety intergovernmentaland Military Affairs committee and after speaking with Senator Kim um who was theSenate President and the speaker Suki we attempted to resurrect the bill weweren’t able to resurrect the bill and it wasn’t a perfect bill but it was thebeginning of our medical cannabis dispensaries so Senator bot would youlike to begin with a few words on on medical cannabis and what’s happening there there sure first I’d like to thankyou for promoting me to a senate but I am a state representative and I continue to be a state representative I been arepresentative for 18 years I’m going to go into a little bit more history than what Senator did and it’s because umabout nine years ago I was not wearing reading glasses now I have to wear than to read anything and it really speaks tohow this um topic has really traveled through the legislature I want to actually go back two years before 2015when we introduced the cannabis bill because really there was two critical things that happened um two one quietthing that happened in 2013 and that’s when uh speaker Suki first assumed beingspeaker in the house one of the biggest and most critical changes we passed in 2013 and I don’t know if any of youremember of it some of you might the program used to be regulated by the Department of Public Safety we made onesmall change and we said that qualifying patients and caregivers would have to beregistered no longer by the Department of Public Safety but by the Department of Health I want to say that again wemoved it from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health[Applause] that that reflects a sea change thathappened not just within our state but Across the Nation and I think that’s one of the things that’s really pushing thatand that’s why I’m here as a health chair is that I’ve always looked at this from the perspective of health and so weknow have long known KN that there are health benefits to cannabis but we also know that there are dangerous effectsthat’s for miners there is issues that we cannot ignore as a community I willsay the second thing that happened before 2015 and this is where you are you all are involved in order for us toeven get the cannabis dispensary Bill one of the things that en jooy will remember this uh David and Cedric we’renot here yet I don’t think but one of the things that we did was we did a Statewide tour T essentially during theinterim we had a task force that engaged stakeholders from all over the communityincluding people from law enforcement from from um medicine from industry uhfrom patients you name it they were there and we took this this um um groupAC around the state and talked with folks and got input on what the dispensary bill would look like that wasreally critical because I think that speaks to to the role that the community plays in this topic I will say fastforward we were successful and I know that the dispensary bill is not perfect for everybody we did not get it right noState I want to say that again no state has gotten it right when we’ve transitioned from a purely uh individualgrow into a situation where there’s more commercially produced it’s just difficult it’s hard we have competingFederal Regulations competing state regulations and we have patients who just need it so I will say that as wemoved into this session and into what I would call maybe the third phase of this topic it really speaks to the fact thatthe house has three people here no offense Senator but really the housespent a lot of time this session looking at it from various perspectives Icontinue to only look at it from the health perspective so there are Bills moving through this legislative sessionwhere I will be holding the Department of Health accountable to doing some of the things that need to still be done onthe health and the on the patient side as the conversation continues and thisis where I will throw my um baton or cast the Baton to representative tarnisand representative Gates um I will continue to look at it from the health perspective but it’s going to be on themto really ask the questions about agriculture you know what how does this intersect with him or the judicialquestions that uh representative tarnes is looking at I will also say that um something that reflects what happened in2015 that’s different and that’s very encouraging is that we now have a executive partner who is engaged in theconversation and I’m going to leave that for maybe representative tarnes and Senator to talk about because they had really actually been engaged withattorney general so so my comment I guess is that there’s still a lot of work to be done in the in the medicalside of it one thing as this conversation continues both in the legislature and in the community about whether or not we go to adult use I willcontinue to look at it from the perspective of the and one of the things for example that I’m really concerned about that we’veseen in other states is that as States move to recreational the medical patients get left behind and we cannotforget that for me some of the most important people that we’re fighting for are those kids with epilepsy and thosekids who need the high I’m G to say it wrong but the RSO right they need the high dosage and they’re not going to beable to fall under the the thresholds that possibly are going to be held for the recreational site we you have tomaintain access to the medicine and so that’s how I contribute to this conversation and I’m really thinkingthat this is going to be a a pivotal year to have these kinds of really tough conversations and for the house it’sgoing to be happening across three different committees potentially even four because then we have to look at what the the physical aspects of of ofCanabis thank you Senator thankyou you have a short question with a probably just a short answer umregarding medical cannabis recently a um Co-op a collective of Cooperative on theNorth Shore was raided by the feds and they were shut down and they they wereproviding medicine to from what I know 985 patients at thattime do any of you um representative Senators feel that there might be aplace for collectives or cooperatives like this in the future in the medical cannabisprogram I can take it sure go ahead okay so I recall in the bill that we wrotefor the dispensaries that we did in fact have language about cooperatives and collectives but when I went back andlooked at the medical cannabis dispensary law now that language is no longer there so what I’m thinking wasthat it was in the Preamble and so one of the conversations we’ve been having is that yes in otherstates Co and collectives are recognized and we should recognize them if they have the legal standing to berecognized I think one of the things that we have to we have to work with is the Department of Health sometimesconstricts their Authority and sometimes expands their Authority depending on their own theirown thinking about what’s good for the community so an example of that is forand this is a little bit far field but I’m telling you this because I want you to understand how we need to work with the Department of Health um there’s alaw currently being uh there’s a bill currently being Advanced that’s going to demand the Department of Health to writerules on pre-road cannabis products that the legislature last yearapproved the Department of Health has been stalling on that and it’s because of their I believe it’s their uh biasagainst really cigarettes and we know that there’s a problem with smoking we know that smoking is one way to ingestthe medicine but it’s not the only way and it’s might not be the best way so I think one of the things that we have to do is like where we see these instanceswhere the uh Department of Health may not be fulfilling its obligations we need to write back into the law thosethings that need to be there but I will say honestly right now when I look through this and Senator maybe you can correct me I don’t think there’sactually language for the Department of Health to regulate collectives or cooperatives even though it was theintent of the legislature in 2015 to permit those things and so that’s why weare in the bind that we’re in currently okay so yeah so so thank you about thatum those of you who have followed my legislation know know that I’ve introduced soon soon after we passedthis a bill specifically to allow for co-ops that didn’t go very far okay soone of the things one of the bills in fact that’s that’s this session that was carried over from last session but itreally shows the progress we have done since 2015 is to remove the caregiverdeadline okay which we really I’ve been chomping at a bit to try to get thatremoved so there’s two bills up this session one just delays it for another two years the other one which issurprisingly Department of Health introduced to actually eliminate thecaregiver deadline because it has been shown the past eight years that caregivers is not the pathway to elicitto elicit drugs that that the um attorney general was concerned about andum representative bad myself and former Senator espo knows that at time when wewere crafting or trying to get past the dispensary Bill back in2015 uh it was like hitting ourselves we kept battling with theattorney general I mean that’s why it was it’s so restrictive now we we needed to have some kind of dispensary billpassed and the only way we could get it past the attorney general which weneeded to because otherwise the governor would have vetoed it like my civil assetforfeiture Bill two years later he vetoed even so so we needed to get theAG on our side so that’s but what some of the progress that’s the reason why wehave the S SP 3335 the HB 2600 to take it out of the Department of Health intoits own cannabis Authority okay because we have we know one Department of Healthwell meaning as they are they have a bias two that they have had long-termvacancies for very long time so they really as anybody in the dispensary umhemp industry in the like well H is at uh knows that we are so far behind withtesting and just keeping up with the signs because we don’t have enough staff but hopefully that’s it but I I do wantto say that there has been progress when I walked around there in the um in theExpo I noticed that seeds are for sale now and that was one who like billsright because when we kept [Applause] going cuss offic goes we have to do adon’t ask don’t tell because the AG kept refusing to sell to have people sellseeds so how are people going to grow without being able to legitimately buy seeds right so I’m glad that it’sfinally then the other thing that I’m really glad that um even Governor EIGsigned into lot I see that’s out there um there isn’t no artifici of tobacco use anymore is my drug paraphernaliabill that we decriminalize so we [Applause]are yes it’s not perfect but we’reprogressing um my Co-op bill was because hopefully it’ll pass but part of that weneed to get rid of the caregiver deadline because it doesn’t make sense to have a caregiver deadline and haveco-ops right thank you thank you Senator there you want a caregiver deadline ohcaregivers will not be allowed after the December 31 2024 for growing forpatients that’s right that’s a care that is that is the caregiver deadline I’vebeen fighting for for many years so there are two bills one just delays it the other one gets rid gets rid of it Altogether so even if the HB 2600 or H um SB 3335 doesn’t pass hopefully this onebill that gets rid of the caregiver deadline passes thank you thank thankyou Senator and again depending on what happens this year with the legalization efforts that may or may not be relevantbut it’s always good to have caregivers now in in2019 the legislature passed HB 1383 and that was the decriminalizationBill and three of our panelists representative tarnes representative Gates and then representative Sanu vurawere co-introduced of that legislation and that was point2019 and in 2023 last year the Senate did pass a legalization bill um andSenator San buur was one of the co- introducers for that but unfortunatelythe bill stalled in the house which brings us totoday and uh in my opinion this year is as good as any year where we might havea chance of getting something p i I do believe that the polls show that themajority of the residents of Hoy support some type of legalization built with theproper protections for our children and others uh but there is stilla an amount of opposition from lawenforcement from conservatives and from proba people whohave never tried campus so with that we have as you heard twobills Senate Bill 3335 in play and HB2600 and the primary introducer of that bill is representative Davidtares and i’ want you start this discussion on legalizationthere’s a lot of um interest in this room on that thank you thank you Senator my name is David tares uh I served inthe state house from 1994 to 1998 and was very much involved inefforts back then to legalize Industrial Hemp medical cannabis as well aslegalizing adult use of cannabis so I’ve been at this about 30 years as electedofficial uh there has certainly been a change in public attitude uh over those30 years uh and uh and I think it’s very important that we address this in acomprehensive way last year Senate Bill 669 came over to the house and it passed22 to3 out of the Senate so there’s obviously very strong support but the bill had a lot of unanswered uh policyareas that basically left it up to rul making of the authority to be able to develop that and in the house there wasgreat skepticism about that they wanted to be able to address these issues in statute and there there was a sense ofresponsibility we had to address this issue we didn’t want to leave it up to uh you know someone who is not electedto come up with these various rules and uh policies that were very importantso we I committed at the time uh that rather than hear Senate Bill 669 and tryto modify it to address all these issues that I would work work over the interim uh to uh look at Best Practices in otherstates and try to figure out what would be the best way for us to address all these issues in a more comprehensivebill in uh the legislature when the Attorney General was being interviewed for uhconfirmation in the in the Senate uh senators and I think Senator s buenVentura could tell you the story of what actually happened in the hearing but ituh suffice it to say that the Attorney General committ to uh taking the lead on behalf of the administration to do thework to do the research to come up with best practices from other states and make a recommendation as to what wouldbe the best Bill if the legislature decided to move forward to legalize adult use of cannabis what would be thebest way to do it she was very clear she said I’m not recommending that you could do it but if you were to do itrecognizing the change in political attitude public attitude here’s what we would recommend so so uh the Senate saidgood we’re going to hold you to it so uh over the interim after last session I onbehalf of the house worked with the attorney general and with senators kleand Senator San bu bentura also with the Department of Health uh anduh we looked at all different places around the country what was working well what wasn’t working well how do we dothis I pulled the members of the House saying what are the priorities what are the things should be in this bill sothere was a draft bill that the the Attorney General after all this work and we traveled together to Massachusetts tolook at their model over there we looked at other states as well the initial bill that was introduced and and it wasmodified after input from a variety of stakeholders I I in my opinion the billthat I introduced which is the one that was produced by the attorney general and submitted to the House and Senate inmany ways the bill accomplishes the goals that uh I had moving into this whole discussion I wanted to transitionto a more horizontal business model as opposed to having it be only verticallyintegrated from production to processing to retail distribution I wanted it to bemore horizontal so there’s more opportunity for small businesses in Hawaii to take part in this newindustry and I was also very pleased that there was a prioritization for disadvantaged communities and people whohave been disproportionately affected negatively by the War on[Applause] Drugs we need and there’s a variety ofdifferent ways that that’s done in the bill I was also pleased about the emphasis upon public education especially for minors uh I was pleasedabout the prioritization of medical use patients so that they are not overrun bythe adult use Market that’s these are very important I appreciated that the Billalso emphasized social Equity applicants to the new adult youth Market this isanother way that we can make up for the the trouble that was caused by the Waron Drugs is those who were disproportionately affected how can they actually enter themarket and that includes Legacy Growers it includes those who have a record because they had been uh incarceratedmany for cannabis related offenses and so that’s a a number of different waysto assist them whether through business advice through uh Equity actual cash toassist and try to get these folks up and running how to do all the paperwork how to run a business where you’re payingtaxes instead of running a business where you’re just trying to hide how to how to do business so you’re not just uhum operating in in the unregulated market but how do you operate in the regulated market we need to figure outhow to attract the Legacy Growers into the regulated market and so that’s why Ithink it was very important for for us to have a a a robust Authority uh that prioritizes the inclusion of theseLegacy Growers and and also assist those who had a negative impact from the Waron Drugs in the past um I think also that uh um the I’m very pleased to seethat the medical cannabis program continues to get the attention it deserves uh and the expansion of thelicenses uh to include craft cannabis and processors are very important stepsI think think those are those are important things for us to be looking at I also uh appreciate that the proposalthat the authority would have the ability to create additional licenses for consumption louies and specialevents that would allow the industry to expand once it’s [Applause]operation I think it’s important that we understand that there’s a lot of concernthat if we were to legalize adult use of cannabis there would be an increase in youth in use by youth data from fromother states has shown that’s not the case but it’s still a very serious concern and there’s uh uh manyrepresentatives that are uh emphasizing that as a reason for opposing the uh thebill itself so I believe that a strong educational campaign is necessary but ithas to include I believe uh programs where we are reinvesting into thosecommunities that have been negatively affected by the War on Drugs to assistin standing up more programs for youth activities and opportunities for makerspaces the reason why the youth and kids would want to try to access cannabisproducts is because they aren’t as occupied to do other things that wereally need to provide them opportunity to be occupied with things that are exciting are motivating gives them somesense of Hope in their own future I think it’s important that we have reinvestment of some of these revenuescoming from this industry into those communities specifically for Community programs and for for the Youth I havemany suggestions about the draft bill as it was introduced my was my name is on it as a uh first primary introducer manyothers signed on to the bill and I appreciate that they did that but there needs to be some changes to the bill Ithink it that we need to strengthen the expungement uh components of the bill and expungement is so important that Idon’t want to leave it up to just this bill and I just want to emphasize that it expungement is so important that weshouldn’t leave it up to just this bill the comprehensive legalization bill so we have a number of other measuresnumber of other bills that we’re moving forward in fact we’ve got a hearing on several of them next Tuesday where we’retrying to in have the state in establish a state initiated process to expungerecords of those who have had arrests or convictions pursuant to 2 HRS 712-1145that was the the bill we passed some years ago to decriminalize small amounts of cannabis three grams or less thereare people with records that are no longer really onethat would ever happen again because we’ve decriminalized that small amount so we need to be able to expunge thoserecords it’s not well set up in the state to do expungement it’s a complicated process we don’t have gooddata sets to allow us to do that and so we need to improve that and so we have a bill just to focus on that we haveanother bill that actually is much broader it’s called a clean slate Bill where we’re expanding eligibility andautomating expungement of a variety of different convictions uh um if certaincriteria are met so we need to move forward on improving the state’s means of doing expungement across the board Ialso want to emphasize that I’m not putting all my eggs in one basket with just this one legalization uh Bill uh HB2600 but I also am we’ve introduced another bill uh HB1596 that uh exempts drug paraphernalia for cannabis from penalties and it makespossession of less than an ounce of cannabis a non- jailable violationpunishable only by a fine of $25 this is expanding thedecriminalization law that we have on the books which is just three grand and we’re expanding it up to an ounce soanything less than an ounce would be decriminalized so so I’m trying to move forward on a variety of differentmeasures we’re trying to destigmatize cannabis but I got to tell you while theSenate has 22 votes that are up at least as of last time 203 23 well 2023 the house is not the same out of 51 I have barely a majority that wouldsupport this the house tends to be more socially conservative I mean I’m a gray-hairedguy but there are young members of the House much younger than I who areopposed to it and they have concerns they have concerns about are we going to see an increase in impaired driving arewe going to see an increase in use by our youth the prosecuting attorney of cingCounty Honolulu is adamantly opposed to this and he’s organizing major meetingsand and using his own resources and City resources to spread his Gospel ofprohibition and he’s bringing in this group Sam smart approaches for marijuana which is really a prohibitionist groupand and I think it’s really not accurate for the in terms of the information thatthey and the present and the conclusions that they present as fact aren’t actually accurate so I would encourageall of us myself included being engaged in these conversations speakprofessionally use data and be able to bring arguments to the table thatsupport legalization of adult use of cannabis I think we really need to engage in a professional way focus onthe policy attack inaccuracies and misinformation don’t attack people itdoesn’t help be demonizedit doesn’t help if we demonize those who disagree with this if it’s okay to disagree but let’s not be disagreeablebut we need to focus on the facts and so I would urge all of you and I know there’s a number of folks out there fromdifferent organizations that have been very outspoken about it I acknowledge that from the ACLU to the harm reductionCenter to uh numerous groups uh marijuana policy project um leap the lawenforcements against prohibition there’s a number of of groups and individual professionals that have spoken up therehave been articles in the newspaper columns uh in the paper where they’re presenting the facts and I think that’swhat I think we all need to encourage that we be reasonable about this debateand move forward we have a challenge I I I like I say we barely have the majorityto move it out of the house but we have four committees to which this bill is referred agriculture Judiciary consumerprotection and commerce and finance in my mind I mean I I closely work with Cher vot because it is a health issue aswell because we are proposing in this new cannabis Authority that we this cannabisAuthority would regulate all things cannabis and so it does include medicalcannabis it it does include aspects of him it doesinclude uh um adult use of cannabis notice I don’t call it recreational useI call it adult use because there are many those who would have access to thiswho don’t want to get their medical cannabis card but they use it formedication so so rather than calling it just recreational I specifically call it adult use of cannabis and this is for21y old older yeah and so that’s where we have to focus let’s be reasonable I ask all ofyou to be engaged come to these meetings show up at at the prosecuting attorney’smeeting I mean he’s got it coming up uh this next week and uh I would urge you to show up and and don’t yell at thembut just tell them that here’s the facts that you know we we we don’t agree withyou on these things and here’s what you need to pay attention to see that it’s at uh February 7th at 1 pm at MissionMemorial Auditorium February 7th 1 pm. Mission Memorial he’s trying to framethis as saying listen if we pass this it’ll change the character of Hawaii foreversays get the message out that legalizing marijuana will be bad for our Ki and our people I mean it’s right out of thescare tactics of years ago and and and I said to to prosecuting attorney Al Isaid I I disagree with you but I will remain engaged with you in a conversation so we can go forward tomeet the needs of the state the people of the state really would like us to address this issue so let’s use facts toaddress this issue let’s be responsible as policy makers and let’s move forwardto do what’s best for the state of Hawaii so that’s my Approach thankyou now if I may ask a uh a directquestion and the answer could be yes no or undecided uh would the lawmakers heresupport uh homegrown cannibis well we are in thebill it’s in in the bill it does allow for individuals to be a grow at home sono I understand that but would you support it because as you said I just said I I support the bill I support thatcomponent of the bill that includes the ability for individuals to grow cannabis at home for personal consumptionexcellent [Applause] excellent well and and there’s also acomponent of the bill to allow uh caregivers to be able to grow forindividuals and we passed out the bill just last week I think which uh umrepealed the uh Sunset date that Senator sanua had referred to that is on thebooks uh that says that caregivers cannot grow after a certain date so we just passed a bill out of JudiciaryCommittee that repealed that Sunset datewe’ll have some Q&A but let me just uh the federal government is looking at rescheduling cannabis right becauseright now schedule one with heroin and cocaine um could I guess that thelegislature may pass a resolution in support of those efforts of reschedulingif you haven’t already yeah we we pass the resolutionto be scheduled right right I mean but so I guess the answer is yes it’s coming yes very good okay now yeah at thisstage i’ like to give each lawmaker a few minutes to say anything they want about cannabis that has either beenbrought up or not brought up and then following that we’ll have some Q&A um you want to start representivethe line sure I’ll just start on what you folks left off of I think the movement at the national level There isclose watching because if there is a descheduling and depending on what they deschedule to it has implications forthe states that have medical programs and that’s one of the things that’s really concerning to me because if it’sdescheduled that means there’s now federal regulations that are going to be in conflict with State Medicalregulations and so it just introduces a whole another uh can of worms and so that’s why I think some of this uhshould and needs to be done more expeditiously both at State levels and at at the national levels and whateverhappens at the national levels I hope that the uh our legislative leaders there are looking at how they’re goingto protect the states with medical programs because they can themselves carve into the U uniform ControlledSubstances Act carve outs for medical States but I don’t know if they’re watching that and so that’s and that’ssomething that we have no control over we we State legisl don’t have control over so so that’s what’s driving some ofthis conversation happening at all levels thank you representativeGates thank you for uh putting this oh I hello all right uh so I think we’ve beenhaving great conversations about what the future looks like for cannabis umjust a little background on me I’m born and raise in Makaha so I know therealities that exist out there and it feels sometimes that the legislatureturns a blind eye to the realities that exist and for me that’s been my biggest point of of pushing cannabis is theissues that exist are are already there whether it’s the CBD guy selling at a akiosk in Wy key or all of these other opportunities people are taking advantage of selling these type ofproducts to youth even and also to our broad Community without proper testingregulations and oversight that puts the end consumer at risk and for me that’swhere we are needing to lead the conversation it’s at the end of the day the consumer will have the best productwill’ll probably have the best price points we’ll be able to access it safely and not have to go to a guy on thestreet that then will offer you all the other drugs that exist out there and that’s the reality that I know exists sotrying to shape that narrative around how do we actually just put somethingtogether that will create a win-win situation for the people who are concerned whether it’s about the kidsaccess or drunk dri or uh driving under influence all of those things can beaddressed through regulations and because we don’t have any real regulations on uh adult use cannabisthis Market continues to grow and also could be definitely a contributingfactor to the crime that is occurring in our community you have people who are are selling drugs not for medicine butfor profits and those guys are also investing in other things that are are happening in the community as well so soI also believe that with the risk of federal regulations coming down beforethe state puts state regulations and a framework in place that we’re doing a disservice to our population here asresidents to be able to access the the market to be able to be entrepreneurs to be able to create wealth for themselvesgiven that we have the highest cost of living we need other economic opportunities and you hear from a lot ofpeople who have the expertise in can moving to Colorado moving to all ofthese Oregon States all of these other legalization to apply their skills to get paid and then they’re wanting to behere in Hawaii but they aren’t able to to to create a job for themselves and create a life for their family and Ithink that’s one of the big issues that I think we can address through proper regulation I do want to just express mygratitude to all of the folks I’m sitting here with because they are um definitely Paving the way and reparishas definitely kept me engaged in the conversations with the AG and all the other things that’s been happening solike I said trying to my last point I’ll leave it off on is that rep has touchedon this we as advocates and as people who have interest in this need tomobilize seriously it’s it’s you can’t just say you support it and and you knowput a a Facebook post up seeing you support you got to show up and show outand really make your voices heard because also those people that are on the fence that our colleagues who aremore on the conservative side or have conservative districts if they’re not hearing your voice hearing the realitiesthat are taking place in the community they will never know and they won’t havethat perspective that I think needs to be brought to the conversation last point I’ll make is that it’s a medicinaluh product that can really help address depression anxiety all of the thingsthat community members struggle with because it’s a hard living in Hawaii and I I I recognize that so I just amappreciative of all of the work that’s being done here all The Advocates that showed up today and thank you for having[Applause] me Senator Adventurer Aloha so Irepresent Puna and those of you who know Puna a number of my constituents have been harmed by the war of drugs and sothat’s the reason I have been in the Forefront since ever since I’ve been elected into trying to get umlegalization to and I’d like to also point out a couple of things one isrepresentative tarnes is correct when I question the Attorney General during hernomination and her answer made the front page that she would work with us okay tohelp craft a bill there was a lot of pressure on her because of that frontpage article that quoted her which means that’s the reason why we have this adultyouth bill the way it’s drafted it is super prow enforcement compared to whatit could have been so there’s a lot of pressure on the governor even though he campaigned for dual use and there’s alot of pressure on lawmakers this is an election yearso so what I’m saying is what represent tius is saying is we you need to showand the same thing with representative Gates you need to show you need to be able to let your voices be heard becauseotherwise although the Senate you know voted 23 to 25 in favor of adult yous itmay not be there because of the mounting pressure from all of this okay so please be there second thing I’d like to pointout is the federal government I mean when I started seeing like forbs magazine actually talking aboutrescheduling to schedule three we’re starting to think about big farmercoming in right and that’s the reason why we really need to have an adult usebecause even though we do want it to be medicinal if big farma comes in you’regoing to be there’s going to be huge restrictions on the medicinal use of itand all of the medicinal regulations we put in is going to go out the door infavor of the FDA so that’s one of the reasons even if you’re only Pro medicineonly that we need to push for adult youth because if and I know I see a lotof people shaking their heads but and okay well you folks you folks knowyou folks know what happened with the FDA you folks know what happens with um big Pharma so that’s what I’m concernedabout that’s why we’re using um we’re pushing for ad use I don’t know whether that’s going to happen this year okaybut um that those are the things but the good thing about I hate to say about fed RS is that hopefully the Restriction umthat we’ve been pushing for that never seems to pass the state legislator that prevents employers from discriminatingagainst those who use it for medicinal purposes if it becomes schedule three they not going to be able to do thatbecause they’re going to admit to that so you know it’s good and bad but we doneed to have some um a dual use system in place so aloha and and please haveyour voices be heard thank you Senator representative fundamentally I thinkthis is a consumer protection bill it’s a going to allow consumers to be able to purchase something that they can dependon as being the quality product that they’re paying for that doesn’t have any contaminants in it it’s actually got thepotency that they are expecting to purchase uh and and and I think that’sreally fundamentally what we’re after here and I really do want to make sure that we have opportunities for localsmall businesses to be able to participate in this new industry and that it doesn’t get taken over by verywealthy uh you know uh companies well-funded companies that are based onthe continent coming in and sort of taking over everything I mean it doesn’t make any sense I want to allow for craftGrowers I appreciate that you don’t have to yell it’s okay I appreciate Iappreciate that this is a I know you really want to speak I understand thatyou believe it’s already here but it’s it’s okay you don’t have to interrupt and just say this is a so my my finalpoint is I want to acknowledge those who are speaking up who are uh organizationsthat are trying to inject really good wellth thought out arguments here uhthat includes the marijuana policy project it includes the law enforcement Action Partnership doctors for cannabisregulation the American civil liberties Union uh uh drug policy forum and thelast prisoner project these are organizations that are stepping up and really putting out their statements thatare based on fact to try to get through a lot of the misinformation thatopponents are bringing forward and I urge all of you to learn the facts and use them in your arguments andparticipate in the process thank you very much now for our panelist are you okaywith a 10 minutes or so of Q&A if you’d like to hear from what thepublic has to say so uh okay why don’t let’s do this in acivilized manner please why don’t we start if you could stand up and and say your questions sirhello um Mahalo for your positive words about protecting the medical program andsupporting local farmers I do appreciate that I am a farmer myself on and I am aan active Community member in the farming community on kaai and um I justhad some thoughts and some questions about how how we could do this right andmain thing like I’ve seen a lot of limitations on on and all of these billsthat are being introduced there are limitations on us the farmers being able to grow food and medicine for our owncommunity and we don’t need brick and mortar we don’t need a retail is there aspecific question where okay so specific question okay the caregiver Sun said I appreciate that you’re trying to removethat but we need to allow caregivers to caregive for more than just one otherpatient right if you if if a person cannot feedthemselves and cook for themselves it would be like having a private Chef cook for that person only and nobody else andand if we if we want to talk about farmers and people who actually have the ability and the space and the land andthe Privacy to do it we need to allow them to do it without these limitations on oh only so many plants or only somany patients um there needs to be I understand there needs to be limitations on residential Zone properties we cannothave huge you know grow operations in residential areas but let Farmers Farmon adland please add on properties no no limitations please have exemptions sothat farmers can farm and farmers can Farm together because farming alone is so depressive and it’s it’s so difficultno farmer should be farming alone and and if you really truly support Farmers let us Farm together because many handsmake life work and and Hawaii is built on on agriculture before before beforethe plantations even thank you appreciate those comments so again I appreciate the comments remember youcould reach out to any of these members through their email and I’ll give you a little secret reps capital. y.gov orsend at capital. y.gov goes to every representative and goes to every Senatorokay can we please have can we please have the taxes from this and also from tourism subsidize healthcare for us okaymany of these are part of the the the bill making and that’s going to be a great opportunity so go with this ladyhere then we’ll go over here to Jason go ahead ma’am emess yes question pleasemyself please I not only want to ask question ice myself so that thehonorable Representatives The Honorable senator from my district in Puna canover understand who we are my name is empress Jacob I’m a gun or veteran I’malso owner of bomb old bom OG 360 LLCwhich is really bom of Gilead cannabis health and wellness Ministry and you already know because of the laws I can’tcall my business a canidates business but I am as I said a gja war veteranwhich are the people who are in adversely impacted by your War on Drugscalled Green Harvest now fast going into your legislation right now ummy comment is that all cannabis legislation is grounded and founded onstructural and systemic racism therefore this is why all the 40 what is it 40States now that are legal and 28 are medical this is why you’re having a hardtime figuring things out but for the state of Hawaii specific can any of youexplain to me why it is that people of African descent are1.3% of the population here in Hawaii but yet compared towhites in the state of Hawaii because they don’t have the the the statisticsfor Pacific Islanders being arrested for cannabis possession but whatAfrican-Americans in Hawaii and by the way ask for facts this is a ACLUresearch question please okay I’m coming to the question question would you permit me honorable as I sat here forlike H 40 minutes listening to me and you’re asking for Solutions and you asking me to be civil what you’re doingthere is not that you’re badgering me with all due respect I’m not badgering you there’s a time limit yes there isbut I believe what I’m saying here there are many people in here that will benefit from hearing it this is aneducational forum and permit me does anyone have any objections to hearing what I have to say to The Honorablemembers of this legislative body I don’t have an objection but they’re already addressing communities that have beenimpacted so it’s not that they’re ignoring oh excuse me have you identified the communities with themthat are impacted because this is precisely where I okay if I may take control of the empress do you have aquestion for our panelist can you ask them the question please Empress in yourproposed legislation right how do you plan onenforcing your leg your current legislation specifically for adult useuh that conflict with the cultural and spiritual practices of individuals andcommunities like myself because the current laws that you have is those arethe laws that currently criminalize and marginalize people like us forpracticing our rasar way of life good questionnext question is wait what one question at a time please because we have a room full of people who have questionsrespect you are the moderat thank you thank allow to ask you one more question pleas no right now one question pleaseand you’ve already asked it do we have anyone that would like to answer the Law Enforcement issue and the the biases andthe crap that’s happen in the is about are are there restrictions going to arethere going to be restrictions on religious use I think is what I’m understanding you’re saying cultural usereligious use of cannabis well that that’s so uh I don’tthink I don’t think that the bill contemplates any specifics related toreligious use or cultural use uh and but I will certainly go back and look atthe so what what the senator wants me to emphasize is something I did bring upearlier is that those communities that have been disproportionately negatively affected by the drug warwhich you pointed out rightfully so people of color that uh those communities and those individuals wouldactually have programs that would first expunge their records if they had oneand then secondly would help support them if they choose to get involved in the industry Itself by uh different uhbusiness support programs that would be supported by this Canabis Authority so Iagree we have to make up for the terrible things that drug war has caused in our community I absolutely agreethank you representative and again I was of the essence so please understand we want to try to get as many questions inbefore these individuals have to leave uh and one question per person please Jason okay hi guys H I’m glad you’rehere thank you for being here it’s very hard to hear but oneop my question is pretty simple um we’re looking atexpunging the caregiver stuff this year but there’s still the Five Card limit site that’s coming back in it’s put inthis year that would completely wipe out most cooperatives that are operating more than five people as you know a lotof our large cooperatives like par almost a thousand we’re providing a service to try to help people becompassionate provide the medicine test the medicine do all these things you know but we’re trying to figure out you know how to move forward and we’ve alsointroduced a bill s SP 2619 which um is a new medical bill that if we can’t getany dual use action going on there’s some way we can get these things in place so at least for projecting themedical community and moving in a positive way forward as we’re looking into what you guys would consider dualuse so a couple little party anyone want to take thatone um yeah we we we didn’t have that same bill that you referred to in the house so I was just asking Senator torefer to right yeah I mean and um chain dropped it in as written by the lrvbasically yeah no no no I I I the one of the concerns that we have inthe legislature is one we want to make sure that whatever it is we pass doesnot get VTO and I’m like the queen of veto bills okay I mean ever since I gotinto office um to me my the big bills I had that make the front page ends upgetting beetled like my civil asset forfeiture bill you know got gets beetled by the governor my first bill tohelp domestic violence victims got be told by the governor so one of the things we we I mean it sounds like we’rebeing difficult but we are really concerned that whatever it is we passednot get VTO because we want the good stuff to go through okay and we want to really fix like we want to make surethat caregiver deadline dies okay we really and you know and Jason you knowwhen you’ve been in my in in my um okay I I’ve also increased the number oflicenses okay and I know that there is a limit and that’s because we’re concerned that we want we don’t want the daa toshut down what it is that we have already started so yesso we to help up you know my community mycommunity my community okay we want to help make keep question easy we going toget past this car limit five things sure push this out sunrise or we going to start enforcing this this going to be a big issue as brought up right right youwant to redo the medical program right we we tried to fix it last sessionremember it died in conference because the house did not put in conference okayso we we we need to work with each other okay so even if the Senate passes itthrough and close the ball to the house the house got to pick up the ball okay and and the governor cannot veto it sothat that’s the problem maybe it’s a good question for represent a program we just reallytrying to understand the Better Way Forward on this cards medical cards likeeverything so so uh Senator representative Taris mentionedthat he had just passed a bill that would repeal the sent dat and I believe that’s House Bill 2443 and I’m the nextcommittee up so we’re going to take it up but it’s a conversation that’s going to happenuh I haven’t withed the bill yet so we have our second lateral our firstlateral deadline is in two weeks so I I haven’t posted it a notice yet butcertainly that bill will be noticed in my in my okay everybody listen up nownow today we’re not going to create bills to tell you what’s going to pass or not they’re going to do their best towork with everybody they’re going to do their best to work with with everybody some people will be happy some peoplewill not be but these are your Champions whether you agree with me or not so with that I’ll let this this lady here andthen this gentleman with a beard in the front my nameisia I understand I’m mainlander so please understand I’m tting very lightly as someone who has been a part of therule making process but also the technical assistance program focusing heavily on restorative justice socialequality and operating and legal space for the last decate um so it’s really important I appreciate what you guys said also I understandeveryone’s frustrated I haven’t seen any of these situations go down without everyone being angry it happens I agreewith the respect thing um but making sure when we look at Social Equity programs a lot of those that I work withyou have these robust rules right a social Equity applicant used to own x amount of the license and things likethat but there’s no forethought into how you protect them once those licenses are issued how do you guys intend to protectnot only your social Equity applicants to prevent things like tokenism and saying someone qualifies I as a richperson or a corporation are going to come in and take over what you’ve gotten because I’m using as my total Flagshipfor my application but also to make sure protecting the native Alliance you guys have that which is really important aswell would like to say rest in peace Reverend Wally Bachman who started allof this suing attorney general price in 1976 according to now expired ProfessorPia of geography University of Hawaii I is 9% African Aman thank yousir was that your comment or question so we don’t have to come back to bman so did anyone want to addressthe the woman’s I absolutely agree with you I mean we need to make sure that there isn’t this tokenism where someoneis just being used to be able as a cover uh for you know a continental basedInvestment Banking firm that’s coming into just try to to do it so we have tomake sure it’s it’s authentic uh and and how we go about doing that I’d beinterested in your suggestions so please let me know afterward you know please send me an email and let me know whatyou think from your experience and I could maybe the senator might want to add on to it um what I’d like to pointout is when we passed the dispensary Bill way back in 2015 that was our concern too okay andthe reality was this despite having panels to go look at each of the licensapplications you know what what when it ended up happening was I remember on the big island when I wanted to go check outthese dispensary licenses and at least one of them um I felt was aCen so umpe so sookay[Music] every can I think we get somewhere youknow okay um Miley do you have a yesoh yeah thank you um so I have some someconcerns about the um enforcement of this bill we see a lot of funding forHPD but one of my bigger concerns is with um the driving and the testing forimpairment um because we have so many people who use cannabis medicallythey’re going to metabolize KC differently so somebody can completelynot be impaired but still have over the five and having all of this cost tostart this program to train them to have HPD doing this it’s going to beincredibly expensive and I saw your comments so I would like to hear from you Taris about that yeah I I agree thatthe proposed uh um you know nanogram level is not scientifically based uhpeople can have presence of THC in their system but they they are not impaired and I think we really to focus onimpaired driving and this is and it’s not just impairment from Cannabis we have to address this issue across theboard what is causing impaired driving that is causing these accidents and the large part is people who are looking attheir phone texting on their phone they’re distracted and and you know Iappreciate everyone’s strong opinions about this we’re just we’re regular people doing our job trying to do ourbest for the people of Hawaii so we’re tryingwe’re trying excuse me sir on everybody so I’m trying I agree with you that weneed to make sure that we have a good scientifically based effort to addressthe PA drive and the what’s in the bill right now is not it’s it’s not something thatI accept we have to work on that thank you represent okay two more questions and then if if they’re here after wordsto speak with you privately um please do uh gentleman with the beer there one question please yeah mynameer question concerning our current medical program I would be the firstsay he completely F just one outsideentities coming in from the testing to over regulating we can’t even get an email asa patient letting us know that microbial and molding yeast are no longer required for dispensaries but you can’t EMA usyou want to have an email from the Department of Health the farm on Instagram like it’s really confusing asa patient here in the state to understand that our concerns are being met to protect this program people thatbelong to it and the community here when with lat program has failed and nobodywants to do anything about it talk about legal use and get rid of the people that actually providing access to Affordablemedications through through cooperatives and caregiver programs so I think that should be the main pointof discussion is how do we correct already mogr so it doesn’t continue happen over over like we’ve seen in thismost gross State let me let me say that real quickly that the medical cannabisprogram is run by the executive branch of government it’s not run by these people these people make the policy theexecutive carries it out and just like anything else if you’ve got an executiveand and or appointees and individuals who understand and are behindyou you can possibly get better results and a better response but the executivebranch and Governor green is the man you should be talking to in terms of how thedepartment well like I I share your frustration about the currentprogram I could respond I could has an respond saying I share yourfrustration with the current program it’s not been something that the Judiciary Committee has been involved with in the past it’s the first timethat the Judiciary committee’s been part of it I expressed serious problem that Ihad with the Department of Health not prating rules to implement what the legislature has passed andI so I agree with you I share your frustration I’m trying to fix it and ifhb26 and or 3335 as spe passes thisAuthority and control board is going to be in charge of things so there is aneffort to change the infrastructure within government that’s going tooperate and run this and just remember when this came in when I was in andothers a lot of people didn’t know a lot about cannabis let alone lawmakers so itis a learning curve for many of them but I and these individuals up here understand what you’re saying yeahdecisions well that’s why we have a legislative process and build so so right here will be our last question andthen um I’m sorry but we do have to end this iate you my nameis own oper my question for legalization billthat being presented um it is for home gr but it’s limiting home curent thecurrent legalization limits number of PL for patient never issue why are litingit that’s why I want to know the reason behind limiting that and even limiting it for licenses for household too thatwell I think just just so everyone understands the proposal just so everyoneunderstands I I’m going to respond to that just so everyone understands the proposal that is that I introduced inthe house was what was recommended by the Attorney General as what their office felt was what they could defendyou know that they recommend it’s not everything I want either and I would like to amend it as we consider this uhthe Senate already scheduled a hearing on it I would urge all of you to make specific recommendations testify andmake specific recommendations on that particular issue for hom growing operations what kind of limits if anyshould there be and that’s the opportunity for us to modify the billthere’s going to be a h a senate draft one sounds like that was going to bereleased so that you could read it and then testify onthat so uh I I didn’t understand what you just said sir so I’m just respondingto your questiontestify well say the Attorney General thought this was the best idea we don’t have to agree with him yeah list saideveryone it’s a starting point for discussion okay it’s not gonna passprobably what are we G do about the corruption the corate corrup we’re going to have you run for office my friend andend it all I take exception to your sir sir sirsir I take exception to your accusation that I am corrupt cuz I’m not corruptI’m just a regular guy try okay everyone this is getting alittle loud now let’s give these people a hand for coming here thank you verymuch and if you want to try to talk again please do thank yourepresentatives andsenator