Bill Text: HI SR214 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The Auditor To Conduct A Study On The Relationship Between The Current Prices Of And Access To Medical Cannabis And The Volume Of Illicit Cannabis Sales In The State.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Passed) 2022-06-06 - Certified copies of resolutions sent, 06/06/22. [SR214 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2022-SR214-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	214
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the auditor to conduct a study on the relationship between THE current prices OF and access to medical cannabis and the volume of illicit cannabis sales in the state.

 

 

     WHEREAS, Act 241, Session Laws of 2015 (Act 241), established a regulated statewide medical cannabis dispensary system to ensure that patients have safe and legal access to medical cannabis; and

 

     WHEREAS, since the passage of Act 241, medical cannabis dispensaries licensed under the State's dispensary law have averaged only a thirty-one percent market share of the State's registered medical cannabis patients; and

 

     WHEREAS, the remaining sixty-nine percent of registered medical cannabis patients, equating to more than twenty thousand patients, purchase medical cannabis from the illicit market or from cannabis grown by themselves or their caregiver; and

 

     WHEREAS, from 2018 to 2021, 13,851 people registered as new medical marijuana patients, yet only 3,675, or 26.5 percent, of these new registered patients purchase medical cannabis from a licensed dispensary; and

 

     WHEREAS, this problem could be partially attributable to the lack of access to licensed dispensaries, as the medical cannabis dispensary law only allows eight dispensary licenses statewide and each licensee may only have two retail dispensing locations resulting in only sixteen licensed retail dispensing locations across the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, another contributing factor to the high rate of illicit medical cannabis purchases could be the price of medical cannabis from a licensed dispensary as compared to cannabis from the illicit market; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State has an interest in reducing the amount of illicit cannabis sales to ensure that patients have access to regulated, tested, and safe cannabis products; support the growth of the legal cannabis industry in Hawaii; and raise tax revenues gathered from legal activity; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2022, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a study on the relationship between current prices of and access to medical cannabis and the volume of illicit cannabis sales in the State; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor and Director of Health.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Auditor; Report; Medical Cannabis; Illicit Sales