MEDIA RELEASE

HONOLULU – Gov. David Ige signed into law HB 321 Relating to Medical Marijuana, which establishes a licensing system for medical marijuana dispensaries.

“I support the establishment of dispensaries to ensure that qualified patients can legally and safely access medical marijuana,” said Gov. Ige. “We know that our challenge going forward will be to adopt rules that are fair, cost effective and easy to monitor. The bill sets a timeline. We will make a good faith effort to create a fair process that will help the people most in need.”

The new law also prohibits counties from enacting zoning regulations that discriminate against licensed dispensaries and production centers; allows the legal transport of medical marijuana in any public place, under certain conditions by qualified patients, primary caregivers or owners/employees of medical marijuana production centers and dispensaries.

The following bills become law without the governor’s signature:

HB541 Relating to the University of Hawai‘i Tuition and Fees Special Fund:

Requires each UH campus to prepare an operations plan, to be reviewed by the President and VP for Budget and Finance and CFO of UH, for each fiscal year.

SB1092 Relating to the Repeal of Non-General Funds: Repeals or reclassifies various non-general funds in accordance with the Auditor’s recommendations in Auditor’s Report Nos. 14-05 and 14-13.

SB1297 Relating to Disposition of Tax Revenues: Amends the cigarette tax and tobacco tax law by changing the amount allocated to the trauma system special fund, and establishing maximum dollar amounts that shall be distributed among certain non-general funds after 6/30/2015.

SB118 Relating to Real Estate Investment Trusts: Requires, and appropriates funds for, DBEDT, with the assistance of DOTAX, to study the impact of real estate investment trusts in Hawaii.

For the status of bills go to: http://governor.hawaii.gov/bills/