“A lawful medical cannabis patient should not be automatically presumed unfit. A constitutional right should not be denied by stereotype. A permit decision should be based on the person, the facts, and the law—not prejudice.”
By Jim Berg, Greener Healing Ways
For many years, lawful medical cannabis patients in Hawaiʻi County have lived under a painful contradiction. On one hand, the State of Hawaiʻi recognizes their right to use cannabis as medicine. On the other hand, those same patients have often been treated as if their patient status automatically disqualified them from exercising another lawful right: applying for a firearm permit.
That contradiction has finally begun to change.
A June 29 letter from the Hawaiʻi Police Chief Reed K. Mahuna confirmed that the department has reviewed the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning firearm rights and marijuana use and will ensure its firearm-permitting policies conform to the ruling. Most importantly, the letter states that possession of a valid medical cannabis license “will not be treated as an automatic disqualifier for a permit” and that decisions will be made under applicable law through individualized assessment rather than blanket disqualification.
This is a major and welcome development for medical cannabis patients on the
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