Why the County is Changing Its Marijuana Rules

(a) The Institute of Medicine has found that cannabis (marijuana) has medicinal value and is not a gateway drug. (b) According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the use of cannabis (marijuana) directly results in zero deaths per year. (c) According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the marijuana eradication program has not stopped cannabis cultivation in the county, rather the program has only decreased the availability of the plant, which increases its “street” value, resulting in more crime. (d) The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) also reported that a large increase of the use of methamphetamine, crack cocaine, and other hard drugs was related to the marijuana eradication program’s implementation. (e) According to public record, the ‘mandatory program review’ for the marijuana eradication program, required by section 3-16 of the County Charter to be performed at least once every four years, has never been performed in the thirty years that the program has existed. (f) Law abiding adults are being arrested and imprisoned for nonviolent cannabis offenses, clogging our court dockets, overcrowding our prisons, tying up valuable law enforcement resources and costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in Hawai‘i County alone each year. (g) The citizens of the Cities of Hailey, Idaho; Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Columbia, Missouri; Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Santa Barbara, Oakland, Santa Monica and Santa Cruz, in California, and the citizens of Missoula County, Montana, all voted for cannabis (marijuana) to be placed as law enforcement’s lowest priority within the past five years. (2008, ord 08-181, sec 3.) 14-97