PEACEFUL SKY ALLIANCE SUPPORTS COUNCILMAN GREENWELL’S EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE THE DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA  December 15, 2009

This resolution 281-009 proposed by Mr. Greenwell has the primary focus of addressing the need to decriminalize the use of Cannabis in Hawaii.

Councilman Greenwell of District 8, Hawaii County

The Peaceful Sky Alliance supports Mr. Greenwell’s resolution. We have specific recommendations for Mr. Greenwell as to how he can improve this legislation so that it addresses specific Hawaii Statutes that require harsh penalties and create criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens and we will be submitting these to the Hawaii County Council when the bill appears for first reading before a committee

Mr. Greenwell’s resolution reflects the mood of the country at large and we see it as a positive step recognizing the inappropriate and harsh sentencing for marijuana use.

Such measures of decriminalizing as proposed in Resolution 281 represent cost-saving measures because resources can be better directed towards more pressing matters of community safety and wellbeing.

Here in Hawaii County, the Peaceful Sky Alliance continues to identify for the Council violations of the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance. The County needs to implement this voter initiative, which is the ‘first step’ in the process Mr. Greenwell proposes for decriminalization in the County of Hawaii. Today, December 15, 2009 represents another opportunity for Board Members to address this matter with Hawaii County Council and remind them of their obligations.

Peaceful Sky Alliance will make specific suggestions to Mr. Greenwell and the Council regarding amendments that would cite specific statutes of Hawaii State law that should be revised, amended or repealed in order to remove harsh and unjust penalties for use of Cannabis.

Further, we hope that in a revision of this Resolution, Mr Greenwell could specifically mention the urgent need to address the problem of ICE in our community. A study performed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse 1991-1994 final report (ICE and Other Methamphetamine Use: An exploratory Study) showed findings that the effect of marijuana eradication was to drive up the street price of Cannabis and cause a rise in use of methamphetamines which became a cheaper alternative to Cannabis.

Mahalo to Councilman Greenwell for proposing Resolution 281-09. We applaud him for his leadership and the steps he is taking to  legislate that the personal use of Cannabis by responsible adults in the State of Hawaii be decriminalized.

CONTACT: Peaceful Sky Alliance Vice President   – Matthew Rifkin

Phone: 917 378 9123
email: peacefulskyhawaii@gmail.com
www.peacefulskyalliance.org

This is what the ‘Drug War’ has done to our Law Enforcement’s sense of what it is important to be focusing on. Do you see what happened to the arrest rates in California  for rape, murder and other crimes including ‘all other drug sales’? They went down.What went up, according to these statistics was the arrest rate for Cannabis (marijuana) posession. It went up 127%!

This is a map of the USA showing where Cannabis offenses are already a lower priority for Law Enforcement.

Our recent ordinance passed on November 4, 2008 was a message from the voters in Hawaii County that they want to see a change in the priorities of law enforcement. They want to take ‘Cannabis Offenses’ off the highest priority list and help our Police and Prosecutions get their focus off of ‘pot’ and back where it belongs.. on the welfare of the community.

That’s why counties and municipalities all over the country are passing or have passed similar legislation. They realize that there is

something wrong with the fact that so much money and time is spent going after people who use Cannabis. They don’t believe it is a dangerous drug. They don’t even believe that the people who use it are ‘criminals’.

The Drug War isn’t working for a lot of us out here and we are the ones whose taxes pay your salaries.. so please listen up.

Could this be a sign?

Mr. Kimura, please stop prosecuting cases of 'Adult Personal Use.'

The story of what happened to Seattle’s Chief Prosecutor who lost his job because he disrespected the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance passed by Seattle voters:
Nobody bawled into their pillow last election night like City Attorney Tom Carr, an eight-year incumbent with the backing of labor unions and city hall, who was trounced by a 26-point margin. “I’m stunned. I thought this would be a tight race,” said challenger Pete Holmes after seeing the first batch of results.

Carr chalked up his drubbing to an “anti-incumbent year.” But that makes less than zero sense, considering Richard Conlin won a fourth term on the city council with over 77 percent support and Nick Licata coasted easily to a third term.

Voters were sick, specifically, of Carr’s bullshit: cracking down on popular clubs, ignoring a voter-approved measure to stop prosecuting marijuana-possession cases, subpoenaing reporters to name confidential sources, and pushing cases for years after the city should have dropped them.

In voting for Holmes, Seattle instituted a new directive for the city attorney, who acts as the city’s primary lawyer and prosecutes misdemeanors in the municipal court. Holmes vowed on the campaign trail to represent the wishes of the people. He’ll stop all pot-­possession prosecution and prize the music scene, he says, and coax the city officials to drop lawsuits when the city is wrong.

“Basically,” said Peter Holmes  “…this is Carr’s worst nightmare. The poor guy…”

The link to the article is : http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/election-2009-winners-and-losers/Content?oid=2708202

Tyrone Brown received a last minute reprieve from death row for smoking pot while on probation

Tyrone Brown served 16 years of a Life Sentence for smoking Cannabis while on probation:

As an example of how much of a joke the Drug War can get to be.. listen to this case; In 1990, Tyrone Brown, then 17 years old, took part in a $2 Dallas stickup in which no one was hurt. He got caught, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, and received a sentence of 10 years probation. A few weeks later, he was in court again — because a drug test detected the presence of marijuana in his urine. For still unexplained reasons, his sentencing judge, Keith Dean, threw the book at him. The 17-year-old was resentenced to life in prison, where he remained up until 2007. We can be thankful that eventually the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry saw the wisdom of pardoning Tyrone but long after it was somewhat of a joke. If you google Tyrone Brown, you will see yet another comparison between the kind of harsh sentence you can get for using Cannabis but you don’t see if you are a convicted killer.  But now, thanks to drug reform activists, a Dallas newspaper, a nationally televised investigative journalism program, and outraged citizens across the land, Brown was freed from his life sentence.

We all know that each prisoner in the United States costs taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars each year that they are incarcerated let alone the money it costs and lengthy court procedures that it takes to put each one of them there. Do you really like to think that your tax dollars are being spent to lock up adults who enjoy Cannabis for their own personal use? You might be shocked to know the cost of the Drug War but chances are by now, you might be well familiar of how this outright war on a plant, has usurped our Nations resources and the treasuries of; the Federal Government, the States and Counties all around the country. That’s the reason for ordinances and new legislation that is determining that adult personal use of Cannabis should go from the highest priority of Law Enforcement to the lowest. Enough already!

Is Justice "Blind"? This is our question for the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney

Puna Man sentenced to 18 months jail for selling 2 ounces of Cannabis to a registered medical marijuana user:

A case closer to home received a hearing in the Hilo 3rd circuit court today (Friday November 13). Just to give you an idea of how the Office of The Prosecuting Attorney is spending our County money, take a look at this case. A man 50 years old with debilitating spinal injuries, himself a medical marijuana patient, was caught in 2007 selling marijuana to another medical marijuana patient. He was arrested along with his wife who was 7 months pregnant with their first child. He now has two children since his arrest. This man was not in fact indicted until 18 months later. The Grand Jury indicted him after the passage of the voter ordinance Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance

This man pleaded guilty to the charges and his lawyer is now negotiating the terms of probation for him. In many cases now, the judges rule against medical marijuana patients being permitted to use Cananbis on probation. This is the same man who has more than one debilitating condition and was actually granted permission by the courts recently to leave the island for hip replacement surgery and time needed for his recovery before resuming his court appearances. His surgeon has determined that there are benefits for him to use Cannabis. His doctor here in Hilo attended court today to testify to the fact that while using Cannabis, this man has been able to reduce the doses of morphine he had become dependent on to manage his pain. In spite of two medical opinions, Judge Greg Nakamura would only say that he would take this testimony ‘under advisement’ which for those of us who don’t know, means he doesn’t have to abide by these doctor’s medical opinion. The question we then ask ourselves, is this: Has this judge taken upon himself the responsibility for managing critical health conditions? This is an affront to the profession of medicine by the profession of justice.

This is yet another case of someone who should have seen all charges against him dropped to say nothing of the fact that it shouldn’t be a crime to supply a medical marijuana user who has been licensed by the State of Hawaii to possess and use Cannabis.  The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance specifically MANDATES the prosecutor NOT to prosecute ANY cases that now fall under the description of ‘adult personal use’ as defined by the ordinance so why are they still prosecuting these cases and wasting County funds?

Countless hours of time of the judges and the prosecution have already been wasted in pursuit of this case and it does not appear to be close to ending. This is yet another example of wasted County Funds that is occurring. It’s also a genuine miscarriage of justice as the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, headed by Mr. Jay Kimura, openly violates our Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance.

Finding this absurd ? Finding this a waste of County funds? Stay tuned because this is a bad habit the County of Hawaii has and the Prosecutor can’t seem to kick. If you have ‘horror’ stories of your own to share, please feel free to post them below or send them to us at peacefulskyhawaii@gmail.com and we can feature them here on this site.

Cannabis is medicine & there's still so much to learn.

If you are registered by the Board of Public Safety as a medical marijuana user, you should know all of the conditions below that sets out what you can and can’t do.But caveat emptor or “buyer beware”, the rules and regulations around Cannabis as a medicine for registered medical patients in Hawaii is not intended to make sense.

The first major problem with the law as it stands now is that you can’t buy Cannabis for medical use (it’s illegal to do so) and you also can’t obtain seeds legally. We know this is a little bit of stretch because hey.. aren’t they asking for some kind of miraculous event to happen for each and every marijuana patient since it is illegal to obtain the seeds and it is illegal to buy Cannabis?  Major disconnect here don’t we all think?

Of course if that is to change, the people you need to speak to are your State Legislators (who are pondering on it right this moment) and also a guy named Keith Kamita. This is his picture. He’s the Administrator of the Narcotics Enforcement Division. You should know that this man has never expressed public support for medical marijuana. He has expressed disregard for a broad range of illnesses for which medical marijuana is considered a useful treatment. He made the statement while on the witness stand that medical marijuana should be limited to people with Aids, Leukemia or Cancer. He is concerned, he stated, that too many people just put down ‘pain’ as a reason for needing the medicine. He also gives testimony before the court that Cannabis remains a very dangerous drug. He has said on the witness stand that he considers Cannabis a ‘gateway drug’ and therefore it should not be used in the community except under very controlled conditions.  He also asserted that he believes that since the medical marijuana registry program began, more marijuana has been available for sale to school children (although he never explained if this was ‘fact’ and if it could be verified).   It appears that Mr. Kamita doesn’t like Cannabis and he doesn’t like to see people using it too much. It must be hard for him to find job satisfaction unless you account for those times he gets to authorize someone having their certificate revoked.

We would like to see a new approach from Mr. Kamita.. especially in the light of this weeks news that the AMA don’t want to go on pretending any more that this is a dangerous drug.

To read more about Mr. Keith Kamita & public comments he has made about medical marijuana go to this link here http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Kamita_Keith_16162375.aspx

Also consider taking the survey we designed for medical marijuana users.. It’s intended to gather information so that we can know how better to represent you and your needs as a registered medical marijuana user. There’s a link here and also at the bottom of this post: http://peacefulskyalliance.com/donate-2/

Anyway..  all that aside, here are the limitations you should be aware of as a registered “Medical Marijuana” user:

1. A Qualifying patient shall only have one primary care-giver and only one physician issuing a written certificate at any  time.

2. How much Marijuana am I authorized to grow or possess?

• The qualifying patient and primary care-giver may not possess more than an “adequate supply” not exceeding a total of 3 mature plants, 4 immature plants and 1 ounce of usable marijuana per each mature plan
• It is only to be used to mitigate the symptoms or effects of the qualifying patients debilitating medical condition.

3. Where can Medical Marijuana  be grown?

• Medical marijuana can only be grown at  the qualifying patients home address or the address of the primary caregiver approved by the administrator designated on the registry certificate.
• All plants need to be clearly marked with the patients registration number.

4. Prohibited Areas and Activities

• The sale of marijuana is strictly prohibited!
• The authorized use of medical marijuana shall NOT apply to any activity that endangers the health or wellbeing of another person.
• It is prohibited in any moving vehicle including school and public buses
• It is prohibited in workplaces, school grounds, public parks, beaches recreation centers
• It is prohibited at any place generally accessible to the public

5. Will having a patient registry certificate exempt me from US Department of Transportation drug-testing rules?

• Department of Transportation rules do not recognize medical marijuana as an explanation for a positive test result.
• In addition your employer will be required by DOT rules to remove you from safety-sensitive functions.
• Many other federal agencies and other employers take a similar position.
• Your employer may elect to take other action including termination.
• It is suggested that you speak with your employer relating to the possible consequences of  utilizing medical marijuana in regards to drug testing.
• What if I need to ammend the information on my Registry Identification Certificate?
• Qualifying patients and primary caregivers are required to report any change in information within 5 working days  to: Department of Public Safety, Narcotics Division, 3375 Koapaka St. Suite D-100, Honolulu, HI 96819. No fee is assessed for certificate modification. Failure to report changes will invalidate your certificate and require re-registration and a late fee.

6. What if a patient dies?

• If a patient dies (or no longer suffers from a debilitating medical condition) then either the patient, or their family and their primary caregiver are required to return their certificates within 7 days and have their marijuana supply legally disposed of (it isn’t specified in what manner)
• The qualifying patient’s physician shall notify both the department and the patient when the patients condition no longer warrants the use of medical marijuana.

7. Can the Department of Public Safety terminate my certificate?

• The department has the authority to revoke certificates if the applicant furnished false or fraudulent material or ommitted information, or if the physician’s medical license or state controlled substance registration is suspended or revoked or for violation of any Hawaii Revised Statute 329-126
• When revocation is being proposed, the patient, the primary caregiver and the physician are notified by mail. The patient and/or caregiver may contest the proposed revocation by submitting a written request within 30 days of the notification for an administration hearing in conformity with Chapter 91 Hawaii Revised Statutes.

8. Fraudulent Misrepresentation Penalty:

• Not withstanding any law to the contrary, fraudulent misrepresentation to a law enforcement official of any fact or circumstance relating to the medical use of marijuana to avoid arrest or prosecution under this part or Chapter 712, shall be a petty misdemeanor and subject to a fine of $500.

Have you taken our survey yet? Go here to take it: http://peacefulskyalliance.com/donate-2/

The American Medical Association has finally ruled that Cannabis shouldn't be Schedule 1!

Yesterday, NORML published this news.. the AMA has called for Cannabis (marijuana) to be rescheduled.
Now that’s a headline! The very basis for the drug war was the classification of Cannabis as a ‘schedule 1′ drug. For the last 30 years Cannabis has been vilified and classified as a drug more potent and dangerous than crack or cocaine. Here’s to some profound policy changes all across the land. Here’s to some profound policy changes right here at home, in Hawai’i County.

Yesterday it was announced that the AMA has voted to reverse its longstanding endorsement of cannabis’ Schedule I prohibitive status.
According to a posting on NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws): “The vote took place during the organization’s annual Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates in Houston, Texas, and marks the first time that the AMA has revisited its position on cannabis in eight years.

Take note everybody. A ‘house of cards’ that has teetered and swayed over us for 30 years is now coming down.

This is huge news! The War on Drugs has been built on a lie and it looks like the lie just doesn’t have anymore hold on us. It’s curtains for the Drug War. May the “Wicked Witch” (as pictured above) finally take a bow and leave the rest of us in peace.

Hawai’i County Officials.. are you listening? This is especially important news to those of you who are still making public statements that our Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordianance doesn’t mean anything to you because according to State and Federal law, Cannabis is still a ‘dangerous & illegal drug’. Please take note that the ground beneath you is shifting. The voters in this County have spoken and now, while you are still dragging your feet, you’re seeing changes on the National level.

Spread the word! and for more information.. check out the story as it was posted on the NORML website:

http://blog.norml.org/2009/11/10/ama-calls-for-ending-the-schedule-i-lie/

Woo-hoo! Friday night was a great night.. the weather held and the people of East Hawaii sure looked fine all dressed up and on the town. At 100 Kamehameha Avenue, (next door to Cronies Bar and Grill and just down from the Kava Bar)Peaceful Sky Alliance launched the website you are now visiting.

Great music, some divine Hemp Treats and plenty of information giveaways helped to make the night a success.

We celebrated a birthday evening for the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance which just turned one on Thursday November 5th!

Thank you to all who came and shared a little joy with us. We are now launched! (and there will be some great photos to follow but we are still rounding them up)

Click on this ordinance to read and enlarge. (You can even print this out on 11 x 17 ” paper). This ordinance was passed into law by 35,000 voters on Nov. 4. 2008-
contact 938-0644 peacefulskyhawaii@gmail.com

The Road to Peace for Hawai’i County

HERE’S THE  HAWAII COUNTY ORDINANCE THAT MAKES CULTIVATION OR POSSESSION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF CANNABIS THE LOWEST LAW ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY:

The Hawaii County Code has been amended to add a new articlethat is titled and known as ”The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance”.

The Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of Cannabis Ordinance was presented as Ballot Measure #1 in the election of November 4, 2008 and was passed by 34,392 votes.

It is now the law in the County Council of Hawaii.

AS THE LAW NOW READS…

1.  The County is directed to make Law Enforcement related to cannabis (marijuana) offenses, their lowest law enforcement priority when cannabis is only intended for “adult personal use”.

2. Adult personal use is defined to include the use of cannabis on private property only by persons twenty one years of age or older.

3. County Law Enforcement officials are prevented from accepting deputization from a federal law enforcement agency for purpose of investigating, citing, or arresting citizens or searching or seizing their property if doing so is inconsistent with the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for Cannabis Ordinance.

4. County Council is Prohibited from authorizing the acceptance of funding to investigate, cite, arrest, prosecute, search or seize property from adults when doing so would be inconsistent with the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for Cannabis Policy.

5.County Council is directed not to support the acceptance of any funds for the Marijuana Eradication Program.