The Hawai‘i State Department of Health issued a Notice on December 11, 2015, regarding the upcoming start of the Medical Marijuana Dispensary application process. DoH issued the 1-page document in compliance with its Act 241 obligation to issue a notice of the pending dispensary application period at least 30 days before the application period opens.
The notice contains no real new information, but it can be found here. Of chief relevance is the confirmation of dates for the process by DoH, as follows:
The application period will “begin at 8:00 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, on January, 12, 2016, and close on January 29, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time.”
“The application form will be available to the public on the Department of Health (DOH) website at http://health.hawaii.gov/medicalmarijuana, on January 11, 2016, at 8:00 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time. Applications can be submitted through the DOH website beginning on January 12, 2016.”
(Update 1:45 pm, December 11th, 2015, The Notice has been corrected and re-posted to the DoH website and the new Notice is available here. The original Notice is still available at the link below. This paragraph now only refers to the original Notice). It is worth noting that in paragraph three of the Notice that DoH seems to indicate that the administrative rules regarding the dispensaries and the application process have already been released and are currently available on the DoH website. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. The Alliance reached out to DoH and was informed by the director of media relations for DoH, Janice Okubo, that the Notice’s statement regarding the current availability of the dispensary administrative rules was not accurate. Rather, Ms. Okubo assured the Alliance that DoH is “working hard to finalize the administrative rules [and] they should be available on or before January 4.” The .pdf of the Notice has since been removed from the website, presumably pending language changes; however, the original version is available here for your convenience.
You can stay up-to-date on the DoH’s progress via the DoH website leading up to the January 4 deadline for the release of the rules. And as always, the Alliance will be here to keep you informed of the process as well. Follow us on our Facebook or Twitter to receive our updates as soon as we post them!
Let us know if you have any questions about the notice or upcoming application period; and give us a call anytime to find out how you and your organization can become a member of the Alliance and begin receiving our Hawai‘i specific newsletter and industry analysis!