Power, Drugs and Imminent Danger Top Concerns in Lawmaker's Bills

News Release from Representative Cynthia Thielen January 28, 2019

Representative Cynthia Thielen has introduced bills this Legislative session that include adding two specific medical conditions that would qualify for the use of medical cannabis; assisting the U.S. Missile Defense Agency with renewable energy in a $585 million ballistic missile-defense system contract; and requiring condominium property-management agents to submit disaster-preparedness plans.

HB23 seeks to better protect condo residents from extreme weather events, natural disasters and large-scale emergency situations. It considers that:

• more than 60 percent of Oahu residents live in condos.
• mass panic, confusion and distress resulted from the false missile alert last year.
• 43 percent of Hawaii's residents rent, ranking us the fourth-highest state for the number of renters.

This Condominium Disaster Preparedness Bill requires all property-management agents to submit disaster-preparedness plans for their buildings, including:

• at least one alternative shelter.
• a means for food provisions for those unable to return to their units for extended periods.
• exits for residents including those with impaired mobility, disabilities and special medical needs.

HB37 allows the use of medical cannabis to treat two more debilitating medical conditions – 1) opioid and substance use including the withdrawal symptoms that often come from treating these conditions and 2) conditions normally treated with prescriptions that could lead to physical or psychological dependence.

In 2018, SB2407 C.D.1 allowing medical cannabis to treat opioid and substance use passed the Senate and the House but Governor Ige vetoed it, allowing an administrative rule to supersede the legislature's policy-making power. However, the legislature never intended to waive its power to prescribe additional medical conditions that would qualify as debilitating medical conditions.

HB1396 authorizes government agencies to use electricity produced at their facilities from renewable-energy resources to power a new radar-systems facility. This aligns with Hawaii's clean-energy initiative to generate 100 percent of our electricity with renewable-energy sources by 2045. The wheeling of electricity between agencies would help alleviate the hefty amounts of electricity consumed by the radar system, and possibly its upgrading of commercial power lines and a power plant with 150,000 gallons of fuel-storage tank capacity. Construction is planned to start in 2021.

"Hawaii's priority issues – opioids are our state's Number One killer and medical cannabis is one of the safest non-addictive treatments; the majority of Oahu and nearly half of all Hawaii residents' living safely in condos when imminent danger strikes; and implementing green-energy solutions to meet massive electricity-production needs that hurt our clean-energy goals – are addressed in these bills," Thielen said.