News Release from Medical Cannabis Coalition of Hawaii April 19, 2013

At today's Conference Committee hearing on SB 642 (improvements to the Medical Cannabis program) and HB 668 (the transfer of the Medical Cannabis program to the Department of Health), the Conference Committee decided to delay decision making until Tuesday, April 23, at 2:30 pm so that both the Senate and the House could draft a Conference Committee draft (CD 1).  

The Committee discussed removing the tobacco portion (Part 1) of SB 642 so that the SB 642 just has medical cannabis content and agreed to removing Part 1 (the tobacco portion) from SB 642. 

Both the House and Senate will present a CD1 draft of SB 642 and HB 668 that would amend the bills either by:

1) Separating out the transfer of the program and the improvements, so the transfer to the Department of Health will just in HB 668 and the improvements will just be in SB 642.

2) Keeping both in SB 642 and trying to pass SB 642 as an omnibus bill on medical cannabis issues. 

Representative Belatti will creating both CD1's for the bills.

We will learn more about which strategy they will move forward with on Tuesday and will keep you posted if we hear anything before then. 

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