Pubdate: Fri, 02 Apr 2010
Source: Garden Island (Lihue, HI)
Copyright: 2010 Kauai Publishing Co.
Contact: http://kauaiworld.com/forms/letters/
Website: http://kauaiworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/964
Author: Paul C. Curtis

POLICE CHIEFS PRESSURED LEGISLATORS ON POT BILL

LIHU'E - Kaua'i Police Department Chief Darryl Perry joined the police
chiefs from the three other counties in a Thursday lobbying effort to
help kill a bill at the state Legislature that would have allowed
counties to establish medical-marijuana dispensaries, he said.

The four chiefs met with House Speaker Calvin Say and other lawmakers
to urge defeat of the proposed legislation, Perry said in a telephone
interview.

"All of the chiefs are together on this," against establishment of the
dispensaries, he said.

Keith Kamita, head of the state Department of Public Safety's
Narcotics Enforcement Division, spearheaded the lobbying effort, Perry
said.

The bill died after not being moved from the House Judiciary Committee
on Thursday, although it had been approved by the full Senate.

Perry said he is not against allowing those who have debilitating
medical conditions to get medicinal marijuana, but was against the
measure because of the likelihood of abuse of the proposed dispensary
system.

In California, such dispensaries have become drug-dealing enterprises
catering not only to those who have legitimate need and documentation
for medical marijuana, he said.

"We need to put more sound systems into place" before establishing
such dispensaries, said Perry.

The bill that died would have allowed counties the ability to
establish, license and regulate dispensaries.

Mary Daubert, county public information officer, did not respond by
press time to an e-mail asking whether or not Mayor Bernard P.
Carvalho Jr. would act to establish dispensaries on Kaua'i had the
measure passed.

At the state House level, Kaua'i representatives Mina Morita,
D-Kapa'a-Hanalei, and Roland Sagum, D-Po'ipu-Waimea-Ni'ihau, voted for
the measure at its last House vote, while Jimmy Tokioka,
D-Wailua-Lihu'e-Koloa, voted against it. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D