Pubdate: Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2013 Star Advertiser
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Derrick Depledge
Page: B1

HOUSE COMMITTEE SHELVES POT BILL

A Proposal to Legalize Recreational Use of Marijuana Has "No Chance"
of Passing

Hawaii will not be following Colorado and Washington state on
legalizing marijuana - at least not this year.

The state House Judiciary Committee tabled a bill Tuesday that would
have legalized the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for
personal use for those 21 years old or older. The bill would have also
allowed marijuana cultivation and the establishment of retail
marijuana stores. A 15 percent excise tax would have been imposed on
marijuana sales.

Rep. Karl Rhoads (D, Chinatown-Iwilei-Kalihi), the committee's
chairman, said he believed he had the votes on the committee to
advance the bill but not in the full House.

"Leadership has recently informed me that there's no chance of the
bill progressing beyond this committee," Rhoads said before deferring
the bill indefinitely.

In November, voters in Colorado and Washington state approved ballot
measures legalizing marijuana, prompting debates over the popular
recreational drug in several other states. Marijuana remains illegal
under federal law, however, setting up a conflict between the federal
government and the states.

Hawaii is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia that allow
marijuana for medicinal use.

At a committee hearing earlier this month, the U.S. Department of
Justice, the state attorney general's office, county prosecutors and
police and other law enforcement officials urged lawmakers not to
legalize marijuana. The Honolulu prosecutor's office warned in written
testimony that marijuana is already widely used in Hawaii and that
tacit approval of the drug by the Legislature "presents serious
potential for widespread abuse and negative impact on the community."

But Rhoads and other lawmakers questioned whether marijuana poses any
greater risk than legal substances such as alcohol and tobacco.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and other legalization
advocates said the bill would have moved the state away from what they
consider a failed national "war on drugs." The ACLU contended that
marijuana laws have been ineffective and have led to the unnecessary
incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders.
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