Applicants for one of Hawaii’s first eight medical marijuana dispensary licenses have two months left to prepare, but they’re working with limited options and guidance.
The provisional rules for the fledgling industry won’t be published by the Hawaii State Department of Health’s until Jan. 4. Applicants who would like to compete to open the first of Hawaii’s dispensaries barely have a week before the application period runs, between Jan. 11 and Jan. 29.
The Hawaii Dispensary Alliance is in communication with at least 36 different interested groups and it is expected that around 40 to 160 applicants statewide will apply for a dispensary license.
Tyler Anthony, a Chicago attorney who has worked with the cannabis industry for roughly two years, commented that the expedited timeline has been difficult for applicants even in other states. He cited the case of Maryland where there was a limited amount of time when the rules came out and when the applications went live. He said it was challenging for people applying because answers to questions are updated every day and changing by the minute or hour. Though some specifics, such as fees, are already delineated in the Hawaii statute, still, many mysteries remain. Details about laboratory testing, cultivation and other aspects of dispensary operation are yet forthcoming.
Despite this limitation, however, Hawaii does have an advantage: a mature 15-year old home-grown medical marijuana program. The Islands are home to more than 13,000 medical marijuana patients and that basis is better than building a medical cannabis industry from scratch.