If you’re a medical marijuana patient and you’re planning a cannabis-themed vacation, close those California guidebooks and Colorado hiking maps and start looking up Hawaii hotels.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Hawaii Department of Health is now offering out-of-state reciprocity to anyone with a valid medical marijuana card from any one of the 32 states with a medical program.
To access a Hawaiian dispensary with out-of-state paperwork, visitors will first need to apply for a temporary Hawaiian cannabis license, which must be filed before the patient arrives on the islands, and will expire 60 days after it is granted. The reciprocity paperwork will only be awarded to tourists who suffer from an ailment listed in Hawaii’s medical marijuana program, and will cost visiting patients $49.50.
“Having the out-of-state program will open the opportunity of coming to Hawaii to many people,” Pedro Haro, executive director of the state’s dispensary trade organization, the Hawaii Educational Association of Therapeutic Healthcare, told the Times. “It’s really not a choice to have to make… to go without medication, particularly when it’s helping them.”
Medical marijuana sales began on Maui in 2017, and since then dispensaries have popped up on Hawaii, Kauai, and Oahu. Outside of the state’s now-thriving medical industry, state legislators have recently taken actions towards full-scale adult-use legalization, but those plans have since stalled, with the legalization bill dying in committee earlier this month.
While state legislators work to get their act together and bring Hawaii into the green age, the state DOH is expanding access as far as possible, giving tourists with valid medical marijuana paperwork the opportunity to taste Maui Wowie and Hawaiian Haze straight from the source.
Follow Zach Harris on Twitter
