 I'm Marcia Joyner and we are navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to the choices that we have in life and to respect those choices. And our lives take all kinds of twists and turns and for those of you that have been with us you know how many different paths we've been. Today is, it's a new path for us and yet it's an old path, one that we've all, some of us have been down. And that is today we have this lovely, lovely young lady who is a cancer survivor, breast cancer and well now we're going to let her tell the story, I'm not going to tell you the story, but it's heartbreaking. I want you to know that. And so, Asia? Hi, I'm Asia, I'm very old and I'm a cancer survivor, I wrote down four years for Jesus and when I got diagnosed in 2015 I didn't think much of it. I just thought it was a cyst because I was told breast cancer doesn't hurt. So in my mind I'm like I'm going to go check on it, it took me a while, my husband had to force me and I finally went, did my mammal and then I was told oh we have to take a biopsy so my biopsy done and they said we'll get back to you in a week. Well I didn't get my results in a week, it was like the next day my doctor called me and gave me my results and I was just thrown back and then I was like you know I sat there and asked why and then cried a little bit and then I just picked myself up and said you know what, this is not going to beat me, I'm going to fight this and with the grace of God I beat it, I'm still cancer free, thank God for four years and it's just been a journey, a really rough journey now you know plateauing but within that you know I've suffered a lot of nerve damage having to endure chemo and I thought when I first had my experience of my hands being numb I thought. That's from the chemo? Yeah from the chemo, I didn't know that and then when I found out from my doctor okay that is some symptoms and then after the numbness went away then I was getting sharp shooting pains in my fingers and in my toes and I was like wow is this going to be forever and from what I got from my doctor was it may go away it may not go away and this is four years on I'm still suffering with that you know sharp shooting pain and so I was homeopathic before cancer so I did chemo to beat the cancer and I did tell my doctor that I'm going to fight to keep cancer away homeopathically because that's what I choose so when I found out and had more research about TBD and marijuana and how it can be a it can kill cancer and how it can be a cancer prevention I was like that's great because the side effects there is none it's a plant. A female plant? It's a plant and it's not something man-made which I really like you know so I was like you know this is my this is what I'm gonna do I also do some other things to like vitamin D drip you know I take some supplements and I do other homeopathic IP treatment to keep it away. Keep it? Yeah so now and you have a baby? Yes I do she's my miracle baby. Miracle baby? Yes I we was trying for years prior to cancer and when I got diagnosed I wanted to freeze my inks so I could have potentially have a baby after but I couldn't and that was heartbreaking because it my cancer was dependent on my estrogen so I would have to take all these hormones at that time would not be good for my cancer so I just let it in the good Lord's hand and lo behold he surprised me and my doctors. Yeah oh she's a darling little girl. Yeah he's 22 months as of yesterday. So now tell us what happened with with you and why you're here? Well okay so when what happened was I had got searched through TSA um prior to going to the airport I was informed by by caregivers and people that have the license that hey if you take three grams you'll be okay you're not breaking you're not breaking the law. I was like okay is that good with my license is like yes I was like okay so I didn't think much of it I say I got my license I met I waited it was three grams okay we're good put it in my carry-on which is my baby's bag and we went through everything was fine but I guess it really smelled the flower. Well the medicine really smelled so they ended up checking my bag so I they found it and I say oh I have my card my medical license for that I gave them that and gave them my doctor's name the TSA yeah they made it so hard for me they they made me feel so embarrassed I felt judged I mean they made me feel like I was a criminal like really I'm showing you my license that I pay for that I pay the state for and this is three grams and you're treating me like if I had like a whole load that I'm bringing in which is not the case and I was just gonna go to go work and I was like missing almost missing my flight and I had to then wait for the sheriff which took some time and the sheriff was really nice he's the one that told the TSA because my baby was crying and they wouldn't let me get the bottle out of her bag and so the TSA the sheriff then said hey she's not breaking any laws right now she has a right to go get the bottle for her baby let her go get the baby's bottle so finally he did that but he did tell me that he has to confiscate it I said why I have my license and he says because the state law and the federal law is different and your license is for state I said yeah but it's three grams I said what am I gonna do there is no dispensary at the time on Big Island there was none I said so what am I gonna do and he says I'm sorry he says but if you don't give me or surrender the marijuana then when you arrive in Kona we're gonna have you arrested and CPS will be involved take the bait yes oh my god so when I heard that I said you know this is not worth it I'll suffer it's fine I gave them I signed the paperwork saying that I was like I acknowledge that I surrendered my medicine that they have my ID that I gave them my marijuana license and I had to sign off on the papers before I could leave and it was just it was just it was just nonsense to me you know what I mean it's not like I went there through TSA without any medical license I have my license I pay for it so how is it helping me I that's the thing I do not understand and that is the state will issue your card yes everybody in the state that's qualified if your doctor says for your pain this is what you need and there's only eight dispensaries in the whole state exactly and if you let's say you lived on Molokai mm-hmm there's no dispensaries and you buy your cannabis mm-hmm at a dispensary on Maui mm-hmm now you got to go home mm-hmm so now you got to fly because that's the only way to do it mm-hmm and if you're taking it during the day and you live on Molokai you come to Maui to work then you go home and back and forth back and forth every day and now they say you can't do that that is just outright discriminatory I think it's outright ironic because don't we all pay for medical insurance and that with that medical insurance that we pay for it lets us buy prescription medication right which that prescription medicine we can take on the plane you can take now you can take oxycodone yeah and take it on the plane on the plane a man-made substance yes but me because of my choice of to heal my pains that I suffer every day I have because I'm not conforming to Western medicine and I'm doing homeopathic my choice I'm getting scrutinized and I feel that's discriminating it is I feel it I don't want anything like this to ever happen to anybody else but it's an undue burden mm-hmm really on on patients on anybody like I said if you work now you you have a business on the big island yeah I'm here and here mm-hmm so you have to go back and forth what kind of business do you have I have a construction company alvario in Wow yeah look like no I'm I'm the back end I hold the I hold all the you know the responsibilities and the insurance and all that stuff my husband is the contractor yeah and he's the one that goes on the job and gets the job I'm the back end I call myself admin hi guys I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's vegan world I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. and this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism so we go through recipes some upcoming events information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle eat healthier and have fun at the same time so do join me I look forward to seeing you and Aloha Aloha I'm Mellie James host of let's mona up Tuesdays every other Tuesday from 11 to 11 30 this show is meant to dive into stories of local product entrepreneurs and how they're growing their companies from right here in Hawaii I'm so thrilled to have our show kicked off and so please join us on Tuesdays at 11 o'clock as we talk to local entrepreneurs and hear their stories joining us now is dr. Clifton Otto and he is a dear dear friend he has been with us since we started cannabis chronicles what a couple of years ago and dr. Otto has been working tirelessly to get medical cannabis off the schedule one list and then to do all kinds of get the state to recognize that 20 years ago the state said we can have medical cannabis and now in the last week the Attorney General seems to not understand or am I missing something here so you're talking a little bit about what's going on with this inter-island transportation yes yes yes so as you know the governor decided to go ahead with the veto of HP 290 yesterday unfortunately and we did our best to try and influence his decision and the that bill itself was basically designed to clarify the right of patients to travel to other islands with their cannabis for personal medical use right now the law actually allows dispensaries to transport to other islands samples for lab testing purposes and actually prohibits patients from transporting to other islands if they are transferring to other patients and there were some problems with the way that our local enforcement is handling our patients at the airport and that's why this bill HP 290 was necessary well it seems strange and we talked about this just a while ago that if you are working on one island and you live on another island and there's no dispensaries on that island then how are you to do and it is legal you've got the card from the state how are you to transport what you buy and take it home well exactly that's that's the issue right there and we're in a unique situation being an island state where patients can live on one island and commute daily to another island in order to make their livelihood so you may have seen in the governor's communication back to the legislature on why he vetoed HP 290 that part of his explanation was that the islands only extend out three nautical miles and so that in that intervening space is under federal regulation which which is okay I mean we might be able to accept that because there is a federal aviation regulation that would specifically allow cannabis to be carried aboard aircraft if it's authorized by state law well that same law that you're talking about also says that you can't transport alcohol oxycodone which is a schedule to and and marijuana it's all in the same law so how can they reach in and say well you can't take that one but you can take oxycodone you can take whiskey and wine no well that that's a very good question and we believe it's because of guidance coming from the office of our Attorney General which is advising the governor that federal law is being violated and so nothing can be done until there's a change at the federal level which unfortunately overlooks the 10th Amendment and the right of patience to accept the medical use of controlled substance and it also applies the supremacy clause when there is no conflict between state and federal law so unfortunately the US Constitution is not being applied properly and also our state law is not being honored well yes and it's and now I'm a layperson but my reading of the 10th Amendment to the US Constitution says that the state has to give the feds the right that the the rights of the state are first and then the state has to give the feds the right so in this case the state of Hawaii decided 20 years ago that we could have medical marijuana and so so I don't know whether the Attorney General has no idea about this or what but reading all of their rationale it seemed to me that the Attorney General did not read all of the resolutions bills and whatnot that have gone into making this industry what it is I hate to say that she's a newbie it is a bit of a perplexing situation because you would think that our state Attorney General would be standing up for state law and recognizing the impact that this medical use has upon the federal controlled substances act and as you said 20 years ago our state lawfully accepted the medical use of a schedule one controlled substance and what our state did not do was go back to the Department of Justice and tell them that the accepted medical use of cannabis in Hawaii exists and therefore our medical use of cannabis program does not violate federal law because federal law says if the substance has accepted medical use it cannot be in federal schedule one well and then why is it well I guess you can't answer that question I was going to say why why is it that the Attorney General doesn't seem to know that however when you look at the schisms between some of these departments in the state of Hawaii the governor of Hawaii is the most powerful governor in the United States he has 18 departments and commissions in his office and yet we have one department that doesn't know what the other department's doing and he obviously doesn't know what any of them are doing you know if the Attorney General doesn't know what the Health Department is doing and the Agriculture Department doesn't know what the oh it's it's unbelievable well well you know Marcia I suspect at some point a decision was made that nothing is going to be done about this issue until there's a change at a federal level and that that has been spread to all the agencies that are involved and so nobody is really able to step back and reevaluate the issue and the state medical use argument and make a change in course based on supporting federalism instead of federal supremacy what is federal supremacy well so federal supremacy is based on the supremacy clause within the US Constitution which says that when there is a conflict between state and federal law federal law preempts state law and in this case where actually the federal control substances act has been designed by Congress to allow changes in state medical use to impact the federal controlled substances act this is an instance where there is no conflict in federal law where actually the federal law was designed so that if there is a change in the state medical use of controlled substance this can this can be reflected in a and a change in how that substance is regulated at the federal level so that there can be harmony between the state and federal regulation of this controlled substances now has medical use Congress never intended that states would be at odds with the federal government in terms of how control substances are regulated well but okay now and what was it Gonzales 2006 that the state supreme the US Supreme Court said that the states have a right to regulate their own medical issues and how is it that that they've overlooked this I mean the fact well 2006 yes and we have the state of Hawaii has made this legal they issue the cards and yet for some reason the AG's office doesn't seem to understand what's going on yes it's a very unfortunate situation especially like you said we've got this Supreme Court precedent that looked at this at a slightly different way it involved a schedule to controlled substance that would the state had decided had medical use in the aid in dying and the Attorney General the US Attorney General sued the state and tried to shut down the use of that controlled substance for that particular purpose and it went all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oregon confirming what we know from federalism that this is that the the authority to decide the medical use of a controlled substance has been reserved to the states it was never transferred to the federal government and so that gives the state the authority to decide how control substances will be used in that state and that because of the construction of the federal control substances act that directly impacts federal regulation of that control substance within that state well now but we're only talking medical cannabis we're not talking adult cannabis or recreational camera whatever the in phrase is we're only talking medical we're only talking about the fact that this beautiful young lady has been certified by you her doctor that she is eligible to take cannabis for her enduring pain now she didn't we're not asking the state for anything else that's all and it seems totally according to the 1964 Civil Rights Act this is an undue burden in in the title seven I think it is about public accommodations this is an undue burden so you know of course my thought is how do we sue I I don't know what else we can do what where do we go where can we go from here that's that's a very good question and maybe it takes something like that to clarify this maybe maybe we need a judiciary review to clarify the once again this authority of states to decide how controlled substances are used within the state which directly impacts upon federal law yes well you know Cliff it's always a pleasure to talk to you and thank you for introducing us to this beautiful young lady that has a construction company on one island and lives on another and now she's caught in the middle with her need for cannabis to alleviate the pain and suffering that she's going through so thank you again for being with us and yes we will have to find how to do a judicial review thank you sweetheart so much it's been a pleasure meeting you and thank you and we'll see you next time