 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. Community matters here. I'm Marcia Joyner and this is Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000 year odyssey. So tell me, Muse, of that plant of many resources, which wonder far and wide the ancient plant of food, fuel, fiber, cultivated for millennia. As we venture through the past 10,000 years, we will explore and discover the plant from which cannabis derives. The many uses of the plant, hemp, cannabis, ash ash, cannabis in religion, cannabis in medicine, cannabis in dear old Uncle Sam. And so our odyssey begins. Today, our odyssey is not long ago and far away. In fact, it's current and in progress. It is a very special day, a special time. We are visiting with the Big Island. For anybody that doesn't know, that's the island of Hawaii. And it's called the Big Island because that's what it is. It's a big island. And we are visiting with Brent, my new best friend. But you know, I only visit with best friends. Brent Norris, and he is with the Hawaii Cannabis Orc. And they are celebrating an event next week, the Spring Equinox event, and it's on March 20. And this month, they're celebrating Cannabis Spring. A flowering of consciousness and cannabis. Brent, tell us all about it. Oh, thank you so much, Marcia. Thank you for that beautiful introduction. And thanks to your technical crew and everyone making this show possible. I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and share what we're up to. Well, so tell us about Brent. Oh, so I'm a designer by trade. I became a cannabis patient about four years ago. It was actually one of my neighbors that we understand what the difference is between a patient with a license from the state and a so-called patient with a license from the state that may not have a debilitating condition. So that was really, really important in my understanding of the way that the medical program works and the way that we can help patients who are successful within the program. So what is the Hawaii Cannabis Orc? What is that? Well, so first and foremost, it started as a program under green dollar technologies, which is a state approved 501C3 federally registered to do business in Hawaii. We're an awful profit corporation, which means that our board members, directors are not allowed to benefit financially from the work that we do. And that extends out through the Hawaii Cannabis Organization and the events and the resources that we provide. So this organization reaches out to just the community on the big island or to all of us? How does that work? Well, we started by serving patients on our island. And since that time, three years ago, we've met with legislators and one of the things that they asked is that we have a statewide organization to be able to address issues. We like to be able to promote the same messaging across all. So what we've done is we've started the Hawaii Patient Union. And this patient union was really started to do that, to have advisors and representation on each island. Oh, wonderful. So now how do patients connect with you? Is that online or do you have people on each island that they can visit with? How does that work? We do. We have advisors contact points on each island. Well, I shouldn't say each island right now. It's Kauai, Oahu and our island. We're looking for representation on Maui currently. And so what I'll often do is if someone calls in to our number on the big island, then I'll refer them to an advisor on their island. And the advisor is for people that are looking to get a card, already have a card. What is the process of the, what does an advisor do? Really good question. Thank you for asking. So when we get the phone call from a patient, it comes in a lot of different forms, right? It could be, for example, a patient with a license that wants to go because they can and they're successful in doing so. And they want to know about profiles, right? So they want to know about how to stay legal, how to not get arrested and still provide for people, both their neighbors, right? These are small family harms. And then we may get the call from a patient that has just been diagnosed with a in-stage cancer, for example, that has heard about cannabis or has the endocannabinoid with them. And we want to have basic information to help them get connected with a doctor so they can get a license so that they can treat their cancer. Well, now just a little bit off the track here. My daughter is a hospice RN. And really the way I got started in this project, because what we attempt to do with this program is to educate. And she said to me, Mom, you know if patients had cannabis at the end of life instead of the heavy drugs like morphine and all those other drugs, that the end could be much simpler, much more peaceful. They could enjoy being with their families at the end. And she is, you know, all, which is how I started learning about this. And that was in July. So I'm learning as we move along here. But she says, now, so you do this. Is she on the right track? Is that the right? I think so. And I think a lot of hospice professionals would agree. There's a certain separation that can happen, a misunderstanding, if you will, at the end of life, where a patient may be in a lot of pain. And they're just struggling to just keep their wits about them while being treated with usually morphine or the other opioids. And so that has a mind altering effect well beyond what cannabis does with THC that creates this separation in families. What I mean by that is if you can imagine it's in life, maybe grandma or grandpa are going through extreme pain. And what that effect is on family members that want to sit with that family member that's suffering and can be very, very agonizing pain. So it's difficult for people to understand the level of pain. It's difficult for people to understand this psychosis that happens with morphine and some of these barbiturates and these opioids. With cannabis, what is happening is the patient can be normalized to the person that the family knows. In other words, they're not this person that's going through all of this intense pain or the side effects from these other drugs. It actually creates an environment for our cocoon to oftentimes pass more peacefully with family members around and present. It creates a stronger bond within these families who can effectively access and use cannabis during end of life care. So I think she's absolutely right. I think you're right. I think hospice are getting more and more involved in cannabis treatments. And I think that's a really positive thing that's happening right now in our state. Well, I think that what you just said is absolutely wonderful. However, because hospice is paid by Medicare, which is federal, I'm sure that Jen Sessions doesn't want to hear us talk of this way. You're probably right. That man. Anyway, so tell us now about the Spring Equinox event. Oh, great. So some of your viewers may remember the Eric Spring. This was sort of a government takeover, if you will, that happened in the springtime. And since then we've had lots of other Springs. And so we call this spring. And we're not looking to take over the government because we don't really believe it's functional enough. Instead, what we're doing is we're promoting and we're building a new system. And within this system, we're rising up in understanding that we're all one. We're all connected and we're all just trying to have either this in the life care. We're trying to prevent disease and we're trying to treat disease. We're making that information available through events like Cannabis Spring. So you say here on your flyer, the flowering of consciousness and cannabis. What does that mean? Well, this is this is a real thing. It actually happens in the events that we hold. Because we reach out to a wide audience in our community, we really embrace everyone. And because we do, often times will attract the cannabis curious. And this is sort of a target demographic that doesn't know very much about cannabis. They're very shy. They would not attend a recreational cannabis type of an event or to recreate, but they are interested in medical cannabis. So we'll find them at our events and they will have a flowering of consciousness where they get understanding from usually from a doctor or a nurse or another medical professional, sometimes from an attorney. And when they get this information, you can see the aha moment happening in their minds. And as a result, the consciousness raises and they're able to talk to other family members about it. And oftentimes we see multiple family members in a single family with cancer or diabetes, for example. Well, we need to take a break and we will be back in a minute. And in that time, Brandt, will you tell us more about how we can participate in your spring equinox? Absolutely. Thank you. We'll be back in one minute. Thank you. Ted Rawson here, folks. You're a host on Where the Drone Leads, our weekly show at noon on Thursdays here on Think Deck. We talk about drones, anything to do about drones, drones, remotely piloted aircraft, unmanned air christmas, whatever you want to call them, emerging into Hawaii's economy, educational framework, and our public life. We talk about things associated with the use, the misuse, technology, engineering, legislation with local experts, as well as people from across the country. Please join us noon on Thursdays and catch the latest on what's taking place in the world of drones that might affect you. Aloha. I'm Marsha, and we are visiting with Brandt Norris from the Hawaii Cannabis Organization on the Big Island. And they are going to celebrate, next week, of course, is the first day of spring, and they are going to celebrate the spring equinox event in Puna. Is that correct? We'll be holding the event at the University of Hawaii at the Innovation Center in Hilo. At the, repeat that again. It's at the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Innovation Center. It's downtown Hilo. Downtown Hilo. Great. So how do we get involved? Do we have to register? Is it going to video? Can people come from anywhere? Is there an admission? Thank you for asking. There is no admission. This is a free event. And we hold a lot of monthly free events. And then we hold larger events as well. So we'll have an April 20th event, as well as our March 20th event. And then we'll have a large event in October. So for this particular event coming up in seven, eight days, you can RSVP to make sure that you get a seat. And that can be done through our website, HawaiiCannibals.org. And you can also let us know if you're interested in sharing your brand. And that's, that's important. We believe that we aren't ignoring the economic opportunities of cannabis. So many of our... Say that again. If you, you want to share, what is it now? Say that again. So if you wanted to share your brand. Oh, so if I'm making something, I can share the brand with you. That's right. And there are a lot of patients that have out of necessity over the last 20, 30 years, learned how to produce a cannabis product, for example. And they're just waiting for the green light to be able to, to open up a business. But in the meanwhile, we're trying to provide them with a venue where they can share their brands and develop some familiarity. Because we know as soon as the green light happens in Hawaii, it happens for every other investor and every other state to come to Hawaii as well. So do you have investors that will watch the, see what these products are? We do not. So it's, it's not a cohort, so to speak, that is doing startup investor introductions. We're just not quite there, but that's happening at our events right now. Well, we see businesses coming together, meeting each other and developing relationships. So it's happening. It's an early stage right now. But you would have to be present to do this, right? That's correct. Well, we are, well, you know, you're going to get a link to this show. So you can send it to everybody so that they can say, Hey, I want to be there. That's fantastic. Thank you so much. This is, that's really interesting. So, and do you have coaches or anybody that says, Hey, this is a good product. However, if you did this, this and this, it might be better. Do you have any of those kind of people? We do. You know, cannabis seems like it's a new, but it's really cannabis regulation that's new. So I'll give you a quick example. The cannabis industry that the state are in the process of building currently represents eight teams of investors who can grow a total of 48,000. And that's divided up among these eight dispensaries on, on our islands. Now in the home market, right now, because of the law, we have the ability to grow 250,000 calls in the home market. Wow. Right. So most of the production, well, in fact, all of the production, even up to today on Hawaii Island for cannabis medicine has occurred in the home market. This is not the black market. No, no, I, do you have people that say, Okay, now I've got my card and it says I can grow 10 plants. What do I do? How do I grow them? Where do I grow them? What kind of soil? What kind of light? I know in my home, the afternoon sun burns up everything. So I'm just saying, and I obviously, if you see my yard, you know, I don't know how to grow anything. So what about those people? Do you, do you have a program that helps them? The growers at home. We do. And at this particular event or kind of a spring event, we'll have a panel of growers that will be answering questions from the attendees. So this is actually the ideal event for someone that is just interested or has been just started growing. I'm concerned about people that don't live on the big island because this is wonderful. How do you have a way to reach them so they can participate? Well, we've been using the website as a way for people to come in, get resources, communicate. We get two or three messages a day from the 25,000 license patients across the state asking these questions. And we use that as a gauge to determine what types of resources we're going to create. This is, this is really exciting. How about Facebook live so they could really attend the event? I think it's a great idea. And we've made plans for that for our April 20th event where we're going to hold at least one other location at the same time. So we'll be doing that with video. But maybe we can do that on more islands as well. We'll see if we can coordinate. That's a large effort. It is. But I just think what you have is just wonderful. And it should be open to everyone. I've read that there are 1,800 new cards issued each month. That's a huge number of people. And most of them, I'm sure, have the same questions I have. Now what? I've got this card. Now what do I do? Do I spend $500 in the dispensary? Do I grow these plants? If I grow them, what next? Where do I get the seeds? Where do I get the cuttings? All of this kind. Right. And these are great questions. We've never had the ability to get seeds or clones before since the exception of the program. So just getting started is really a big deal. At least that's the way I feel about it. Just getting started seems to me overwhelming. Absolutely. So we get the call and we answer those questions when we get the call and we make those introductions to people on other islands that are also volunteering or helping people to get started growing. But it's really important to point out that within this, these 25,000 currently licensed patients, we have about 10% of that population that are unable to grow. They're unable to function. And this is happening right now. These are children. These are, well, not just Kiki, but Kupuna. These are people that are in situations where they just cannot do anything for themselves right now. If you live in an apartment and most people on Oahu do, where would you grow? I mean, where's the room to grow a plant? Even one house plant, much less 10. And all the care they need. Right. We do share some products that are indoor self-contained growing units. They're about the size of a refrigerator. And they're largely automated. And so they put a plant in their apartment that way. Oh, really? Absolutely. But right now, you know, we're really concerned about simple things like people are getting arrested, transferring cannabis between patients, for example. And so if grandpa is taking care of grandma and they're splitting their plants, so they only have 10 plants because one is a caregiver. That's the law. So it's not 20 plants in case anyone watching this thinks differently. And they run out of cannabis. You know, maybe it's towards the end of the month. Social security isn't available. They may not have a dispensary on their island. The question that we're trying to address for these patients that cannot necessarily grow very well or obtain medicine is the distribution aspect. So can the son or the daughter or the grandson or their granddaughter then take cannabis from their 10 plants and give it to grandma or grandpa to get them through the end of the month? And we've been told by local police that that's illegal and will not tolerate it. I was getting ready to ask when islands that don't have dispensaries yet a card is issued, can they, how do you fly? The only way to get from one island to the next is to fly. How do you transfer the plants? Is there a way to do that? It's a really good question. And the transportation issue right now is being addressed by both. We're very fortunate to know we have two really great legislators here. Not only do we have Richard Frieden, but we have Russell Ruderman and Joyce Anne Blaine of Ventura. And, you know, I spoke with Jordan earlier about the transportation issue in particular. And because we're made up of islands, we need to break the federal law by transporting through federal airspace right there to get this plant or to get these seeds or to get any plant material to another island. Well, if we create a state law that allows for Hawaii residents to do that, the question then arises, are we creating a conflict with the federal law? Well, because this is medical marijuana or cannabis since Hawaii was the only state that got rid of the word marijuana. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court said, and this is states' rights. I mean, it pains me to say states' rights, but that this is states' rights to control their own medical care. Now, that is the U.S. Supreme Court, even if just sessions don't know anything about the Supreme Court. But that's a different story. Anyway, since that is the case, it seems to me that our legislators could make a ruling that the transportation of medical devices, medical cannabis, all these medical things, not adult recreation, but medical things should be able to transfer from one island to the next. Patient to patient. Right. Or is that asking too much? Well, we believe it's the same as OP and you should be able to transport it from island to island. Well, so being a political junkie, as I am, then we need to lean on the legislature. Every one of the House members are up for reelection and half of the Senate. So we really need to get behind this. I agree. Because it's discriminatory to say that if you live on Oahu, in urban Oahu, that you can get this. But if you live on Molokai, you can't. That's discriminatory. We have to deal with that. We have to deal with that. Right. Right. And you know, I think it helps to understand what others have done. We're not in a position of having to create something new. We have nine legal states right now with examples before us. And as we pointed out three years ago, Washington state had the same situation as they developed their medical cannabis program. And what the voters in Washington who through by voter initiative can communicate with their legislators in a unique way or in a way that we cannot. What they said was we want to protect our patients now because of the uncertainty in the law. So Washington created the Patient Protection Act. And what this said was that while we get our program off the ground, while we develop these rules and regulations to restrict the flow of cannabis that legalize it or make it available, while this is going on, we're going to side with the patient on matters of law enforcement. And it lined it line items of new things that law enforcement could then read and understand when because we haven't protected our patients in Hawaii. We still have patients being arrested for minor cannabis infractions. And these are these are patients. They don't want to be arrested. And and so we introduced the idea that that clarification of the law was important so that law enforcement and patients could all be on the same page. Well, we have to call this a day. However, it's really wonderful to talk to you. Can we do this again so we can find out more about the patient protection and what Oregon has done? Would you be willing to come back and talk to us again? Absolutely. I will. I will talk to anyone about helping patients that will listen. Well, thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure. I love that.