HI SCR116

Requests the Department of Health to amend Chapter 160, Hawaii Administrative Rules to allow physicians to certify patients for low THC medical marijuana for conditions not on the current approved list of debilitating medical conditions.

Allows physicians discretion to recommend low THC medical marijuana for any condition they determine appropriate, rather than limiting patients to the state's pre-approved conditions list.

Notes that Hawaii's medical marijuana program, established in 2000, had no changes to its approved conditions list until post-traumatic stress disorder was added in 2015, and that amending the list currently requires a public administrative hearing held infrequently (possibly only once yearly).

Acknowledges concerns about marijuana abuse while arguing that expanding access specifically for low THC content products would provide patients needed medicine without increased opportunity for abuse of the drug's psychoactive components.

Cites California's medical marijuana law and the existing prescription medication marinol (synthetic THC) as precedents for allowing physician discretion in recommending cannabis-based treatments.