Thirty - two people testified for more
than four hours regarding police helicopters flying too low, medical
marijuana plants being wrongfully seized, police using marijuana for
their personal use and the need to concentrate more efforts on
battling crystal methampetamine or "ice."
Resident Roger Christie, founder of the Hawaii Cannabis Ministry,
suggested a "Passover Resolution."
"Put it in writing today that eradication teams are to pass over
all residences with 24 plants or less on their property...a
misdemeanor," he said.
John Robison, of Kailua - Kona, spoke against the program, noting
police seized medical marijuana plants from his property in July.
"I'm not a marijuana advocate," he said. "I'm just a guy standing
up for myself."
Acting Big Island Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna, who was scheduled
to address the County Council on marijuana issues at 10:30 a.m.,
didn't get to speak until almost 3:45 p.m.
"This is not a police dep! artment that has a vendetta against
anybody. The police department does not condone the taking of
marijuana by police officers for personal use," he said, promising
that any officer caught doing so would be prosecuted to the full
extent of the law.
He said police will concentrate their efforts on eradicating
commercial marijuana plants - patches of thousands of marijuana
plants - and not concentrate on small patches in residential areas.
Councilman Leningrad Elarionoff said, "The Passover Resolution
sounds good but it's almost impossible to see how many plants are in
a patch. It sounds like a good plan but it's not that easy."
Still, Mahuna said he was interested in discussing the issue with
the community in order to reach a compromise.
However, he stopped short of agreeing to a one year moratorium of
the Green Harvest Program - a suggestion made by Councilman Dominic
Yagong.
"I would not be in favor of it," he said. "If we let large
operations proliferate, it b! ecomes a commodity and can be traded
for hard drugs.
"I would be interested in a dialogue to mitigate what's going
on," he added.
Discussion on the General Plan was deferred until the council's
next meeting.
Newshawk: Roger Christie
Source: West Hawaii Today
(HI)
Published: October 9, 2002
Copyright: 2002 West Hawaii
Today
Contact: wht@aloha.net
Website: http://westhawaiitoday.com/
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