Your Views for January 9

Response to Wille

Regarding Councilwoman Margaret Wille’s letter about marijuana (Tribune-Herald, Jan. 1): The medical cannabis community is pleased to read the clarification of her stance on the issue. We say mahalo for supporting us.

We’ve heard Ms. Wille speak before the Council about how cannabis helped her daughter obtain nerve pain relief from Lyme disease. We know she cares.

We have a problem, however, with the councilwoman’s support for districts being able to ban and/or control where cannabis can be sold and grown. Just because a small group from North Kohala objects to dispensaries or grow facilities in their district should not give proof to banning them from that area.

We understand the concept of home rule and agree that the counties should have more say in how the dispensary program is carried out. This, however, is a double-edged sword.

Kauai’s council members earlier tried to block (slow down) the dispensary bill from forward movement by orchestrating the ruse of “home rule.”

Patients have unduly suffered for 15 years without dispensaries, and they have had to rely on “black market” medicine. Why put seriously ill individuals through further hassles? With nearly 6,000 patients on the Big Island, a considerable number of patients live in North Kohala and deserve the convenience of a local dispensary.

The dispensary law has tight controls and strict administrative oversight.

There should be absolutely no concern that dispensaries will create problems, no matter where they open. The projected fears of the North Kohala group are without basis.

Please, Councilwoman Wille, don’t acquiesce to your few constituents who cry NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) because we all know what truly motivates them.

Your letter refers to a future time when recreational cannabis will meld with medical. What will these folks say then? Most likely: “The sky is falling!”

Andrea Tischler

Chairwoman, Big Island chapter, Americans for Safe Access