A few years back, Pedro Haro was given a diagnosis of chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to an earlier personal trauma. He sought medical help for chronic insomnia and anxiety and was asked whether he’d tried marijuana. His first reaction to that was defensive.
“I had recently switched physicians and psychiatrists, and he asked me, ‘Have you ever used cannabis?’” Haro recalled. “And I said, ‘No, no, never.’ I thought he was accusing me — he was saying that maybe the reason why you’re having this problem is because you are doing all these drugs.”
Haro is now executive director of the local trade association for licensed medical-cannabis dispensaries known by the acronym HEALTH.
The medical cannabis industry in Hawaii has progressed, including the ability to accept out-of-state patients at the dispensaries — along with recent passage of a marijuana decriminalization bill.
But Haro acknowledged that cannabis still bears a stigma. Education can help people see past the stereotypes, he said, as it did in his own case.
At 39, Haro has pursued an interest in public health pretty consistently and sees his current role as one more form of outreach.
Born in Mexico but raised on Maui, Haro was the first neighbor-island student member of the state Board of Education and worked on policies for school health aides, tobacco control and student safety.
In 2009 Haro earned his master’s degree in public health at the University of Hawaii. He founded Social Marketing Hawaii, a business that creates communications and advocacy campaigns on issues such as senior care, tobacco control, healthy eating, domestic violence and sexual assault.
He also serves as deputy director of Mental Health America of Hawaii. His part-time position with HEALTH is funded through membership fees paid by the dispensaries; it was established as a 501(c)6, a professional nonprofit trade organization.
“The idea is that the eight dispensaries are its membership,” he said. “But I’m looking to be able to expand that, to see affiliate businesses that would want to be members as well.”
Question: What was the most important aspect of the bill for marijuana decriminalization?
Answer: With the United States legalizing cannabis at a rapid rate and profitable businesses emerging around the country, an extremely important part of the bill provides for the expungement of criminal records for those convicted of possessing three grams or less of marijuana.
Another important measure is the establishment of a marijuana evaluation task force to make recommendations on changing use penalties and outcomes. This is key for social justice reasons.
Q: How likely do you see marijuana legalization for recreational use?
A:It is difficult to predict when Hawaii may legalize cannabis for responsible adult use, but we have made great strides in recent years in the mainstreaming and destigmatizing of cannabis, including with the opening of eight licensed medical dispensaries across the islands and the widening of access to medical cannabis with the introduction of the out-of-state patient program.
Decriminalization is the next important step.
Q: Can you describe what HEALTH does for the dispensaries?
A: HEALTH — Hawaii Education Association for Licensed Therapeutic Healthcare —was founded in 2016 as a private, nonprofit trade association dedicated to the service of Hawaii’s permitted medical cannabis patients and the dispensaries that serve them.
HEALTH represents all eight of Hawaii’s state-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries. We work with patients, public health and law enforcement officials, medical professionals, legislators and others to improve the lives of those who choose medical cannabis as part of their healthcare options.
One of our recent achievements was assisting in advocating, and then preparing for, the out-of-state-patient program, providing visitors in need and who qualify with an opportunity to access our world-class medical cannabis, to ensure our visitors had access to medication while in Hawaii.
Q:What was the organization’s role in that?
A: HEALTH was essential. Rather than legislators working with an individual dispensary, or Department of Health having to meet with each dispensary independently, this was the importance of having the trade organization, as it created that unified voice for the industry. …
HEALTH acts as an intermediary for patient advocates and what they need, and legislative governing bodies. And the other part will be to conduct education for those patient populations, because the dispensaries right now are not allowed to do any marketing or any sort of communications. …
Q: What are the repercussions of federal prohibitions on the businesses and their patients? Banking, insurance and such issues?
A:Banking and insurance are all major hurdles to deal with. Lack of access to banking means businesses often have to deal solely in cash, which is less secure, and large insurance companies often won’t cover cannabis-related businesses.
Legal actions and measures need to be taken by state and national officials to ensure that licensed cannabis-related businesses have access to the same services as any other legitimate business operating in Hawaii and around the country.
Q:Because marijuana is illegal in federal statute, won’t constraints on research keep dosage and product recommendations pretty much a trial-and-error process?
A:So right now there are multiple restraints at a federal level. … Research, it needs the clinical trials … we need to understand side effects that some people might experience, all of those things, to be able to understand in an empirical fashion. … What isn’t there is the money, because a lot of the research is funded by the federal government. There’s also the insecurity that your federal funding might be pulled. … If the universities find private monies to be able to do these large-scale studies, they’re still putting in jeopardy their federal funds. …
Q: What are the demographics of the patients at the dispensaries? Average age range? How many are tourists, since that was allowed?
A:According to the most recent Hawaii Department of Health data for April 2019, the average age for both in-state and out-of-state patients is about 50; about 60 percent are women and 40 percent are men.
Since the out-of-state patient program was introduced in March, 362 visitors from 23 states and Washington, D.C., are registered as out-of-state patients. The top three states are Arizona, Michigan and Colorado.
The top three qualifying conditions for visiting patients are severe pain, PTSD and severe nausea.
Q:Lawmakers have resisted permitting dispensaries to sell edibles because they don’t want to market to children. How do you see that issue?
A:The whole point is to keep it out of the reach of children. … But for some children who are actually facing conditions where they need to be consuming cannabis, edibles tend to be … one of the less disruptive ways to be able to do it. …
The nice thing about having it available in dispensaries, in other states, is that you are able to control things … to check how much THC is in it. Because anytime that you change its form into a different form — you bake it or you do something to it — you’re changing chemical constructs of it.
So they’re able to test that in dispensaries; you’re not able to test that at home, when you just bake it. And so that’s where a lot of that guessing game comes in. …
Q: Is there anything that distinguishes Hawaii dispensaries from those in other medical-cannabis states?
A:Yes! There are several factors that make Hawaii dispensaries unique. First off, our state’s mandated vertical integration ensures that each dispensary has total product quality control from seed to sale. We are also known for our state-of-the-art growing facilities, including indoor grow-houses, organic farming practices and distinct strains for each region.
