Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson was the only medical marijuana dispensary applicant to score exactly 420 points, but it still wasn’t high enough to earn him a coveted spot as one of Hawaii’s first cannabis sales operators.
Despite landing the four-twenty — a number pot smokers worldwide consider an auspicious time and date to smoke weed — Harrelson scored lower than 11 others vying for the three licenses issued for Oahu. Others included “Tetris” video game licensee Henk Rogers, who scored 428 points, and “Hawaii Stars” television producer Dirk Fukushima, who racked up 426.5 points. Local insurance executive Colbert Matsumoto’s Cure Oahu, one of the dispensary winners, scored 470 points.
On Friday the state Department of Health released the scores of the 66 applications from businesses competing for eight dispensary licenses that were judged on 13 criteria by a four-member selection panel. The maximum score applicants could receive was 520 — 10 points per panelist for each of the criteria.
Maui Land & Pineapple CEO David Cole’s Maui Wellness Group LLC received 510 points, winning him a license. Michael Irish, CEO of kim chee manufacturer Halm’s Enterprises Inc., scored just 211 points. Hollywood producer Shep Gordon’s Maui Medical Marijuana Dispensary LLC earned 468 points — not enough to get him a dispensary contract.
On the Big Island, former attorney Shelby Floyd’s group tally was 480, enough to snag a license, as was farmer Richard Ha’s 471.5 points. Real estate executive Justin Britt got 433 points to win a contract to sell marijuana on Kauai.
Meanwhile, 12 applicants were not ranked for merit because they did not submit enough documentation, including former health care executive Eugene Tiwanak, with 460 points, and Kimberly Dey, daughter of billionaire and software entrepreneur Charles Wang, with 440 points.
Act 241, passed in 2015, allows medical marijuana businesses to have two production centers and two retail dispensaries, for a total of 16 dispensaries statewide.
Hawaii became the first state to legalize medical marijuana through the legislative process 16 years ago, but patients did not have a legal way to obtain it.
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The complete list is available at health.hawaii.gov/medicalmarijuanadispensary/latest-updates-and-news/.
