The Hawaii Department of Health is responsible for administering two distinct but related medical cannabis programs.
- Medical Cannabis Patient Registry Program
- Medical Cannabis Dispensary Program
Both are designed to ensure medical cannabis is accessible for Hawaii’s patients, while making patient safety and public safety its ultimate priorities.
The Medical Cannabis Patient Registry Program states, Hawaii law requires all qualified patients to be registered with the Medical Cannabis Patient Registry Program before they begin to use cannabis for medicinal purposes. The registration process begins when:
- A license Physician or Advanced practice registered nurse certifies the health condition can benefit from medical cannabis
- Patient creates and registers with the DOH medmj.ehawaii.gov account
- DOH reviews, approves and issues a 329 Registration Card
DOH’s goal is to issue the patient’s 329 Registration Card in a timely manner so that patients can begin or continue to legally use medical cannabis.
DOH is required to provide law enforcement officials with limited access to the Medical Cannabis Registry Program’s database as a tool to safeguard the community against illegal cannabis use and/or illegal cannabis grow sites.
The Medical Cannabis Dispensary Program states, the Hawaii Department of Health’s Dispensary Licensing program monitor’s the quality of the cannabis products from seed to sale. This includes statewide oversight of the laboratories that test the safety and quality of the cannabis and manufactured cannabis products, and monitoring of the dispensaries who will grow, manufacture, and sell the products to qualified patients.