Hawaii's Accepted Medical Use of Cannabis

We, the undersigned, hereby recognize the following:

That individual states hold the right to decide the medical use of controlled substances, as confirmed by the Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243, 258 (2006), in which the majority opinion found that "the attorney general has rulemaking power to fulfill his duties under the CSA. The specific respects in which he is authorized to make rules, however, instruct us that he is not authorized to make a rule declaring illegitimate a medical standard for care and treatment of patients that is specifically authorized under state law";

That the state of Hawaii dutifully exercised this right on June 14, 2000, when Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law;

That by accepting the medical use of cannabis, the state of Hawaii not only gave medical use to a Schedule I controlled substance, but it also invalidated the current placement of cannabis in Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which requires that such substances have "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States";

That by accepting the medical use of cannabis, the state of Hawaii obligated itself to notify the federal government that a change in the medical use of a controlled substance has occurred, which in this case also requires that steps be taken to have cannabis removed from federal Schedule I;

And that by refraining from fulfilling this obligation, the state of Hawaii is not only failing to protect the state's right to decide the medical use of controlled substances, but it is also allowing its Medical Marijuana patients to be constantly subjected to the real threat of federal prosecution for the possession and use of a Schedule I controlled substance, which will continue to inflict suffering upon the patients of Hawaii until the federal government acknowledges that cannabis is no longer a Schedule I controlled substance.

Based on these facts, we therefore respectfully require that the following actions be taken immediately:

That the attorney general of Hawaii, in order to provide injunctive relief to its medical marijuana patients while the current classification of cannabis is being corrected, file a temporary and permanent injunction in U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii, enjoining any further enforcement of cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance until it is removed from Schedule I;

And that the governor of Hawaii, at the very same time, write a formal letter directly to the attorney general of the United States, demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice recognize the state's right to decide the medical use of controlled substances, which mandates removal of cannabis from Schedule I.

With warmest Aloha,