HILO >> Big Island Mayor Harry Kim signed two sets of rules yesterday intended to guide police dealings with marijuana. But the rules appeared to do nothing to quiet critics of police. Kim signs medical pot rules
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.comResidents of Puna Beach Palisades south of Hilo were angered Thursday when a marijuana eradication helicopter landed on a vacant lot to seize 14 plants, said resident Judith Mura. Residents are circulating a petition to Kim to halt such activity, she said.
But new eradication rules signed by Kim say nothing for or against helicopters landing in residential areas, although they do say helicopters are supposed to stay 500 feet away from homes.
Hilo police, meanwhile, said they had ripped up 9,283 marijuana plants in a five-day eradication effort that ended yesterday. The plants were ripped up from 609 separate plots in Puna, Hilo, North Hilo and Hamakua, police said.
Kim also signed medical marijuana rules, which say people with state permits may have three mature plants among other supplies.
The county definition of "mature" is the same as the state definition in Hawaii administrative rules. A mature plant is one that "has flowered and has buds that are readily observed," the rules say.
Critics, including four Big Island medical marijuana patients whose plants with buds were seized by police in the past two weeks, said the mere presence of buds does not mean a plant is mature and usable for medicine.
"If an avocado has fruit on it, does that mean (the fruit) is mature?" asked Tom Mountain of the Honolulu Medical Marijuana Patients' Co-op.
The majority of medical marijuana users are on Oahu, but there are few safe places on Oahu to grow marijuana, and Big Island police are making medical marijuana even harder to get, he said.
Police officials drafted the new Big Island rules. They were not available to comment.