County Housing Cannabis letters are wrong! You might have seen or heard of these letters, they say something like "If we catch you with Marijuana, even if it is Medical, we will kick you out on the street with nowhere to live!!!" Here is the kicker: County Housing Cannabis inspectors have no access to the Medical Cannabis registry. The only way that the Section 8 Cannabis inspectors know that you are on the program is if you get caught! What is the most likely way that you get caught? By getting arrested by the police, of course! Some kind of petty thing like a traffic stop or there is some other police action and they find the stash. Then, the offender gets charged and convicted, and then County Housing Cannabis enforcers see the conviction and terminate the lease! This all could have been prevented if the Cannabis user was a legal medical patient! Why? Because police don't arrest medical cannabis patients! With no arrest, no conviction, no termination of the lease!
So, in such irony, by NOT having the medical cannabis card the Section 8 housing Cannabis user is more likely to lose their benefit!
I mean, it is still possible that a legal medical Cannabis patient would be stupid and leave their stash out, or have plants growing, when the County Housing Cannabis Inspector comes to inspect the house for safety concerns...in which case "Ho, brah, you some lolo, fo' leave yo Pakalolo out when da inspectahs do their thing!"
You got the basics of it, now, for those of you who want to know more details, here they are:
OK, OK, why are County Housing Cannabis rules the way that they are? Simple: They are "Arbitrary and Capricious", which is legal jargon for meaning "with no real purpose and also harmful"! You see, the County Housing administration gets money from the Federal Government. The Feds tell the County and State governments (which are the ones that run the housing programs) this: "We, the Feds, have laws saying that Marijuana is a super dangerous drug, and if you let druggies live in houses that we pay for then you are supporting drug houses and we will cut you off from funding!!!" Usually it is the DEA that shows up, wearing battle armor and carrying automatic rifles, to the County Housing office, threatening the Big Boss! The Big Boss of County Housing feels that they must obey! I mean, most people would, right? Wrong! The State of Hawaii Department of Health actually issues the cards, and supervises the legal production of thousands of pounds of Cannabis grown and sold by dispensaries in Hawaii, and the Feds have not cut off funding to the State of Hawaii.
The State has immunity based on this: At issue in Conant v. Walters, No. 00-17222 (formerly Conant v. McCaffrey), is whether the government has the power to issue a gag order on physicians who recommend medical marijuana based on the broad assertion that the “public interest” outweighs any First Amendment consideration.
The court answered that question today with a resounding “no.”
Here is the source for this citation:
So, there is that! Of course, Federal laws against Marijuana are indeed "arbitrary and Capricious" as specifically stated by an Administrative Law Judge who was an employee of the Federal Government!!! Here is the citation, and source. Please note that the source is a FEDERAL website!
on September 6, 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration's chief administrative law judge, Francis L Young, after a long series of hearings, ruled:
Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record.1
The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report, on the request of the US Congress, was also favorable toward the medical use of marijuana.2 It confirmed that marijuana was safe and beneficial in a wide range of conditions.
Source:
Many patients wonder how the Cannabis county housing (also known as Section 8 housing cannabis) rules work. Let me break down the Section 8 housing cannabis rules into three parts:
1) The "letter of the law", or directives regarding Section 8 Cannabis laws/rules;
2) The reality of how the Section 8 Cannabis laws are implemented/enforced;
3) Ways to maximize your safety while still complying with the Section 8 Cannabis rules/laws.
First off, the Section 8 Cannabis administration has created laws regarding County Housing Cannabis "violations". The position of County Housing related to Cannabis is that there shall be no Cannabis products or plants in Section 8 units, and that residents must not use Cannabis. Pretty simple.
Secondly, the Medical Cannabis program in Hawaii is run by the Department of Health, so the Cannabis registry (list of cannabis patient names) are protected by strict Health Information Portability and Protection Act (HIPPA) laws. The only entities that have access to the Registry are Cannabis dispensaries and a very limited number of authorized police officers; the police can ONLY look up a specific patient or location if there is reason to do so (like a complaint, or a police officer sees Cannabis and the Registry card is not immediately available). Therefore, County Housing Cannabis rules are only enforceable if the County Housing Cannabis inspectors find evidence of Cannabis use or possession from outside sources (like conviction records)....well, OK, some residents are stupid and leave their stash or plants for the annual Section 8 Cannabis Inspectors to find. But, really.....
Thirdly: All County Housing Cannabis users should get their medical cannabis card! Just don't keep your weed on your Section 8 property. Your car is your own private property, even if it is parked in the driveway, as far as I know (police need a search warrant, based on reasonable cause, to search a car as separate from a house). Or, keep your stash at a friend's house (they should be a medical Cannabis patient or your assigned medical Cannabis caregiver).