A $265,000 grant that would have financed aerial marijuana eradication efforts in Hawaii was returned to the Drug Enforcement Administration after the Hawaii County Council failed to obtain an insurance policy protecting council members from impeachment.
According to the county charter, county officials may be impeached for illegal or improper actions through the submittal of a petition containing 100 registered voters. Opponents of Green Harvest (the marijuana eradication effort) had previously filed impeachment petitions against mayor Stephen Yamashiro and the council over allegations that the county failed to provide an adequate review of the program. The charges were later dismissed by a circuit court judge on technical grounds.
The bulk of the grant money was earmarked for helicopter rentals to spot marijuana grow plots. Hawaiian citizens have complained that the air surveillance is an invasion of privacy and a noise disturbance.
“It’s harvest time now, so this is the perfect time for this to have happened,” said Roger Christie, a Hawaiian marijuana advocate. “Marijuana eradication and prohibition is on thin ice and it’s global warming time.”
For more information, please contact Roger Christie at (808) 961-0488.
