Court Opinion

ID: 9588268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:32:02.199054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:00:46.203594
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
KOBAYASHI, J.
Just as it is a valid exercise of the State of Hawaii’s police-power to regulate the sale, use, and possession of such commodities as alcohol and tobacco, it is axiomatic that the regulation of marijuana is also a valid state activity. I feel, however, that our present method of regulating marijuana — inclusion of marijuana within the classification of criminally proscribed narcotics — is unreasonable and unconstitutional in violation of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
We have in the past in reviewing statutory classifica*348tions recognized that “it is the duty of this court to see that the legislature does not seek to achieve noble ends by unconstitutionally arbitrary means”. Hasegawa v. Maui Pineapple Co., 52 Haw. 327, 331, 475 P.2d 679, 682 (1970). Even if I felt that the legislature’s present treatment of marijuana achieved a noble end, which I do not, HRS § 329-5, which proscribes the use of narcotics and classifies marijuana as a narcotic, must be regarded as an unconstitutionally arbitrary legislative declaration tantamount to an abuse of the state’s police-power.
The equal protection clause has been construed by the U.S. Supreme Court so as to require that criminal statutory classification schemes cover all persons or things related to each other reasonably, logically or scientifically where their inclusion in the classification is necessary to effectuate the legislative purposes of the statute. McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964); Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535 (1942). The Supreme Court of Washington, citing Skinner in construing Washington’s narcotic statute, said that “[i]t is doubtful whether a legislative declaration contrary to all the evidence can be sustained as constitutional, if its effect is to deny a defendant equal treatment under the law.” State v. Zornes, 78 Wash.2d 9, 20, 475 P.2d 109, 116 (1970). There has been shown no valid rational basis for including marijuana within the narcotic statute. Nor are there reasonably logical or scientific grounds for such a classification. On the contrary, the rationale for not including marijuana within HRS § 329-5 far outweighs the traditional arguments that support its continued inclusion.
Presumptively the statutory purpose sought to be attained by including marijuana within the classification of proscribed narcotic drugs stems from the following reasons: 1) that marijuana’s use is per se harmful to the user, 2) that the use of marijuana is a stepping-stone to more serious drugs, 3) that the effects of consuming marijuana are sufficiently related to the effects of consuming narcotics, 4) that the use of marijuana leads to criminal ac*349tivity. These postulations have simply not been borne out. The findings from the evidence adduced indicate that none of the above rationale bears a reasonable relation to the inclusion of marijuana within the narcotic classification.
The Washington court in Zornes, supra, cites an article appearing in an official publication of the federal courts as describing the effects of marijuana:
Acute physical symptoms frequently include conjunctival vascular injection, dryness of the mouth and pharynx, irritation of the throat, increased sensitivity to light, sound, touch, and pain stimuli, and such changes in the autonomic nervous system as increase in pulse, blood pressure, and tendon reflexes. Ataxia, the impaired ability to coordinate voluntary muscular movements, may also occur. Appetite is often stimulated. There is no evidence that marihuana increases sexual potency. There are as yet no recognized lasting ill effects directly attributed to the brief use of marihuana nor has a death been reported in this country due to over-dosage.
The mental changes following marihuana use are variable and depend in part upon the expectations and prior drug experience of the user and the social setting at the time of use; thus, the meaning of the experience is largely socially acquired. Marihuana is primarily classified as a hallucinogen even though intoxication may include both early stimulant and later depressant effects. A decreased sense of fatigue, relaxation, and increased self-confidence has been described. There may be a distortion of affect toward omnipotency and a perception of “insight” rarely shared by the unintoxicated. The individual is often garrulous, giggly, and talk is disconnected. Associated with a period of euphoria, or well-being, there may be distortions of time, space, color, and other sensory perception with increased dosage.
Depersonalization, the perception of the physical body as not self, has been described with use. While this distortion might be expected to increase the likelihood of *350self-injury, we know of no documentation to confirm this expectation.
Increased suggestibility, decreased judgment, and change of affect may be followed by depression and sleep. There may also be delusions, hallucinations, suspiciousness, panic, and fear of death. Violent or aggressive behavior is unusual. While occasional persons may be especially sensitive to even small doses, with the result that a psychotic-like state is produced, there is recent evidence that almost all persons are so affected with sufficient dosage. A puzzling observance is that many of the persons who have had frightening episodes in their marihuana experience wish to repeat it.
In summary, the acute effects of marihuana smoking commonly include a euphoric state accompanied by motor excitation and mental confusion. These reactions are often followed by a period of dreaminess, depression, and sleep. The wide variety of individual reactions appears to be more closely related to personality differences (including expectations and emotional arousal) and the cultural setting of use than to any specific property of the drug itself. Recognizing this variability, one user remarked that “every person has the dream he deserves.” (Italics ours.) (Footnotes omitted.) D. Pet, M.D., and J. Ball, Ph.D., Marihuana Smoking in the United States, 32 Federal Probation 8 (No. 3, 1968), published by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts in Cooperation with the Bureau of Prisons of the Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.; see also A. Lindesmith, The Addict and the Law, Indiana University Press (1965), at 222-242.
The consensus is that cannabis [marijuana] is not a narcotic but rather is a mild hallucinogenic and that it has a stimulating and depressant effect on the central nervous system. (Emphasis added.)
Zornes, supra, 475 P.2d at 114-15.
The plurality states that the evidence in this case shows *351“that marijuana has many of the properties of a narcotic, scientifically defined”. The manner in which the plurality construes the evidence presented on this issue is untenable. It is conceded that the phenomenon of “tolerance” (over time increasingly larger doses required to achieve the same initial effect) and “physiological dependence” (symptoms of salivation, nausea, convulsions and extreme pain accompany the withdrawal of the drug to the user) and the ability to cause death through respiratory paralysis “are properties of narcotics, scientifically defined, but are not properties of marijuana.” The only support that can be found for the position that marijuana has any of the properties of a-narcotic is the contention that it may relieve pain in small doses, produce stupor, and invoke sleep in higher doses as do narcotics. Surely when comparing the properties and characteristics solely attributable to hard narcotics such as heroin, morphine, or cocaine with those jointly held by marijuana and narcotics a distinction becomes apparent between the severity of the respective causal effects. The evidence indicates that the harms produced by the abusive use of marijuana are essentially of the same nature and quality as those produced by the abusive use of alcohol. As such, the failure to include alcohol within the criminally proscribed statutory classification could itself be considered violative of equal protection.
It is evident that much research into the long term effects of consuming marijuana is presently needed. As yet, however, it has not been shown that consumption of marijuana is any more harmful than a comparable consumption of alcohol and it is doubtful that the presently known effects of marijuana are as adverse as those of alcohol. Until legitimate research indicates otherwise, the harm created by placing a criminal sanction on the activity of a significant percentage of our population who would otherwise be law abiding citizens far outweighs any present benefit to be derived from the effects of classifying marijuana as a narcotic. There is no logical or otherwise rational reason for *352our society, on the basis of a law that has little or no merit in its application, to continue to make criminals out of and consequently alienate the youth of today.
The use of marijuana does not cause the social ills that the legislature has attempted to guard against. It is the present status of the law classifying marijuana as a narcotic and proscribing its use as a narcotic that is responsible for the social harm created. Organized crime is greatly benefitted by the fact that possessing, using, and trafficking in marijuana have been made illegal. Marijuana’s illegality merely adds another weapon to the armory of the underworld for the exploitation of society, just as do prostitution, gambling and other prohibited activity. The difference is that the latter activities are justifiably proscribed while the benefit if any of making marijuana illegal is far outweighed by the consequential social detriment. It is a popular contention that the supplying and marketing of marijuana is done on a low-key individual basis. This position is probably not now applicable to the State of Hawaii. It is contended that the underworld has adopted the practice of controlling the supply of marijuana so that it can withdraw marijuana completely in a given area, simultaneously encouraging the users of marijuana to switch to codeine pills and then to heroin, resulting in a substantial monetary gain for organized crime.1 While it has been shown that the use of marijuana itself is not addictive and does not necessarily lead to the use of narcotic drugs, the addition of criminal elements bearing pressure on the marijuana user to switch to narcotics creates a substantial danger of increasing the number of narcotic users.
It is suggested that a more reasonable and rational approach in this area would be to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to that of alcohol or tobacco. In this way the abusive use of marijuana, not its reasonable use, would *353be given criminal sanctions. Such a change of the law in this area would instill the respect of society that is needed for the preservation of criminal justice and prospectively decrease the criminalization of our younger generation.

Hunter, Sunday Star-Bulletin & Advertiser, July 25, 1971, § A, at 1. But see Honolulu Advertiser, July 26, 1971, § A, at 1.