Studies have been shown that cannabis can help, in different ways and at different levels, with Alzheimer’s Disease, autism, cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, digestive disorders, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia.

Cannabis use among people aged 50 to 64 went up nearly 60 percent from 2006 to 2013. And use by adults 65 and older went up a whopping 250 percent in that same period.

It makes sense if you consider that it’s seniors who, in general, experience the most aches and pains.

Richard Ha, CEO of Lau Ola, has always looked to the future and shaped his plans accordingly. These days, he’s asking himself about the future of medical cannabis in Hawai‘i and how that looks in terms of economics.

In counties where medical cannabis is legal, alcohol purchases are down 15 percent.  A study also shows this is a long-term effect that has lasted as long as two years.

Kimura and his co-founders at the ag-tech company Smart Yields just returned from Rome where they participated in an accelerator program, which included two months of mentoring and meetings with investors. The Vatican also invested $100,000 in each of the start-ups.

Lau Ola’s 35,000 square-foot cultivation facility is going up in Pepe‘ekeo. Here is some video footage of the facility being built in our beautiful location between Mauna Kea and the sea. We should be able to start growing our medical cannabis in April.

Lau Ola CEO Richard Ha says Hawai‘i’s emerging medical cannabis industry has a great deal of potential for advancing agriculture in the state. Growing medical cannabis requires a different type of closed agricultural system, he says, and it’s one the University of Hawai‘i doesn’t have the critical mass to set up.

What does Jeff Sessions’ recent announcement about rescinding the Cole Memo – an Obama administration-era Justice Department memo that created a policy of the federal government not interfering with more lenient state marijuana laws – really mean?

Cultivo President Autumn Karcey says one of the most frequent questions she hears is why they are building an indoor facility for growing cannabis in Hawai‘i. Why not take advantage of our climate and grow in greenhouses?

One reason this is such an opportunity for Hawai‘i, says Jaclyn Moore, Pharm.D., Lau Ola’s Chief Compliance Officer and a licensed pharmacist, is that each of the eight medical cannabis licensees here is responsible for their products throughout the whole cycle of cultivation, manufacturing and dispensing cannabis as medicine. 

Not all states do it that way, and she says it’s an opportunity to produce high-quality, research-ready cannabis medicine. “A vertical model enables a level of uniformity and standardization essential in the provision of reliable medicine.”

Lau Ola is currently planning to open its dispensaries Summer 2018. Why so long? Simply said, it takes more time and more money to do things right. It was never our goal to be the first dispensary open but it is our stated objective to be the premier medical cannabis provider in Hawaii.

We know that pesticides subjected to high temperatures, such as on cannabis that is smoked, can convert to dangerous compounds. The Myclobutanil-based fungicide Eagle 20, for instance, breaks down to hydrogen cyanide.

Jari Sugano just wants to be able, finally, to buy safe medicine for her daughter instead of having to grow and test her own. “I can’t keep up with raising my child and raising all these products and trying to make medicine. I would really like to buy it.”

Doctors told Ryan and her husband Sophie’s only treatment option was a 13-month protocol of chemotherapy, which they said would not get rid of the tumor. They said she would go blind in her left eye and that vision in her right eye would probably be grossly compromised, so they should prepare for her to become fully blind.

Now Sophie is four and a half years old and thriving. She’s happy and healthy, has a full head of hair and starts school in August.

“I think medical cannabis is very, very effective for a lot of different medical conditions,” he says. “And it’s a wonderful alternative to the more addictive medications that are prescribed or even non-addictive medications that have all these terrible side effects.”

If you are older and feel it’s time to get out and make a difference in your community, Kaui Paleka-Kama can almost certainly set you up.

Paleka-Kama currently has more than 1,200 people, ages 55 and older (including, currently, a 92-year-old), doing volunteer work at more than 180 of the island’s nonprofit agencies.

She is the island-wide program director for Hawai‘i County’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and works out of Nani O Hilo, also known as the Kamanā Senior Center. She can, she says, find almost anyone a place they will enjoy helping at – from preschools and hospitals to nutrition sites, public/private nonprofit agencies and more.

Stream from Big Island on Vimeo.

Lau Ola Gives Away Tilapia

Richard Ha says: “I’m thinking we are probably the first medical cannabis organization that ever gave tilapia away to the community.”

Relay for Life is a team fundraising event where team members take turns walking for hours.

Jenea Respicio, Lau Ola Administrator, explains the significance of participating in the event.  “We at Lau Ola felt strongly that we needed to be at Relay for Life, as a team, in order to let the community know we are here and to support the American Cancer Society,” she says. “We want to let community know we’re working hard to create the best production facility possible to create the safest medical cannabis for them.”

Welcome!

Welcome to the Lau Ola blog, where we are about much more than only medical cannabis.

But it’s not only about cannabis at Lau Ola. We are a “triple bottom line” company, meaning we always think about our community and its future in three ways:

Socially
Environmentally
Economically