§329D-4  Medical cannabis dispensaries; license application procedure and verification; fees.  (a)  The department shall make a medical cannabis dispensary license application form available to the public on January 11, 2016, commencing at 8:00 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time.

     (b)  The department shall establish an open application period for each available license, the first of which shall be no later than 8:00 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, on January 12, 2016, during which an application may be submitted.  This submittal period shall be closed on January 29, 2016, at 4:30 p.m.  The department shall publish notice of the open application period no less than thirty days prior to the start of the open application period.

     (c)  Pursuant to section 329D-7(2), a nonrefundable application fee for each license application shall be submitted to the department by certified or cashier's check.  Within seven days of approval, a dispensary license fee for each license approved shall be submitted to the department by certified or cashier's check or the department shall issue a license to the next qualified applicant.

     (d)  All fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the medical cannabis registry and regulation special fund pursuant to section 321-30.1.

     (e)  Immediately upon receipt of each completed application form, the department shall issue a receipt to each applicant that includes the date and time of receipt.

     (f)  If an applicant submits an application form in which all required information is not complete and valid, the application shall not be accepted by the department and the nonrefundable application fee shall be deposited in the medical cannabis registry and regulation special fund established pursuant to section 321-30.1.

     (g)  The medical cannabis dispensary application form shall request information necessary to verify that applicants meet the required qualifications pursuant to section 329D-3.  Applicants shall provide a minimum of the following information:

     (1)  Legal name and date of birth of individual applicant;

     (2)  Last four digits of individual applicant's social security number;

     (3)  Validation code from an eCrim report for the individual applicant generated by the Hawaii criminal justice data center no earlier than December 12, 2015, at 8:00 a.m., Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time;

     (4)  Street address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the individual applicant;

     (5)  A tax clearance certificate issued by the department of taxation dated not more than thirty days prior to the date of the application;

     (6)  Name of the applying entity and any other name under which the applying entity does business, if applicable;

     (7)  Street address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the applying entity;

     (8)  Date the applying entity was organized under the laws of Hawaii;

     (9)  A certified copy of the organizing documents of the applying entity;

    (10)  A copy of the applying entity's bylaws;

    (11)  Federal employer identification number of the applying entity;

    (12)  Hawaii tax identification number of applying entity;

    (13)  Department of commerce and consumer affairs business registration number and suffix of the applying entity;

    (14)  Name(s) of all owners of the applying entity, in whole or in part, and their percentage of ownership;

    (15)  Date when continuous legal residence in Hawaii began for each Hawaii legal resident that owns a percentage of the applying entity;

    (16)  Total percentage of the applying entity that is owned by Hawaii legal residents;

    (17)  Designation of the county for which the dispensary license applied for and proof that the required minimum financial resources of $1,200,000 are met;

    (18)  Total dollar amount of financial resources under control of the applying entity in the form of bank statements or escrow accounts;

    (19)  Date from when financial resources have been continuously controlled by the applying entity; and

    (20)  Copies of the entity's bank statements for the twelve months prior to the date of the application.

     (h)  The department shall maintain a record of the time and date that all completed application forms were submitted.

     (i)  The department shall process and deposit the application fee within four business days of receipt of the completed application form.

     (j)  If, for any reason, the application fee is not available for deposit, the application shall be deemed void and the department shall inform the applicant in writing that its application has been rejected.

     (k)  The department shall review and verify the information and documentation materials only of applicants whose nonrefundable application fee has been processed and deposited.

     (l)  The department shall verify that the information submitted in the application is true and valid and meets the requirements established in section 329D-3(b).

     (m)  Upon verification of the minimum requirements, the department shall place the verified application into the pool of applicants for further review and selection based on merit by the department.

     (n)  Pursuant to section [329D-7(2)], a dispensary license may be renewed annually by payment of an annual renewal fee and subject to verification by the department through an unannounced inspection that the individual licensee and entity licensee continue to meet all licensing requirements from the date the initial licenses were issued. [L 2015, c 241, pt of §2; am L 2016, c 184, §5; am L 2017, c 170, §2; am L 2022, c 309, §6]