HONOLULU (CNN) -- Sick Hawaiians who grow, possess and use marijuana with the approval of their doctors no longer face state-level criminal penalties for doing so.
Gov. Ben Cayetano, a Democrat, signed a bill Wednesday decriminalizing the use of marijuana by that group, a spokeswoman said.
Though similar laws have been passed in seven states and the District of Columbia since 1996, Hawaii is the first state where the law was enacted by a state legislature rather than through a ballot initiative.
Ballot initiatives used elsewhere
In the other states -- Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Maine, Colorado and Nevada -- the laws were changed by statewide initiatives.
But only half the 50 states have an initiative process. In order to pass laws nationwide, "we have to be able to win this in a traditional manner," said Keith Stroup, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, in Washington.
Support found for legalizing medical use
Polls have found 73 percent of Americans say they favor legalizing the medical use of the drug if a doctor recommends it, but elected officials have been reluctant to pass such legislation, said Stroup.
"We think this will be the start of a series of states over the next two or three years," he said.
Use of the drug remains illegal under federal laws, but the FBI's statistics show that 99 percent of marijuana arrests are made by state and local police, said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, in Washington, which advocates patient access to medical marijuana.
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