Hawaii Marijuana Legalization Bill Gets Approval From House Committees At Joint Hearing


A sweeping invoice to legalize adult-use marijuana in Hawaii and convey collectively hemp and hashish regulation underneath a single company superior on Tuesday, profitable approval from a pair of House committees at a joint listening to.

The measure—HB 1246, from Rep. David Tarnas (D)—was heard at a gathering of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and the Committee on Agriculture and Food Systems. The our bodies voted 6–4 and 5–0, respectively, to advance the proposal.

“This is a one-plant approach so that it would under this office regulate medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis and hemp products that are for consumption or use on the skin by humans. It would not include industrial hemp for construction or for cloth,” Tarnas, who chairs the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, stated on the listening to.

He additionally emphasised that the laws has “protections against the multi-state operators from coming into Hawaii” in an effort to bolster native companies as an alternative of making alternatives for big companies from elsewhere to dominate the market as has occurred in different states.

“The bill includes a five-year residency requirement, which will limit who can be licensed and prevent these out-of-state corporations from obtaining licenses,” Tarnas stated.

Public remark forward of the vote demonstrated what Tarnas acknowledged had been divided opinions on the proposed change.

“We have received testimony—95 in support, 135 in opposition and comments from 11,” the sponsor stated. “So you can tell, this is really in many ways a divisive issue. It’s got people with strong feelings on both sides.”

If enacted, the laws would set up the Hawaii Cannabis and Hemp Office, which might oversee adult-use hashish, medical marijuana and hemp companies. Adults 21 and older would be capable of possess as much as an oz. of marijuana and 5 grams of hashish focus starting January 1, 2026. Adults might additionally develop restricted quantities of marijuana at house for private use.

A companion invoice within the Senate, SB 1613, has been launched by Health and Human Services Committee Chair Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D).

The new proposal comes after lawmakers final 12 months fell in need of passing a legalization invoice. The Senate approved approved that measure last March, however, as with previous efforts to finish prohibition, it stalled out within the House of Representatives.

Ahead of Tuesday’s listening to, the panels acquired almost 300 pages of testimony, together with from state businesses, advocacy organizations and members of the general public.

Many of the general public businesses that submitted feedback didn’t take an total place on the invoice, as an alternative providing suggestions on particular person provisions. Some company officers additionally requested a delayed efficient date on the invoice with a view to put together for the authorized change.

Nadine Ando, director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, for instance, stated the invoice’s “commitment to public health protections, including an extensive public health and education campaign, reflects a responsible approach to mitigate potential risks associated with cannabis use,” added that the division “also supports the intent to establish a zero-tolerance policy toward distributing cannabis to individuals under the age of twenty-one and driving under the influence of cannabis.”

The Department of the Attorney General, in the meantime, recommended adjustments to the invoice’s provisions on open containers in automobiles. As launched, the invoice would prohibit open hashish packages in a shifting automobile except they had been saved in a trunk or different compartment out of the motive force’s attain. The AG’s workplace stated the “out of reach of the driver” exception “would make enforcement of the open container law difficult, as a driver can just pass any open cannabis container, joint, or pipe, to their passenger or otherwise move it out of reach after a traffic stop, but before the officer reaches the car.”

The workplace recommended as an alternative that the measure prohibit all open containers except explicitly “stored in a trunk, luggage compartment, or similar container.”

The Department of the Attorney General additionally really helpful that along with authorized penalties for minors in possession of marijuana, in addition they be referred to an evaluation by a substance abuse counselor and probably required to acquire remedy for substance use dysfunction.

Luis Salaveria, director of the Department of Budget and Finance, stated the company “recommends that the tax on cannabis products be set at a parity to, if not higher than, other ‘sin’ taxes, with a portion of revenues deposited to the general fund to support the extensive legal, regulatory, and grant-issuing framework proposed by this bill in a self-sustaining matter.”

He wrote that projected hashish tax income for fiscal 12 months 2026 could be $4.4 million, rising to an estimated $17 million in fiscal 2027, including that “it is difficult to determine” whether or not the invoice’s proposed Cannabis Regulation and Enforcement Special Fund “will be self-sustaining.”

Slaveria concluded, nevertheless, that the Department of Budget and Finance defers to different businesses as to “the programmatic merits of this bill.”

The Department of Agriculture, for its half, stated it “supports the ‘one-plant’ approach” and “believes that this bill provides substantial protection for hemp farmers and will support the hemp industry into the future,” although it really helpful adjustments round importation and inter-island switch of hashish vegetation. One suggestion, for instance, is that the state’s regulation towards shifting wildlife from one island to a different not apply to hashish and hemp.

The Department of Health stated that whereas it “appreciates that a priority of HB1246 is the implementation of extensive, well-funded public health protections,” it however expects that legalizing adult-use marijuana would “have a negative impact on the health of the public,” warning of suicidal ideation, elevated threat of psychotic problems resembling schizophrenia and considerations about exposing fetuses and newborns to hashish.

The well being division did, nevertheless, say it “strongly supports the ‘one plant, one regulatory agency’ best practice” embodied within the invoice, and it expressed appreciation for its “intent to address inequalities by bringing economic opportunity to disadvantaged regions of Hawaii and transition illicit operators to the legal market through a robust social equity grant and fee waiver program.”

Groups that formally opposed the measures in public testimony included regulation enforcement—such because the Honolulu Police Department and the prosecuting attorneys’ workplaces in Honolulu and Maui—in addition to anti-drug teams, together with the Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition and the Hawai’i Family Forum.

Some others, such because the Hawaiian Islands Republican Women, stated they help the medical use of marijuana however not its nonmedical use.

Among these in help had been the Stonewall Caucus of the state Democratic Party—which stated the invoice “represents a crucial step forward toward modernizing our state’s cannabis laws, supporting economic growth, and addressing long-standing issues of social equity and criminal justice reform”—in addition to the occasion’s training caucus.

Drug reform teams had been broadly supportive of the invoice—together with some that withheld help for final 12 months’s invoice.

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), for instance, submitted feedback on final 12 months’s proposal however didn’t endorse the measure. This 12 months’s revised model, nevertheless, gained the group’s help, wrote Karen O’Keefe, MPP’s director of state insurance policies.

“We urge you to report HB 1246 favorably so that Hawai’i can join the 24 other states that have legalized cannabis for adults 21 years of age and older,” O’Keefe stated in submitted testimony, urging lawmakers to undertake amendments that may additional prioritize legacy operators.

She additionally stated that the invoice “would provide consumers with a safer alternative to both illicit cannabis and potent ‘gas station cannabis’ that is widespread in Hawai’i now.”

“It mandates rules on lab testing, sanitation, health and safety, labeling, dosages, and potency, and requires packaging to be opaque, a single color with no graphics, child-resistant, and resealable. It requires warnings on the products and on flyers in cannabis stores, and bans hazardous and detrimental products,” her feedback stated, additionally emphasizing that youth use of marijuana has decreased in most states that legalized hashish.

As for final 12 months’s invoice, O’Keefe advised Marijuana Moment earlier this 12 months that she had blended emotions about that proposal, which many noticed as over-regulated. Based on a draft from the state lawyer common’s workplace, the invoice “had a lot of language that we considered too authoritarian, too restrictive,” she defined, noting that in some instances—resembling a non-impaired driver who however had measurable THC of their system—the proposal would have truly elevated legal penalties.

The group Doctors for Drug Policy Reform additionally testified in help of the brand new invoice, writing that “the most significant detriment of cannabis lies in the severe consequences of arrests or imprisonment, profoundly impacting both individual and societal well-being.”

“The ramifications of a cannabis-related arrest or conviction can endure a lifetime,” the group stated, “hindering employment prospects, access to financial resources like car loans or mortgages, eligibility for student financial aid, and securing public housing.”

Nikos Leverenz, board president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai’i, additionally submitted feedback in favor of the measure. In a subsequent assertion to Marijuana Moment about Tuesday’s votes, Leverenz stated the committees “advanced a bill that is a significant improvement over last year’s vehicle.”

“The provisions for social equity and craft cannabis licenses are especially salutary,” he stated. “HB 1246 lays a measured but strong regulatory basis for Hawaii to maneuver past the decades-long failure of criminalization that also ensnares far too many within the legal authorized system. Those who’re criminalized embrace kids, with Native Hawaiian and Pasifika households disproportionately impacted.

“Legalization of adult-use can help provide the kind of science-based education and prevention programs in our communities to reduce the use of alcohol and other drugs and also help prevent violence,” Leverenz added.

As for the probabilities of passage, the advocate famous that Gov. Josh Green (D) and the state Senate help legalization. “As such, the House has an opportunity in the coming weeks to create a cannabis economic sector that can create new jobs and businesses to benefit our state in the near term. Should the federal government soon open the gate to interstate commerce, this bill will position Hawaii to compete in the national market instead of getting steamrolled by large corporate interests from the continent,” he stated.

Before voting to approve the laws, the joint committees adopted a lot of amendments, together with including a faulty date, which is a procedural methodology of guaranteeing that the laws receives extra dialogue earlier than being enacted.

Lawmakers additionally blanked out the appropriations provisions and people regarding the creation of recent state positions, leaving it to later committees to deal with these points.

Tarnas additionally stated the panels had been adopting really helpful amendments from the lawyer common, Department of Human Resource Development, Department of Taxation and Hawai’i Alliance for Cannabis Reform.

Additional adjustments concern the usage of medical hashish in pupil housing at faculties and universities, enterprise software necessities for present medical marijuana operators and THC quantities in hashish tinctures.

Here’s what the laws, HB 1246 / SB 1613, would do:

  • Establish the Hawaii Cannabis and Hemp Office, which might regulate adult-use hashish, medical marijuana and hemp companies. The workplace could be housed throughout the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and charged with prioritizing public well being and security.
  • Regulators would promulgate guidelines for the state hashish system, license companies, register sufferers, keep a seed-to-sale monitoring system and publish research and studies on numerous components of this system.
  • Interim guidelines could be due by December 31, 2025, with ultimate guidelines to be adopted by December 31, 2030.
  • An 11-person advisory board would examine points round federal regulation, affected person entry, fairness and different issues, making suggestions to lawmakers and regulators. Members would come with representatives of the hemp and marijuana industries, agriculture, public well being and security, Native Hawaiian tradition, psychological well being and substance abuse remedy.
  • As of January 1, 2026, adults 21 and older might possess as much as an oz. of marijuana and 5 grams of hashish focus.
  • As of January 1, 2026, adults might additionally develop as much as six vegetation for private use and retailer as much as 10 ounces of homegrown hashish of their residence. Households with a number of adults could be restricted to a complete of 10 vegetation and two kilos of homegrown hashish.
  • Sales of adult-use hashish could be taxed at 14 %, whereas the medical marijuana tax price would stay at 4 %.
  • After the prices of administering this system, 30 % of state income would go to a social fairness grants program. A public well being and training grants program would obtain 10 %, as would a separate public security grant program. Five % every would go to a hemp grants program, to counties, to the lawyer common’s workplace for nuisance abatement and to counter cash laundering and arranged crime.
  • Synthetic or “artificially derived” cannabinoid merchandise could be restricted.
  • Edibles couldn’t resemble sweet or different merchandise aimed toward kids, nor might they appear to be folks, animals, fruit or cartoons.
  • Packaging couldn’t embrace graphics, photos or a number of colours. Medical marijuana particularly would must be in white packaging.
  • Labels would wish to incorporate a common hashish image.
  • Cultivation couldn’t happen in federal public housing, shelters, on-campus housing or inns, amongst different places, and it may very well be prohibited by landlords and owners associations.
  • Landlords might prohibit smoking or vaping marijuana however on the whole couldn’t ban folks from possessing non-inhaled hashish merchandise.
  • Smoking marijuana in public could be a civil violation, with penalties of as much as $130 or 10 hours of neighborhood service
  • Driving underneath the affect of marijuana would stay against the law. A brand new penalty would additionally punish a passenger discovered smoking or vaping with a petty misdemeanor, carrying a effective of as much as $2,000.
  • Unless saved in a automobile’s trunk or different place out of attain of the motive force, an open container could be punished by a effective of as much as $130 or as much as 10 hours of neighborhood service.
  • Selling hashish to minors could be a misdemeanor.
  • Diverting marijuana from a licensed enterprise to the unregulated market could be a Class C felony.
  • Unlicensed extraction of hashish utilizing butane could be a Class C felony.
  • Minors possessing as much as 5 grams of hashish focus may very well be charged with a petty misdemeanor, as might adults in possession of greater than 5 grams of focus.
  • State and native authorities staff on the whole couldn’t be fired for utilizing medical or adult-use hashish away from work or for testing constructive marijuana metabolites. Employees topic to federal necessities wouldn’t qualify for such protections, and exceptions might apply within the case of collective bargaining agreements.
  • Regulators would license cultivators, processors, retailers, smaller-scale craft dispensaries and impartial testing laboratories. Craft dispensaries might promote solely their very own hashish merchandise.
  • The first spherical of licenses underneath the regulation could be issued by July 1, 2026, although dual-use licenses permitting medical marijuana companies to serve adult-use clients could be issued by January 1, 2026.
  • Licenses could be awarded based mostly on a randomized lottery supplied candidates meet sure minimal requirements and {qualifications}. Participation by small companies, Indigenous farmers and other people from areas disproportionately impacted by the drug ware could be inspired.
  • No particular person might have an curiosity in additional than 9 licenses, as much as three per license class.
  • People with an curiosity in an impartial testing lab couldn’t have an curiosity in every other hashish enterprise.
  • People with an curiosity in a small-scale cooperative or craft dispensary couldn’t have an curiosity in a enterprise of every other license kind.
  • All license candidates would must be residents of Hawaii for a minimum of 5 years and couldn’t have any felony convictions apart from for cannabis-related offenses, pardoned or expunged offenses or sentences accomplished greater than 10 years earlier.
  • Regulators might craft guidelines to permit particular occasion permits, social consumption and sure different actions.
  • Medical marijuana dispensaries might transition to dual-use (medical and leisure) retail services. Conversion would value $50,000 per retail location and $25,000 for every manufacturing facility.
  • State-registered sufferers and caregivers might possess as much as 4 ounces of marijuana. They might additionally develop as much as 10 vegetation and possess as much as a pound every of homegrown hashish for private use, with a most of two kilos per family.
  • State regulators would license medical marijuana co-ops of as much as 5 sufferers.
  • Regulations would come with guidelines round safety, well being and security, promoting and labeling, vitality and environmental requirements, worker coaching and numerous different issues.
  • All staff of hashish companies would must be a minimum of 21 years of age. No one underneath 21 might enter retail shops.
  • Businesses would must be a minimum of 750 ft from colleges, parks and public housing complexes.
  • Cultivators could be restricted to three,500 sq. ft of indoor cover area and 5,000 sq. ft of outside develop area.
  • Handouts would must be included with all offered merchandise. They would wish to incorporate a wide range of info, together with directions, warnings about secure use, potential adversarial results and the standing of federal regulation—together with how the battle with federal prohibition impacts gun rights, employment and different rights and advantages.
  • Pesticide use on hashish merchandise could be regulated by the state Department of Agriculture.
  • Hemp companies might promote cured hashish flower supplied it meets U.S. Department of Agriculture compliance requirements and state guidelines round testing, packaging and labeling.
  • Aerosol hemp sprays could be prohibited.
  • Hemp cultivation could be prohibited inside 300 ft of faculties, childcare facilities or playgrounds and will additionally not be inside 100 ft of a residence not owned by the licensee.
  • With regard to hemp, regulators might prohibit particular cannabinoid merchandise. Hemp tinctures might comprise not more than 30 milligrams of THC per package deal and will solely be offered to adults 21 and older.
  • A social fairness grants program would help candidates who’d resided in a disproportionately impacted space for a minimum of 5 of the previous 10 years or companies with greater than half of staff residing in a disproportionately impacted space.
  • “Disproportionately impacted area” would confer with areas of persistent poverty, medically underserved communities, and traditionally deprived communities as decided by regulators.
  • Equity candidates would qualify for a 50 % low cost on software and licensing charges for his or her first 5 years of operation.
  • Equity grants would come with monetary help, technical help and coaching.
  • Funding would additionally go to community-based organizations to help childcare and youth packages.
  • Regulators would rent contractors to develop a public well being and training marketing campaign starting later this 12 months.
  • A public well being and grant program would award funds to community-based organizations for a wide range of well being and teaching programs.
  • A separate public security grant program would award funds to state and county businesses for regulation enforcement, disaster intervention, and enforcement of nuisance abatement legal guidelines, amongst others initiatives.
  • A hemp grant program would help smaller cultivators with trade coaching, technical help and market analysis initiatives.
  • Marijuana companies might deduct enterprise bills on their state taxes, regardless that related deductions stay prohibited on the federal stage.

The invoice’s legislative web page additionally features a abstract of the proposal and a continuously requested questions part.

Lawmakers on the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs attended an informational briefing on Tarnas’s proposal last week. Much of the roughly two-hour occasion consisted of displays from legalization advocates, regulatory consultants and trade and neighborhood representatives. They gave lawmakers an summary of state-level legalization within the U.S. and spoke to how the Hawaii proposal constructed on classes realized in different states.

Some of the primary points raised by lawmakers throughout a Q&A session final week included how legalization would possibly have an effect on youth use of marijuana and what some described because the widespread availability of hemp-derived cannabinoids, resembling vape merchandise containing THC.

“Lots of vape shops currently sell vaping products which they advertise as THC products…there’s delta-8, delta-9 [THC],” stated Rep. Diamond Garcia (R). “On those boxes, it says that it’s a legal product per the 2018 Farm Bill. So I think it’s unclear to people here in Hawaii: Is that legal? Is that THC? And so, what’s going on?”

Kaliko Castille, CEO of ThndrStrm Strategies and a former president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, stated one advantage of the brand new invoice is that it might deliver regulation of all marijuana and hemp merchandise underneath one roof.

“You think this is confusing for those of us who are in the policy world or live in the cannabis industry,” he stated. “Most voters do not understand the difference. And if they see available on a shelf anywhere, they assume it’s legal.”

Tarnas stated at that assembly that some of the essential considerations he’s heard from fellow lawmakers about legalization is how it might affect underage use of the marijuana. “We hear from some advocates who are opposing this saying that, you will see a significant increase in use of cannabis by those under 21,” he famous.

To that concern, O’Keefe introduced before-and-after knowledge for a number of U.S. states which have legalized marijuana for adults exhibiting that almost all states noticed decreases in youth use.

“We take the biggest survey that was done in the state for teenagers immediately prior to legalization and then every year up until the most recent year” of obtainable knowledge, she defined, “and in 19 out of the 21 states, we’ve seen a decrease.”

Data from Washington State, one of many first two U.S. states to legalize adult-use hashish, in 2012, noticed significant drops throughout age ranges, O’Keefe defined.

“In 2010, 9.5 percent of eighth graders had used marijuana in the last 30 days. Following legalization, “it was down to 3.7 [percent]. That’s about a third of what it was before legalization.”

Among tenth graders, “it was 20 percent in 2010. It went down to 8.4 percent—more than a 50 percent drop. Twelfth graders, it was 26.3 percent pre-legalization, 16.3 percent post-[legalization], in 2023.That’s a 10-point drop.”

“We can’t conclude causation,” O’Keefe acknowledged, “but it was a pretty remarkable drop in every state we’ve observed.”

“And consistent across the board,” replied Tarnas.

“We want to address this in, you know, a very deliberative process here at the legislature, and base it on facts,” the lawmaker continued. “And I think that’s what you have helped us with, is: What are the facts?”

Speakers additionally briefly mentioned how Hawaii’s adoption of a complete hashish regulatory scheme might higher put together the state for the potential for legalization on the federal stage. For instance, Tarnas stated regulation might assist guard Hawaii from an inflow of out-of-state merchandise and defend the curiosity of in-state companies.

O’Keefe additionally identified that if a authorized trade had been up and operating as soon as interstate commerce is allowed, Hawaii may very well be nicely positioned to export hashish merchandise to different markets.

Andrew Goff, deputy state lawyer common in Hawaii, stated the more-than-300-page invoice is essentially sophisticated, together with possession restrictions, license applicant vetting, provisions to make sure the state’s present medical marijuana system isn’t unduly affected and guidelines round consumable versus non-consumable hemp merchandise, resembling textiles and hempcrete, a constructing materials.

“The current enforcement is fragmented across multiple jurisdictions, so it’s really difficult to enforce and get everyone who has jurisdiction to enforce to buy in,” he stated. “What this bill does, basically, is it creates consistent enforcement from a single agency funded by cannabis use tax sales [and] ensures uniform regulations consistent with medical cannabis. It provides clear enforcement authority for restricted cannabinoids and ensures industrial hemp is not regulated as a cannabis cannabinoid program.”

This previous fall, regulators solicited proposals to assess the state’s current medical marijuana program—and in addition sought to estimate demand for leisure gross sales if the state finally strikes ahead with adult-use legalization. Some learn the transfer as an indication the regulatory company noticed a necessity to organize to the potential reform.

Hawaii was the primary U.S. state to legalize medical marijuana by its legislature, passing a regulation in 2000.

Separately in Hawaii, the House Committee on Labor unanimously voted to advance legislation that would protect state-registered medical marijuana patients from discrimination in the workplace.

That invoice, HB 325, would stop employers from utilizing an individual’s standing as a medical marijuana cardholder towards them when making hiring, firing or different employment-related choices, with some limitations. It would additionally bar discrimination based mostly on a registered affected person’s constructive drug check for hashish or metabolites supplied the particular person is just not impaired on the job.

“The ongoing conflict between state and federal medical cannabis laws causes confusion for employers, who are unsure whether state medical cannabis laws supersede their power to enforce drug-free workplace policies against employees,” the measure’s introductory textual content says. “The courts have consistently ruled in favor of employers when qualifying patients challenge drug-free workplace policies, yet have not entirely foreclosed on the possibility that state medical cannabis laws might operate to protect qualifying patients against employment discrimination.”

“Without explicit statutory guidance,” it continues, “the courts may not properly balance the needs of qualifying patients for employment protections and an employer’s need to provide a safe workplace.”

The protections would apply to each private and non-private staff, although it might not lengthen to regulation enforcement or corrections staff, state and county firefighters, emergency medical staff, lifeguards or swim instructors, individuals who carry firearms on the job, individuals who function automobiles or heavy equipment, emergency administration staff, individuals who work with kids or the aged or individuals who administer managed substances, amongst different carveouts.

Employers might additionally discriminate towards medical marijuana sufferers if “a failure to do so would cause the employer to lose a monetary or licensing-related benefit under a contract or federal law.”

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