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MARIJUANA MOMENT
HAWAII AG’S MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION BILL FORMALLY LANDS IN STATE LEGISLATURE, BUT
ADVOCATES URGE MAJOR REVISIONS
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POLITICS
HAWAII AG’S MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION BILL FORMALLY LANDS IN STATE LEGISLATURE, BUT
ADVOCATES URGE MAJOR REVISIONS
Published
2 days ago
on
January 31, 2024
By
Ben Adlin
A marijuana legalization measure unveiled in draft form last year by Hawaii’s
attorney general has now been formally introduced in the legislature, with
companion bills filed in both House and Senate. Advocates, however, say the
latest version needs major changes to shift the plan’s focus away from law
enforcement and allow for the clearing of past cannabis convictions to provide
relief to those most harmed by prohibition.
Led by Rep. David Tarnas (D) in the House and Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D) in
the Senate, the bill is largely the product of Attorney General Anne Lopez (D)
and her staff. During a confirmation hearing last April, she committed to
leading an administrative task force “between now and next legislative
legislative session to develop a complete regulatory and law enforcement
legislative package that you can attach to any bill if you’re planning to
legalize marijuana”—a commitment that led to the new bills: HB 2600 and SB 3335.
Momentum to legalize cannabis has been building for years in Hawaii, and earlier
this month, the Senate’s majority Democratic leadership listed the reform as one
of its top legislative priorities for the current session. The chamber passed
marijuana legalization bills in 2021 and 2023 that later stalled in the House of
Representatives.
Connecticut marks 1 year of selling legal marijuana
Connecticut marks 1 year of selling legal marijuana
Fine Fettle in Stamford was one of the first dispensaries to open a year ago.
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The new 328-page bills landed with notable support last week, with nine other
co-sponsors besides Keohokalole in the Senate and 16 others aside from Tarnas in
the House. But in the advocacy community, the measures have been met with mixed
reviews.
“Generally speaking, the bill provides a sound floorplan for adult-use
legalization but erects a structure that is still far too punitive in its
approach,” Nikos Leverenz, of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai’i and the Hawai’i
Health and Harm Reduction Center, told Marijuana Moment in an email this week.
“Placing a velvet glove of legalization on law enforcement’s iron hand is not
what is called for.”
As introduced, the proposal would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an
ounce of cannabis and up to five grams of concentrates as of January 1, 2026.
Home cultivation would be legal, with adults allowed to grow up to six plants
and keep as much as 10 ounces of resulting marijuana.
The measures would create the Hawaii Cannabis Authority to license and regulate
adult-use cannabis businesses. That body would be overseen by a five-member
appointed Cannabis Control Board, led by an executive director who would need to
have experience in public health or cannabis regulation.
Cultivators, processors, medical dispensaries, adult-use retailers, craft
dispensaries and independent testing laboratories would be licensed under the
plan, with regulators able to adopt rules around special events, social
consumption and other special use cases.
Adult-use cannabis would be taxed at a relatively moderate 10 percent in
addition to Hawaii’s 4 percent general state excise tax.
Advocates, however, are criticizing the bill for what they say is an overly
strict approach to the change, pointing to new criminal laws that would affect
minors as well as restrictions that could risk perpetuating the harms of the
drug war, such as the bill’s explicit assertion that the smell of marijuana can
be used to justify searches.
Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for Marijuana Policy Project, which
recently released a summary of the new legislation, said the bills as introduced
“might actually do more harm than good to the cause of cannabis justice.”
—
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“Legalization should mean fewer cannabis arrests, not more,” O’Keefe told
Marijuana Moment, arguing that the policy change “should include the clearing of
criminal records for cannabis and reinvestment in hard hit communities. Instead,
these bills ramp up cannabis-specific law enforcement and impose jail time for
innocuous behavior that harms no one, including driving long after impairment
wears off and having a previously opened jar of edibles in the passenger area of
a car.”
Anyone who possesses an open package of marijuana or loose flower in the
passenger area of a vehicle, for example, could face up to 30 days in jail.
Minors could also be hit with criminal charges, though the bill includes
provisions for probation and deferred prosecution, and convictions would be
eligible for expungement once sentences are complete.
Broader expungement provisions for people with existing marijuana convictions on
their records, however, don’t exist in the bill drafted by Lopez’s office.
The current plan would also create a cannabis enforcement unit as well as a
separate drug nuisance abatement unit within the attorney general’s office, with
at least 25 new positions between the two groups. A new cannabis enforcement
special fund and nuisance abatement fund would each receive 7.5 percent of
marijuana tax revenue.
“While it’s past time Hawai’i end cannabis prohibition,” O’Keefe said, the
legislature “needs to significantly revise the AG-drafted bills.”
Earlier this month, the attorney general sent a revised draft of the legislation
to lawmakers, releasing a public preview that outlined the bill’s main themes.
Lopez said at the time that the bill “represents our best judgment about how to
promote a legal market, minimize risks of societal harm, mitigate damage that
does come to pass, avoid liability, and provide workable tools and substantial
resources for law enforcement and public-health officials to promote the public
welfare.”
While Lopez’s office is officially neutral on the bill, a press release
emphasized that the department “does not support the legalization of adult-use
cannabis.”
“Given that the legislature could theoretically pass a bill as early as this
year,” a statement from Lopez said, “it is my department’s duty to warn the
Legislature of the risks, while simultaneously providing a framework that
includes robust public-safety and public-health safeguards.”
In a clarifying statement to Marijuana Moment, a spokesperson for the attorney
general said: “The department does not support legalization of cannabis, but
will remain neutral on the question of the bill’s passage, so long as the bill
contains the key elements identified in the report and does not include
provisions antithetical to these elements, as it may be amended through the
legislative process.”
Many, however, are expecting lawmakers to take an active role in adjusting the
proposal over the course of the legislative session.
Leverenz of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai’i said that as far as advocates have
been able to gather, “it’s foreseeable for the Senate to again take the lead on
moving a bill out of its chamber, hopefully with substantial amendments.” Amid a
broader cultural and legal shift away from prohibition, he said, Hawaii should
focus on issues like restricting youth access and accurately label of consumer
products, not stepping up enforcement.
“It makes little sense to maintain a law enforcement infrastructure that has
every incentive to maximize continued criminalization, which will fall
disproportionately on Black, Native Hawaiian, and Pasifika communities,” he
said.
Nevertheless, Leverenz said the bills’ lead sponsors have been active in
engaging with both advocates and other lawmakers, leaving room for the chance
that there could be changes ahead.
Sen. Keohokalole “has been especially candid and receptive to having a
regulatory landscape that promotes broad participation by smaller farmers and
businesses,” he said, while “House Judiciary Chair David Tarnas has worked
diligently to engage in continued dialog with advocates and his legislative
colleagues, bringing forward many changes to the AG’s first draft.”
“The AG’s second draft doesn’t include many of them,” Leverenz added of the
latest version, though he acknowledged that Tarnas has separately introduced
legislation that would decriminalize up to an ounce of marijuana and exempt
cannabis paraphernalia from the state’s broader anti-paraphernalia law.
He noted that while support is growing for legalization in Hawaii, “there are a
number of Democrats who are more conservative in their outlook due to electoral
considerations and the continued opposition of law enforcement and county
prosecutors.”
Leverenz pointed to Honolulu prosecutor Steve Alm, who he said “has been
especially assertive in forwarding unsound rhetoric in recent months around
tourism, potency, and the dangers to youth.”
In November, the AG’s office defended the earlier draft of legislation after Alm
said law enforcement were firmly against legalizing marijuana in general and
Lopez’s plan specifically. David Day, a special assistant with the attorney
general’s office, said at the time that Alm’s concerns were overblown and the
legalization measure deliberately took into account law enforcement
perspectives.
“The Department of Law Enforcement, which is that state’s leading law
enforcement agency, worked collaboratively with the Department of the Attorney
General on this bill,” he said. “What we’ve tried to do is present a bill that
tries to mitigate as many of those risks as possible.”
Tarnas said after Lopez initially unveiled the bill in November that the
attorney general did “a really good job pulling together all of the different
input and providing a comprehensive bill.” Keohokalole, for his part, called the
measure “the best version to date.”
Gov. Josh Green (D), meanwhile, has been generally in favor of legalization. He
said in 2022 that he would sign a legalization bill and already had ideas about
how to use tax revenue could be put to use. Advocates struggled under former
Democratic governor, Dave Ige, who resisted legalization in part because he said
he was reluctant to pass something that conflicts with federal law.
“Having a governor who supports legalization,” Leverenz said, has “moved the
needle quite a bit.”
Hawaii lawmakers have introduced legalization bills in recent legislative
sessions, with the Senate passing a reform bill in March, a proposal that’s also
still technically in play. That proposal does provide for criminal expungements,
but so far it’s been stalled in the House.
Last April, the Hawaii legislature also approved a resolution calling on the
governor to create a clemency program for people with prior marijuana
convictions on their records.
As for other controlled substances, another newly introduced bill in Hawaii’s
legislature would create a limited therapeutic psilocybin program, with eligible
patients able to possess and consume the psychedelic under a trained
facilitator’s care. The measure is the result of a task force on breakthrough
therapies that was formed last year to explore the issue.
> DEA Rehires Agent Fired Over Positive Drug Test From CBD, Agreeing To Provide
> Back Pay In Lawsuit Settlement
Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem.
Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our
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Ben Adlin
Ben Adlin, a senior editor at Marijuana Moment, has been covering cannabis and
other drug policy issues professionally since 2011. He was previously a senior
news editor at Leafly, an associate editor at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and
a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. He lives in Washington State.
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