Law Hawaii

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Hawaii Attorney General’s Office Defends Marijuana Legalization Proposal From Law Enforcement Attacks​

The office of Hawaii’s attorney general is pushing back against criticism of the official’s recently released marijuana legalization plan, defending its public health and safety provisions as members of the law enforcement community voice opposition to the reform.


After announcing in April that her office would support efforts to enact legalization, Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) unveiled a comprehensive cannabis bill last week, earning praise from supporters in the legislature and mixed reactions from advocates who want to see it revised to more aggressively address equity issues and reduce criminalization.


On the other side of the debate, however, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm says representatives of law enforcement are firmly against legalizing marijuana in general and the attorney general’s plan specifically, arguing that the current system of prohibition is “not broken,” and regulating adult-use cannabis would lead to increased hospitalizations without mitigating the illicit market.





“To me, there is no impetus to changing the system,” Alm told Hawaii News Now. “Teenagers go to the emergency room thinking they’re going crazy because it’s such a strong drug. It’s a different drug entirely.”


But David Day, a special assistant with the attorney general’s office, says the prosecutor’s concerns are overblown, and the legalization measure that’s been put forward deliberately takes 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.”


Alm—who organized a forum opposing legalization that involved representatives of the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) in August—also dismissed arguments that the attorney general’s bill would help empower police to target illicit growers. He said that concept is “total BS,” and law enforcement would work to block the reform.


Hawaii lawmakers have introduced legalization legislation in recent sessions, with the Senate passing a reform bill in March, but it’s yet to be enacted. Legislators and the attorney general have signaled that 2024 is the year legalization will become law.


House Judiciary Committee Chairman David Tarnas (D) said the attorney general did “a really good job pulling together all of the different input and providing a comprehensive bill” with her recent proposal. And Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole (D), chair of the Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, called the measure “the best version to date.”


Advocates, meanwhile, are encouraged by the introduction of the reform proposal by the high-ranking state official. But while they support several key components, such as the inclusion of a home grow option, they’ve also identified areas where they want to see equity-focused changes that incorporate meaningful relief for people who’ve been criminalized over cannabis and prevent further penalization over marijuana-related activity.


Here are the key provisions of the attorney general’s draft marijuana legalization bill:

• Adults 21 and older could purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis and five grams of non-flower marijuana products.
• Adults could cultivate up to six plants in a secured location at their residences and store up to 10 ounces of cannabis from those plants. A single household could not have more than 10 plants, regardless of the number of people living there.
• The possession and cultivation legalization provisions wouldn’t become effective until January 1, 2026.
• A five-member Cannabis Control Board would be established, with members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
• The board would be responsible for regulating the market and issuing marijuana business licenses for cultivators, processors, medical cannabis dispensaries, adult-use retailers, craft cannabis dispensaries and independent labs.
• Regulators could also adopt rules to provide permits for special events, social consumption lounges and trucking transportation.
• Licensing applicants would need to be Hawaii residents for at least five years. People with prior felonies (except most dealing with marijuana) would be precluded from obtaining licenses.
• To promote industry ownership diversity, licensees could not have an interest in more than three businesses of a single license type, and they could only have interests in a total of nine licenses altogether.
• The board would be authorized to add criteria for licensure to promote public health and safety, agricultural sustainability, and participation in the market by people from historically disadvantaged communities.
• Regulators would also need to adopt rules setting potency limits on cannabis products, and they would be empowered to restrict certain products from being marketed. The board would also need to develop rules banning or restricting the use of synthetic cannabinoid products.
• Existing medical cannabis dispensaries would likely be first in line to obtain adult-use retailer licenses, with rules allowing them to convert their licenses starting October 1, 2025.
• Individual counties would be able to set restrictions on the locations of marijuana businesses, but they could not outright ban them.
• A cannabis enforcement division would be created under the Department of Law Enforcement to investigate illegal cannabis activity.
• Marijuana products would be subject to a 10 percent excise tax, plus the state’s standard four percent sales tax.
• The bill calls for tax revenue to be distributed to a cannabis regulation special fund (40 percent), cannabis social equity fund (20 percent), public health and education fund (20 percent) and marijuana lawn enforcement special fund (20 percent).
• Financial institutions would be protected from being penalized under state law simply for working with state-licensed cannabis businesses.
• Social equity applicants would be defined as businesses with at least 51 percent ownership by a person who’s lived in a disproportionately impacted community for a minimum of five out of the last 10 years. Disproportionately impacted areas would be defined as those that are historically disadvantaged, areas of “persistent poverty” and medically underserved.
• Regulators would waive 50 percent of application fees for eligible social equity applicants, and they would need to create a grant fund to provide such applicants with training and technical assistance. Grants would also support community-based organizations working to broader address the needs to disadvantaged areas.
• The bill would not provide for automatic expungements or resentencing for prior cannabis convictions. Instead, it would require the board to create a report by late 2026 or early 2027 on the “advisability of expunging or sealing low level cannabis offenses” and the mechanisms on how to process such relief.
• Regulators would also need to carry out research and compile reports on annual marijuana business licensing, production and tax data, as well as social and economic trends, impact on illicit markets and more.

 

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Not the outcome I would expect from this very blue state

Hawaii Marijuana Legalization Bill Is Dead For The Year As House Leaders Refuse To Schedule Final Hearing

The effort to pass a marijuana legalization bill in Hawaii this year ended on Tuesday afternoon. In a statement, Rep. Kyle Yamashita (D), who chairs the House Finance Committee announced that his panel would not hear the legalization measure, SB 3335, ahead of a legislative deadline this week.


The decision effectively kills bill, which had already passed the full Senate and several House committees this session before only barely advancing in an initial House floor vote earlier this month.


“The path to legalizing adult-use cannabis has been a deeply divisive issue,” Yamashita said. “Due to numerous concerns regarding the implementation of the bill, the House has decided against further deliberation in the House Finance Committee. This decision is strengthened by the prevailing ‘no’ votes from committee members expressed on the House floor.”


Democratic House Speaker Scott Saiki, meanwhile, pointed to “serious concerns by members of Hawai’i’s law enforcement.”


“This bill requires further consideration of the impact legislation will have on our children, economy, and overall well-being.”


As supporters and opponents have both pointed out, this past session has marked the furthest any legalization measure has made it through Hawaii’s legislature. But after only barely passing a House floor vote late last month, on a 25–23 vote, many also foresaw a challenge in the Finance Committee.


Nikos Leverenz, of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai’i and the Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center, predicted in an email to Marijuana Moment earlier this week that it was “more likely than not” that the Finance Committee would decline to take up the bill.


“It’s unfortunate to see the demise of adult-use cannabis this year given the efforts of the Attorney General’s office and the support of Governor Josh Green, two-thirds of the state senate, and 58% of Hawaii residents,” Leverenz wrote. “What we’ve seen this year from the criminal legal lobby and its legislative and evangelical allies is a miserable public display of fear-mongering, misrepresentation, and browbeating. We also saw the continued denial of the serious harms inflicted by ongoing cannabis prohibition, including the criminalization of children.”


The more-than-300-page bill was formally introduced in both chambers in January and is based on a legalization plan written by state Attorney General Anne Lopez (D), who was appointed in December 2022 by Gov. Josh Green (D), a supporter of legalization. It would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and up to five grams of cannabis concentrates.


The bill’s sponsor in the House, Rep. David Tarnas (D), has already committed to bringing a revised bill next session.


“During the interim, I look forward to working with the Attorney General’s office to improve the language of the bill to address issues brought up during the House debate on this bill,” he told Marijuana Moment in an email Tuesday evening. “I will be collecting factual information about public safety and public health concerns, including the assertion of some opponents that legalization would actually result in an increase in cannabis use by youth as well as an increase in fatal car crashes attributable to cannabis use.”


As for those claims, Tarnas continued, “I think the evidence shows that there is no evidence of any increase in use of cannabis by youth in legalization states, but I will gather the data and present it next session. Similarly, I think the evidence from legalization states shows that there has not been any demonstrable increase in car crashes by drivers that is attributable solely to cannabis use. But, I will gather the data on this topic and present it next session.”


Tarnas added that he would look to other jurisdictions “to determine the most effective ways to make sure a cannabis legalization program will deter the unregulated market for cannabis by attracting producers and consumers to the regulated cannabis market.”


“We have lots of work to do on this important matter,” he said.


The advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project acknowledged the setback but also pledged not to give up on the reform.


“The Hawai’i Legislature’s failure to listen to voters will condemn hundreds of Hawai’i residents to traumatic police encounters and leave tens of millions of tax revenue on the table,” said Karen O’Keefe, the group’s director of state policies. “While this is a setback, this was also the furthest legalization has ever got in Hawai’i. Advocates are not giving up until we get legalization past the finish line.”


In recent weeks, legislative leaders have flagged that the Finance Committee could be a difficult hurdle to clear, and some of those who spoke out against the proposal on the chamber floor last week included members of that committee. Rep. Gene Ward (R), for one, warned that if the bill becomes law, “homelessness is going to be catalyzed by the increase in use of marijuana.”


Ward also noted in his floor comments that AG Lopez’s office itself has said that she does not support the reform.


“For some reason, some people think that the black market is going to go away because of what we’ve got here,” he said. “We have to remember that the AG said that this is not something that she supports.”


Ward also said that among unhoused people in Hawaii, “the most accessible thing to them is marijuana, even though it’s the cheap wine and the booze that they’re doing also.”


The attitude reflects warnings that law enforcement and some other state agencies have made repeatedly in testimony about the bill.


Some Democratic leaders also vocally opposed the reform. Democratic Majority Whip Rep. Scot Matayoshi, for instance, said before last month’s House floor vote that he didn’t think colleagues “should vote with reservations or vote in favor of this bill just to see it move along.”


“We can’t be voting on a bill that has some good parts but also has an incredible harm to our society in the form of legalizing recreational marijuana,” he said.


Matayoshi had previously warned that the Finance Committee could be an obstacle for the bill, telling a reporter earlier this month that the committee “is dealing with a lot of different challenges this year” and that “the budget is very underwater, very in the red.”


In Tarnas’s earlier comments on the House floor, he said legalization “will actually have significant public safety and public health benefits for our community.”


“It will better protect youth from drug use through education and investment in youth programs. It will reduce drug violence. It will promote public safety by allowing people to buy from legitimate businesses not on the illegal market,” he said. “It will ensure that the cannabis products purchased are safe, free from contaminants like fungus and mold or even worse, methamphetamine and fentanyl. It will allow us to tax and regulate cannabis products, which currently provide no tax or revenue to the state.”