Attorney General Anne Lopez said Friday that if the state Legislature passes a bill in the upcoming session that would legalize the adult use of cannabis in Hawaii, it will do so without her office’s support.
“The Department of the Attorney General does not support the legalization of adult-use cannabis,” Lopez said in a statement. “We acknowledge that with changing public perception in recent years, the odds that the Legislature may pass legislation legalizing adult-use cannabis have increased substantially. Given that the Legislature could theoretically pass a bill as early as this year, 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.”
That framework came in the form of a report to key lawmakers emphasizing the department’s legal concerns and the significant risks to public safety and public health that could arise if the Legislature legalized adult-use recreational cannabis. Also included was a 315-page draft bill intended to minimize these risks and promote the public welfare to the greatest extent possible, should the Legislature choose to legalize cannabis.
The report and the draft bill, titled “Relating to Cannabis,” were submitted to Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services; Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection; and Rep. David Tarnas, chair of the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.
Buenaventura and Tarnas are Big Island Democrats in key positions to help move such legislation.
“I think the AG has said all along she’s in an awkward place,” Tarnas said Friday. “She’s going to recommend a bill based on the best practices, but they’re not promoting the idea that we should legalize cannabis.
“My hope was she would send us a bill that they would not oppose.”
San Buenaventura and Tarnas both had input into the draft legislation, as did other stakeholders, according to Tarnas. They, along with two deputies from Lopez’s office, the Department of Health and others traveled during the recess to Massachusetts to look at that state’s model for adult-use legalization.
“Basically, we were trying to come up with a bill that had the best practices from across the country,” Tarnas said.
San Buenaventura said she’s hopeful this is the year an adult recreational cannabis use bill will pass the Legislature and either be signed into law by Gov. Josh Green or allowed to become law without his signature.
“I’ve been advocating for a rational approach to cannabis use,” she said. “We were the first state in the country to allow for the medical use of cannabis. We were one of the last states to allow for dispensaries to be legalized. And we’re no longer in the forefront of acknowledging that — at least for small amounts of cannabis — the war on drugs has failed.”
Cannabis is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act and remains illegal under federal law. Since 2012, however, 24 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use cannabis. In 2023, the state Senate voted in favor of a Senate Bill 669, which would legalize adult-use cannabis, with only three no votes.
San Buenaventura introduced SB 669, but Tarnas didn’t schedule a hearing for it when it crossed over to the House.
“I did not hear the bill from last year because it was not fleshed out enough,” he said. “There were too many unanswered questions, and we did not have the votes in the House to move it out last year.”
The current draft bill, according to Lopez, has what she described as six “pillars” designed to address issues associated with the transition to a legal market and its continued success:
(1) The enacting of the Hawaii Cannabis Law as a legal safe harbor from state criminal prosecution for those who strictly comply with its provisions;
(2) The creation the Hawaii Cannabis Authority — with the power to regulate medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis and hemp. The Authority is to be independent, but part of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs for administrative purposes only;
(3) Continued law enforcement in regard to illegal cannabis operations, which pose threats to public order, public health and those business operators who choose to operate in the legal market;
(4) A vibrant, well-funded social equity program to be implemented by the Authority to bring greater economic opportunity to disadvantaged communities and to help transition formerly illicit operators into the legal market;
(5) A delayed effective date of 18 months for the legalization of adult-use cannabis and the first legal retail sales to allow the Authority, law enforcement, licensees and the public to prepare; and
(6) The implementation of extensive, well-funded public health protections, including public education campaigns about the new laws and the continuing risks to public health — especially to children — posed by cannabis, and financial assistance for public health services such as addiction and substance abuse treatment.
Lopez emphasized the draft legislation is “not the Department of the Attorney General’s cannabis bill.”
“The draft bill was prepared to give the Legislature a legislative option to consider — a draft with public safety and public health protections embedded into its structure,” she said. “Should the Legislature decide to legalize adult-use cannabis, the draft 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.”
San Buenaventura said she hopes the House gives adult-use cannabis legislation serious consideration this year.
“We are hopeful that, especially with the Lahaina fires and the huge budget shortfall that is being forecast in the 2024 session, that they will see cannabis as an alternative mode of financing basic services in the state,” she said.
Tarnas said he doesn’t know if legalization has the necessary votes to pass the House this year, but he’s looking forward to “a healthy discussion about a very complicated policy reform that is timely.”
“I think the public really wants us to address this issue,” he said. “And I think they want to make sure that medical cannabis continues. But I think the public is supportive of legalizing adult-use cannabis. We have to do this in a way that will keep it out of the hands of youth — and that’s not easy — and we have to do this in a way that doesn’t increase the law enforcement approach to it more than is necessary.
“We do have to have law enforcement stop the illegal growers, because we want to attract the legacy growers into the newly regulated market, which is a challenge. But this is what other states are working on. I think we have a good framework for doing that.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
