A measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana for those at least 21 years old will not happen this legislative session.
The 300-page House Bill 1246 would have created the Hawaiʻi Cannabis and Hemp Office to oversee the state’s hemp and medical and recreational marijuana programs. The bill proposed taxing recreational marijuana at a 14% rate.
The bill passed out of its first committees Tuesday. It was supposed to then go to a full floor vote in the House. Instead, representatives voted Thursday to recommit the measure back to its original committee, effectively tabling it this year.
Majority Caucus Leader Chris Todd made the request on behalf of House leadership.
"It's something people on both sides feel very passionately about. And we want to make sure that if we're going to set this kind of bold policy forth in our state, that it does have broader support and it's not really requiring House leadership to kind of maneuver and try and, you know, pull kind of backdoor deals to get something forward," Todd said.
"I don't think that that's fair to our membership and I don't think that's fair to the public. So I'm hopeful that some of these things can be addressed, some of these sticking points, and we'll take another stab at it," he continued.
Rep. David Tarnas introduced the measure. He emphasized the need for Hawaiʻi to have a comprehensive marijuana program in place in case the drug is legalized at the federal level.
" We need to have a regulatory framework in place so that we can regulate who can send products into the state so that we can make sure that the products that are sold here are safe and that we can protect local businesses," he said. " Without a local regulatory framework already in place before it's legalized federally we will be very vulnerable."
Once it is federally legal, the state cannot enforce policies that prevent interstate commerce. That means the provisions in the marijuana legalization bills introduced throughout the years that attempted to institute residential requirements for owning a marijuana business — meant to prevent large corporations from flooding the state and pushing out local businesses — would likely not hold up in court.
Tarnas was also concerned about Hawaiʻi stores illegally selling hemp-derived cannabis that contains high amounts of THC, the chemical that gets people high.
" They're illegal, but we don't have a strong regulatory framework to deal with these," he said. "That's why this bill was so important. We've got to protect public health and public safety, so the status quo is really not working well. And I said this in caucus, we've got to address this issue. You can't just put your head in the sand."
The bill also proposed putting the tax revenues first toward operating the cannabis program, and then splitting the leftover funds among law enforcement, counties and social equity grants.
Because this is the first year of the biennium, the bill can be heard again in its committee in 2026 without being reintroduced.
Six representatives voted against the bill being recommitted and wanted the opportunity to cast their votes Thursday on the measure.
Todd said that since the bill would have addressed medical marijuana and hemp, members are looking at ways to still make adjustments to those programs outside of legalizing recreational marijuana.
Tarnas explained that he heard from other states who said having medical cannabis, hemp and recreational marijuana operating in different departments has made enforcement and regulation difficult.
" You've got to have it all within one agency, and you have to have a comprehensive policy that really recognizes the interrelationship between all the different industries that come from this cannabis plant," he said. " If you have it divided into different agencies and silos, it doesn't work... That's why I'm disappointed and I think the people of Hawaiʻi really deserve better. And so I'm going to keep working on this."
Todd said he believes that there is a widespread belief that it's not a matter of whether marijuana will be legalized, but when.
" If you were to ask most folks in the Legislature, I think most of us believe, myself included, that legalization is coming," Todd said. " This is another opportunity to continue to refine and learn... On a personal level, I think this is something that we should be doing sooner rather than later."
Testifiers who supported the measure said that people are already accessing marijuana illegally and that it could be an economic opportunity for the state.
Those against legalization were concerned about people driving under the influence and said it would make marijuana more accessible.
Last year, a similar measure passed in the Senate but failed in the House.
