Marijuana legalization gets initial approval from 2 House committees in Hawaii Legislature
When David Tarnas first served in the Hawaiʻi House of Representatives some 30 years ago, marijuana was already a major topic of discussion.
The state has long since allowed for medical cannabis use and more recently its sale at dispensaries — and has decriminalized possession of up to 3 grams of pot for all adults. And yet, state legislators are still wrestling with what to do about the recreational use of paka lōlō.
The issue is back again this session in the form of House Bill 1246, which would legalize the personal use of marijuana for people 21 years of age and older beginning in 2026.
But HB 1246 goes beyond legalization. It calls for creating a new state agency within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to regulate adult use of recreational and medical marijuana, and hemp, which contains low levels of THC, the active ingredient that gets people high. That regulation would include taxing retail sales.
Tarnas, who lost a reelection bid in 1998 but was elected again in 2018 to represent his Big Island district, is the key figure on cannabis legislation. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee that he chairs passed HB 1246, as did the House Agriculture and Food Systems Committee.
Tarnas, who authored the bill, has spent many months crafting it with extensive input from sources including mainland experts familiar with cannabis laws in states such as Massachusetts.
Hawaiʻi’s approach must be comprehensive and legally sound, he said. To help people better understand the bill, his committee’s website offers a compendium of information including a section of FAQs.
HB 1246 is lengthy and detailed — nearly 50,000 words. It has two more House committees to clear, including the powerful Finance Committee.
Dollar figures in HB 1246 for hiring staff in what would be the Hawaiʻi Cannabis and Hemp Office are currently blank, as is common at the early stage of the bill hearing process in Hawaiʻi. The same goes for many other money requests in the bill for setting up a state cannabis testing facility and a public health and education program.
If HB 1246 clears the House, it has to go through the same process in the other chamber. Its Senate companion, Senate Bill 1613, has not been scheduled for a hearing, suggesting that senators are letting the House take the lead for now.
Hovering above all of this is the fact that marijuana remains a Schedule I drug at the federal level, placing it along with heroin, LSD, Ecstasy and peyote. They are considered substances with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
There seems to be some momentum to remove pot from Schedule I status, as well as growing recognition that other drugs on the list may have medical use. But their legal and medical statuses remain in flux.
Still, Tarnas wants to see Hawaiʻi join the 24 other states and the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational use for adults. At an informational briefing last week, he called his measure “an important matter.” Hawaiʻi was not ready for such a bill 30 years ago, he said, but “we are getting closer.”
Tax And Regulate
Other measures in the 2025 Legislature address cannabis, but only one calls for allowing recreational use: a proposed constitutional amendment that would put the question of legalization before voters.
The ConAm, which will die if it is not heard before an internal legislative deadline next week, also would give the Legislature the power to regulate and tax the possession, distribution and use of pot — the core of Tarnas’s bill.
HB 1246 contends that times have changed and that the decisions by some states to legalize pot use were motivated “by a variety of compelling reasons.” They include prioritization of more serious crimes, advancements in criminal justice reform, evolving public opinion and social equity concerns.
According to the bill, the states that have legalized recreational use “have witnessed substantial benefits from the revenue generated through taxes, including use and licensing fees, as well as general excise and sales taxes on the non-medical adult-use cannabis industry.”
HB 1246 proposes a “dual-system program” for legalization for medical and recreational pot, something recommended by a 2021 task force. It essentially treats all types of marijuana as “one plant,” as Tarnas explained during the hearing Tuesday.
The bill notes that the federal 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from from Schedule I in order to foster development of hemp-derived products and industrial hemp — “a high-value crop with the potential to generate significant and diverse revenues for Hawaiʻi.”
HB 1246 also makes clear that the Hawaiʻi attorney general, the state Department of Law Enforcement and county police departments will continue to play an important role by cracking down on black market operations.
Tarnas based the current legislation on a similar measure that died last session, Senate Bill 3335. Authored by Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, it passed the Senate and two House committees, including Tarnas’s judiciary committee.
But 23 of the 51 House members voted against SB 3335, including current House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and House Majority Leader Sean Quinlan. (Quinlan on Tuesday voted in favor of HB 1246.) House Finance Committee Chair Kyle Yamashita, who still leads the powerful panel, chose not to hear the bill after the March 22 floor vote, killing it.
Pros And Cons
As has been the case in sessions past, the public weighed in heavily on the issue. Written testimony on HB 1246 before it was heard Tuesday totaled almost 300 pages. Tarnas said it showed 96 people in support and 135 opposed.
By now, the pro and con arguments are familiar.
Pro arguments: cannabis has health benefits, it should be legal just like alcohol, it’s already widely available illegally, it could create jobs and revenue for the state, and legalization is the trend nationally.
Con arguments: cannabis is illegal at the federal level, it is much stronger than the pot of the past, it is more harmful to health then beneficial, it will lead to harder substance abuse, and it will hurt youth most.
Supporters of HB 1246 included the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi, which said in its testimony that the creation of the Hawaiʻi Cannabis and Hemp Office would ensure “a centralized and well-structured regulatory framework, providing clear oversight on cultivation, sales, taxation, and consumer safety.”
The party said that consolidating responsibilities within the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture would streamline governance, reduce redundancy and improve efficiency.
“The bill also takes critical steps to ensure public safety, including new traffic offenses relating to cannabis consumption and possession,” the party said. “Establishing clear guidelines on responsible use, similar to alcohol regulations, will help mitigate risks associated with impaired driving and underage consumption.”
But Steve Alm, the Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, warned marijuana may cause increased psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and more risk of suicide.
Legalizing pot also leads to a greater number of car collisions and emergency and hospital admissions, impaired cognitive and memory functions, chronic vomiting, environmental harms, loss of IQ, increased risk of heart attacks and strokes “and sharp increases in calls to poison centers for children who have eaten marijuana edibles which typically look like candy or sweets,” Alm said in written testimony that was in part repeated at the hearing.
Alm said he was testifying as an official whose No. 1 job is protecting people.
“Do we really want to be in the addiction for profit business?” he asked. “Do we want to teach our kids that? For a few extra tax dollars?”
Written and oral testimony included comments from the half dozen or more state agencies that would be directly impacted should HB 1246 become law. Andrew Goff, deputy Hawaiʻi attorney general, expressed a major concern of the agencies: They would prefer an 18-month lead time before rolling the new program out instead of the six months called for in the bill.
“We note initially that this bill contains blanked-out appropriations,” Goff said. “If the Legislature decides to legalize cannabis, it is essential that funds be appropriated for the timely implementation of a substantial regulatory program and for law enforcement, nuisance abatement, and a public-education campaign prior to legalization, among other things.”
Tarnas said the bill would ensure that a public education campaign was launched before the program took effect. A soon-to-be amended version of the bill will take into consideration agency and other concerns, he said.
HB 1246 now awaits a hearing by the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Committee.
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This story was originally published by Honolulu Civil Beat and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.