Following initial progress in the statehouse, proponents are hoping the Aloha State will this year become the 11th state to legalize adult use of \u201crecreational\u201d cannabis.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Hawaii<\/a>\u00a0State Senate\u2019s Judiciary Committee on Feb. 7\u00a0unanimously recommended<\/a>\u00a0a bill to legalize cannabis, clearing its first hurdle to becoming law.\u00a0The\u00a0text of the bill<\/a>\u00a0declares \u201cthat the legalization of marijuana for personal or recreational use is a natural, logical, and reasonable outgrowth of the current science of marijuana and attitude toward marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n If passed, it would allow adults 21 and older to possess, cultivate and consume cannabis, and it would create a taxed and regulated retail market.<\/p>\n From the bill\u2019s language, it appears that Hawaii isn\u2019t interested in reinventing the wheel, as it would set in place a system very similar to other states with adult-use cannabis.<\/p>\n The bill would instruct the state\u2019s\u00a0Department of Taxation<\/a>\u00a0to draw up regulations overseeing the licensing and operation a \u201cmarijuana establishment.\u201d Fees for licenses would initially be kept within $5,000, adjusted annually for inflation. Critically, cannabis businesses would not be required to collect any personal information from customers.<\/p>\n Rules would be established to oversee labeling, security and health and safety standards, as well as to restrict advertising and impose civil penalties for any violations.<\/p>\n The bill would lift all penalties for possession of up to an ounce of processed marijuana or home cultivation of up to six plants.<\/p>\n Smoking legal cannabis would be regulated under the same rules as those for tobacco products. The state\u2019s\u00a0Department of Health<\/a>, which has overseen the\u00a0medical marijuana system<\/a>\u00a0in place since 2010, would also regulate the recreational sector. Existing medical marijuana dispensaries would be permitted to sell cannabis to all persons of the legal age of 21 years or older.<\/p>\n The bill now moves on to the Senate Ways and Means Committee before going to a floor vote. A version has already been introduced in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n Gov. David Ige, a Democrat, has thus far been non-committal on whether he would sign the bill. Upon its introduction last month, he\u00a0said in a statement<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m concerned about conflicting federal and state laws that allow marijuana dispensaries on each island, but prohibit the transport of marijuana between islands.\u201d<\/p>\n Law enforcement agencies have, not surprisingly, opposed the bill.\u00a0Hawaii News Now<\/a>\u00a0reports that local police and prosecutors warned lawmakers of a likely increase in marijuana-related accidents and use by minors. As the\u00a0Honolulu Star Advertiser<\/a>\u00a0notes, it was due to such concerns that the Judiciary Committee ruled out a provision to allow edibles under the bill.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, a full 12 of the Senate\u2019s 25 members have signed on to the bill,\u00a0Honolulu Civil Beat<\/a>\u00a0reports. Proponents anticipate the first adult-use cannabis sales by as early as February 2021.<\/p>\n As the bill was introduced, Hawaii\u2019s modest constellation of cannabis dispensaries got a new star.\u00a0Pacific Business News<\/a>\u00a0reports that\u00a0Lau Ola LLC<\/a>, operating a chain of Big Island Grown dispensaries, last month received approval from the state Department of Health to begin sales from its new outlet in Hilo. The Health Department issued a formal notice to proceed after the dispensary completed laboratory testing requirements and passed a final on-site inspection.<\/p>\n Big Island Grown was the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary on the Big Island, and the seventh in the state. Lau Ola is also planning to open two more outlets in Waimea and in Kailua-Kona, in a sign that the state\u2019s cannabis infrastructure is growing.<\/p>\n Lau Ola CEO Dylan Shropshire said: \u201cWe would like to thank the Big Island community for their patience as we built our facilities and developed our company to grow clean, reliable, lab-tested cannabis medicine that is of the highest quality. We have over 100 unique strains and phenotypes that we will be rolling out over the next year along with a large diversity of high-quality\u00a0concentrates<\/a>\u00a0and manufactured products.\u201d<\/p>\n And just as the bill cleared the Judiciary Committee, the 4th annual\u00a0Hawaii Cannabis Expo<\/a>\u00a0was preparing to open at the\u00a0Blaisdell Exhibition Hall<\/a>\u00a0in Honolulu. The three-day event featured seminars and panel discussions as well as\u00a0120 vendors \u2014 up from around 60 vendors when the expo first started in 2015.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year we\u2019ve been growing about 25 percent,\u201d said expo director Kyle Paredes to\u00a0Hawaii News Now<\/a>. \u201cPeople want to get involved and learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, do you think Hawaii will legalize adult-use cannabis through its state legislature?<\/p>\n The post Recreational Cannabis Legalization Bill Advances in Hawaii<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Following initial progress in the statehouse, proponents are hoping the Aloha State will this year become the 11th state to legalize adult use of \u201crecreational\u201d cannabis. The\u00a0Hawaii\u00a0State Senate\u2019s Judiciary Committee on Feb. 7\u00a0unanimously recommended\u00a0a bill to legalize cannabis, clearing its first hurdle to becoming law.\u00a0The\u00a0text of the bill\u00a0declares \u201cthat theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7566,50,954,7567,5391,687,6170,7568,81,362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32821,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32820\/revisions\/32821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Legal Sales Within Two Years?<\/h4>\n
The Hawaiian Status Quo, Unsurprisingly Sunny<\/h4>\n
\n
\nRead More: Recreational Cannabis Legalization Bill Advances in Hawaii<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"