![](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-19.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The Hawaii Senate has passed a bill to allow qualifying patients to access medical marijuana at health facilities.<\/p>\n
After receiving a favorable report in committee last week, the legislation from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D) advanced through the full chamber in a unanimous 25-0 vote on Tuesday as part of the consent calendar. A House companion version of the proposal has also been moving through the process this session<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bill states that it\u2019s the \u201cintent of the legislature in enacting this chapter to support the ability of terminally ill patients and qualifying patients over sixty-five years of age with chronic diseases to safely use medical cannabis within specified health care facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates would have liked to see a mandate for health facilities to allow medical cannabis use, but as drafted it would simply permit such policies, while exempting residential treatment centers from the proposed law.<\/p>\n Other exceptions built into the legislation, SB 2408<\/a>, include provisions stipulating that medical marijuana couldn\u2019t be used in substance misuse recovery hospitals, state hospitals or emergency departments of general acute hospitals \u201cwhile the patient is receiving emergency services and care.\u201d<\/p>\n Smoking and vaping cannabis would remain prohibited in health facilities under the proposal, \u201cprovided that a home health agency shall only prohibit smoking or vaping immediately before or while home health agency staff are present in the residence.\u201d<\/p>\n General acute care hospitals couldn\u2019t allow patients with a chronic disease to use medical cannabis unless they were terminally ill.<\/p>\n In the event that a federal regulatory agency, Justice Department or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) takes enforcement action against a health facility related to the medical cannabis policy, or if they explicitly notify the facility that they\u2019re violating federal law, the health care institution could suspend the policy.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, last week, another Hawaii Senate committee approved a bill to allow patients to immediately access medical cannabis once their registrations are submitted<\/a>, instead of having to wait until their cards are delivered as is the case under current law.<\/p>\n Buenaventura, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, is also the sponsor of her chamber\u2019s version of the proposal. Her panel more\u00a0recently passed legislation to legalize low-dose and low-potency marijuana<\/a>, even as members\u2019 counterparts in the House of Representatives have said that cannabis prohibition will not be ended in the state this year.<\/p>\n The legislation would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess and use certain amounts of low-dose and low-THC cannabis for personal use, with products limited to a maximum of 5 milligrams of THC per serving. In liquid form, they could have up to 5 milligrams of THC per twelve ounces.<\/p>\n The Senate committee action comes after\u00a0key House lawmakers signaled that cannabis legalization proposals would not be advancing<\/a>\u00a0in the 2026 session, citing a lack of sufficient support in their chamber.<\/p>\n Despite renewed hopes that those bills\u2014including one from House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman David Tarnas (D) that would have put the issue of legalization before voters at the ballot\u2014would advance this year, the sponsor and House Speaker Nadine Nakamura (D) said there wasn\u2019t enough support within the legislature to pass them this round.<\/p>\n State officials in January released a report on\u00a0the potential economic impact of recreational marijuana legalization in the state<\/a>, including revenue implications related to domestic and international tourism.<\/p>\n All told, researchers said survey data and comparative analyses indicate that Hawaii could see anywhere from $46-$90 million in monthly marijuana sales by year five of implementation, after accounting for a maximum 15 percent tax rate on cannabis products.<\/p>\n Hawaii\u2019s Senate last year narrowly defeated a proposal that would have\u00a0increased fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of criminal charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n Had the measure become law, it would have increased the amount of cannabis decriminalized in Hawaii from the current 3 grams up to 15 grams. Possession of any amount of marijuana up to that 15-gram limit would have been classified as a civil violation, punishable by a fine of $130.<\/p>\n A Senate bill that would have legalized marijuana for adults, meanwhile, ultimately stalled for the session. That measure, SB 1613, failed to make it out of committee by a legislative deadline.<\/p>\n While advocates felt there was sufficient support for the legalization proposal in the Senate, it\u2019s widely believed that House lawmakers would have ultimately scuttled the measure,\u00a0as they did last February with a legalization companion bill, HB 1246<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2024, a\u00a0Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s House vote to stall the bill came just days after\u00a0approval from a pair of committees at a joint hearing<\/a>. Ahead of that hearing, the panels received nearly 300 pages of testimony, including from state agencies, advocacy organizations and members of the public.<\/p>\n Gov. Josh Green (D) signed separate legislation last year to\u00a0allow medical marijuana caregivers to grow marijuana on behalf of up to five patients<\/a>\u00a0rather than the current one.<\/p>\n And in July, the governor signed another bill that\u00a0establishes a number of new rules around hemp products in Hawaii<\/a>, including a requirement that distributors and retailers obtain a registration from the Department of Health.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also sent a bill to the governor that would\u00a0help speed the expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past marijuana-related offenses<\/a>\u2014a proposal\u00a0Green signed into law last April<\/a>.<\/p>\n That measure, HB 132, from Tarnas, is intended to expedite expungements happening through\u00a0a pilot program signed into law in 2024 by Green<\/a>. Specifically, it will remove a distinction between marijuana and other Schedule V drugs for the purposes of the expungement program.<\/p>\n The bill\u2019s proponents said the current wording of the law forces state officials to comb through thousands of criminal records manually in order to identify which are eligible for expungement under the pilot program.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in November, Hawaii officials finalized rules that will\u00a0allow medical marijuana dispensaries to sell an expanded assortment of products for patients<\/a>\u2014including dry herb vaporizers, rolling papers and grinders\u2014while revising the state code to clarify that cannabis oils and concentrates can be marketed for inhalation.<\/p>\n The department also\u00a0affirmed its support for federal marijuana rescheduling<\/a>\u2014a policy change that President Donald Trump ordered to be completed expeditiously but has yet to come to fruition.<\/p>\n \u2014 Regulators are also launching a series of courses designed to\u00a0educate physicians and other healthcare professionals about medical marijuana<\/a>\u00a0as the state\u2019s cannabis program expands.<\/p>\n The\u00a0underlying medical marijuana expansion bill signed by the governor<\/a>\u00a0in late June, in addition to allowing more patients to more easily access cannabis, also contains a provision that advocates find problematic.<\/p>\n Before lawmakers sent the legislation to Green, a conference committee revised the plan, inserting a provision to allow DOH to access medical marijuana patient records held by doctors for any reason whatsoever.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Hawaii Senate Passes Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use By Seriously Ill Patients In Health Facilities<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Hawaii Senate has passed a bill to allow qualifying patients to access medical marijuana at health facilities. After receiving a favorable report in committee last week, the legislation from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D) advanced through the full chamber in a unanimous 25-0 vote on Tuesday as part ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":85588,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85587"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85589,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85587\/revisions\/85589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMarijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills<\/a> in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters<\/a> pledging at least $25\/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don\u2019t miss any developments.<\/strong>
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MM_Bill_Tracker_V5_blank-18.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/a>
\nLearn more about our marijuana bill tracker<\/a> and become a supporter on Patreon<\/a> to get access.
\n\u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Hawaii Senate Passes Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use By Seriously Ill Patients In Health Facilities<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"