House Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs hears briefing on HB1246 to legalize adult-use cannabis

HONOLULU — The House Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs on Wednesday, Jan. 29, held an informational briefing on House Bill 1246, a proposed measure to legalize adult-use cannabis in Hawaii and create a unified regulatory framework that would preserve medical access, expand licensing opportunities and direct tax revenue to public-health and community programs.

The briefing brought national and local experts before committee members to outline industry trends, regulatory design, enforcement tools and social equity options. Speakers included Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project; Kaliko Castille, CEO of Thunderstorm Strategies; Jennifer Flanagan, former Massachusetts cannabis control commissioner; Ty (Tai) Cheng, president of Aloha Green Apothecary and chair of the Hawaii Cannabis Industry Association; Andrew Goff, deputy attorney general; Lynn V. Le, acting program manager for the Department of Health Office of Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation (OMCCR); and Kai Luke of the Cannabis Society of Hawaii.

Why it matters: HB1246 aims to move Hawaii from a medical-only program to a regulated dual-use market that the bill's drafters say must protect medical patients, limit youth access, fund substance-abuse and youth programs and bring illicit sales into a regulated system. Committee Chair David Tarnas opened the briefing by saying the bill "is to make sure it's a comprehensive draft of reforms to transition the state safely, efficiently, and equitably from what is now a medical use only state to a dual use state." The committee scheduled a formal hearing on HB1246 for the next week.

Proponents said legalization creates tools regulators cannot use under prohibition. "One of the biggest advantages of legalization is that it allows for regulation," Karen O'Keefe said, describing product-testing, packaging standards and inspection authority as central public-health safeguards. O'Keefe told the committee she supports provisions in the draft that would allow licensed retailers to serve both medical patients and adult consumers, include craft-dispensary options, cap ownership to allow small operators to compete, and set aside technical assistance and funding for disadvantaged or impacted communities.

Social equity and Native Hawaiian participation were focal points. Kaliko Castille urged explicit set-asides and priority licensing for Native Hawaiian entrepreneurs and stressed that social equity must pair licenses with funding, low-interest loans, business incubators and technical assistance. "Cannabis prohibition did not simply criminalize a plant, it criminalized communities," Castille said, arguing restorative-justice measures — including expungements and removing licensing bars for people with past cannabis convictions — should be embedded in the bill.

Economic projections were presented as estimates, not guarantees. Ty Cheng and the Hawaii Cannabis Industry Association provided market estimates and employment numbers from the existing medical market: the state currently has roughly two dozen retail dispensaries and, according to industry figures presented at the briefing, about 65,000 registered medical patients and roughly 759 jobs tied to the medical cannabis program. Cheng said the medical program generated about $67 million in revenue in 2023 and roughly $3 million a year in general excise tax collections; industry estimates presented by HICA projected a potential dual-use market between about $170 million and $430 million annually and forecast roughly $39 million in tax revenue in an initial year and larger revenue in later years. Karen O'Keefe offered a conservative extrapolation from Nevada that she said would yield about $33 million in first-year tax revenue under certain assumptions.

Enforcement, hemp-derived products and the gray market were recurring concerns. Andrew Goff, deputy attorney general, urged a regulatory shift away from primarily criminal enforcement toward a compliance-focused system backed by inspections, seizure authority, nuisance-abatement civil actions and fines. "The general focus of these enforcement provisions are to move from a criminal focused criminal law to a more compliance focused regulatory law," Goff said. He and other presenters flagged a proliferating market for hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoids (often sold as delta-8 or delta-9 products) that currently appears in smoke shops, online vendors and unlicensed retailers. Those products can be manufactured or chemically converted from hemp in ways that produce intoxicating effects, presenters said, and often lack consistent testing or childproof packaging.

State regulators, industry and legal presenters described a patchwork of authority that complicates enforcement: the federal 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act for possession, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration retains authority over cannabinoids in food and drug products, and Hawaii law and DOH rules have placed additional state-level restrictions. OMCCR surveyor Greg Edwards confirmed that certain hemp-derived vapes and smokeable hemp have been explicitly prohibited under state statute and regulation, and DOH has used cease-and-desist and embargo authority in some cases; presenters said enforcement capacity is limited and that HB1246 would create clearer, centralized rules and funding for inspection and seizure.

OMCCR capacity and public health programming: Lynn V. Le, acting program manager and epidemiologist at OMCCR, described new surveillance, education and science functions added during a recent reorganization and said the registry team processes patient cards quickly ("within 2 to 3 business days, often within 1 day," in her testimony). Le said OMCCR had 19 established positions with a plan to grow to 32 and reported a current cash balance and mixed revenue sources from patient registration and licensing fees; she urged legislative extensions of interim rules and additional funding for testing, inspections and a statewide public-education campaign. Le said other states spend $1 million to $2 million annually on public-education campaigns and that Hawaii has started a $1 million youth-prevention effort but needs sustained resources for broader outreach and continuing medical education for health professionals.

Public-safety and impairment detection: Presenters stressed funding for training, impairment detection research and public-awareness campaigns to reduce impaired driving. Goff described grant programs in the draft bill to support impairment-detection training for law enforcement, prosecutors and others, and noted the difficulty states face in relying solely on drug-recognition experts given response-time and admissibility concerns described by Jennifer Flanagan from Massachusetts, who urged building robust regulatory and public-health programs rather than encoding every detail into statute.

Committee process: Chair Tarnas concluded by thanking presenters and reminding members the committee will hold a hearing on HB1246 the following week. No formal votes or committee decisions were taken at the briefing; members asked presenters to submit written materials and to return for questions after the presentations.

What to watch next: The scheduled HB1246 hearing and any amendments the committee adopts, OMCCR's market-demand study and the text of DOH rule extensions sought by OMCCR. Presenters agreed that calibrated taxes, clear product standards, robust testing, youth-prevention campaigns and social-equity supports will shape whether legalization reduces illicit sales and protects public health.