STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2531

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2175

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2175, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Authorize the Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa to establish a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel research program; and

     (2)  Permit the Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to submit a final report to the Legislature prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2016.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, Vote Hemp, Hawaiian Standard and Green Futures, and thirty-six individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System.

     Your Committees find that industrial hemp products are an estimated $500,000,000 industry in the United States.  Hemp fibers are used to make thousands of different items, including fabrics, yarns, carpeting, home furnishings, construction materials, foods, body-care products, and auto parts.  However, due to industrial hemp's close relationship to the psychoactive variety of the Cannabis plant, it has been illegal for cultivation in the United States until recently.  Fortunately, Section 7606 of the United States Agricultural Act of 2014 authorizes state agriculture departments and colleges and universities to conduct hemp research.

     Your Committees further find that although industrial hemp is a variety of the Cannabis plant, it is genetically distinct from the psychoactive Cannabis plant and requires different cultivation practices.  The Agricultural Act of 2014 and states that have removed barriers to the production of industrial hemp have defined industrial hemp to make it clear that this crop is not the same as marijuana, which contains a much higher concentration of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol.  Your Committees therefore conclude that a definition of industrial hemp should be added to this measure.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting a definition of "industrial hemp"; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2175, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2175, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair