STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1042

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2017

RE:   H.B. No. 773

      H.D. 2

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 773, H.D. 1, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure as received by your Committee is to encourage the cultivation of industrial hemp as an agricultural product by excluding the growing, possession, processing, and sale of industrial hemp from state civil and criminal penalties.

The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, One Island Sustainable Living, We Are One, Inc., Kihei Community Association, Hydroponics Alternatives LLC, Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC, Birth Sovereignty, and numerous individuals testified in support of the measure.  The Honolulu Police Department testified in opposition.  The Department of the Attorney General, Department of Agriculture, University of Hawaii, and two individuals provided comments.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its substance and inserting the provisions found in H.B. No. 96, H.D. 1 on which your Committee held a public hearing on February 7, 2017.  The new provisions amend the regulatory requirements of the state's existing industrial hemp pilot program by:

     (1)  Permitting the submission of an application for an industrial hemp license at any time during the year instead of only between January 1 and April 1 of each year;

     (2)  Deleting the requirement that an application for a movement permit shall be submitted prior to moving industrial hemp from a permitted location;

     (3)  Specifying the Board of Agriculture's authority to determine licensees' reporting requirements; and

     (4)  Deleting requirements for growing facilities that mandated use of case hardened locks and chains, marking of equipment and plants for identification, blocking private access roads, and physical barriers to isolate industrial hemp from other plants.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 773, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 773, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

____________________________

SCOTT Y. NISHIMOTO, Chair