STAND. COM. REP. NO. 502
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 1372
S.D. 1
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Thirty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2021
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 1372 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL CANNABIS,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to:
(1) Create a cultivation facility license that allows cultivators to grow cannabis for sale to licensed dispensaries; and
(2) Establish requirements for license applications and qualifications for license holders.
Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation; Department of Health; Department of the Attorney General; Big Island Grown Dispensaries; Green Aloha, Ltd.; Hawai‘i Cannabis Industry Association; and Akamai Cannabis Clinic.
Your Committees find that currently, only holders of medical cannabis dispensary licenses may legally cultivate and sell medical cannabis in retail locations. Your Committees further find that allowing residents, farmers, and families to grow cannabis for retail would provide a positive social and economic impact across the State and creates better access to safe, regulated products for qualified patients. This measure creates a cultivation license that allows cultivators to grow cannabis for sale to licensed dispensaries.
Your Committees heard
the testimony of several stakeholders, who raised concerns that under the current
language of the measure, cultivation licenses would be impossible for anyone to
obtain other than large, well-financed corporations. Your Committees also heard the testimony of
the Attorney General, which proposed amendments to improve the safety and regulation
of cultivation licenses. Therefore, your
Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Removing
the prescribed number of cultivation licenses to be issued and allowing the
Department of Health to issue cultivation licenses at its discretion, subject to
certain conditions;
(2) Limiting the number of cannabis plants allowed to be grown at one cultivation facility to one thousand plants;
(3) Allowing one cultivation license to be issued per tax map key number;
(4) Lowering
the minimum asset requirement for cultivation licensees from $500,000 to
$250,000;
(5) Clarifying
that cultivation licensees may only sell to licensed medical cannabis
dispensaries;
(6) Establishing
requirements for cultivation facility operations, including required cannabis
plant tracking and testing;
(7) Making
the cultivation licenses available after December 31, 2023;
(8) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050,
to encourage further
discussion; and
(9) 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 Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1372, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1372, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection,
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________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair |
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________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair |
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