STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 1255
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: S.B. No. 1429
S.D. 2
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1429, S.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL CANNABIS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
(1) Authorizing the Department of Health to impose penalties and take enforcement actions for violations of the medical cannabis laws;
(2) Allowing primary caregivers to care for up to five qualifying patients;
(3) Repealing the prohibition on primary caregivers cultivating medical cannabis for qualifying patients;
(4) Extending the authorized period for which the Department of Health's interim rules are effective until July 1, 2027; and
(5) Extending the exemption from civil service laws for certain Department of Health personnel until June 30, 2027.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and Akamai Cannabis Consulting. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Noa Botanicals and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Hawaiʻi Cannabis Industry Association; Cure Oahu; Aloha Green Apothecary; and Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii.
Your Committee
finds that according to the rapid survey of Hawaii medical cannabis patients
and providers conducted by the Department of Health in 2022, fifty-five
percent of patients indicated that they obtained their cannabis exclusively
from a licensed medical cannabis dispensary.
This means forty-five percent of cannabis patients obtain their medical
cannabis from other sources, including cultivation. Your Committee further finds that Act 309,
Session Laws of Hawaii 2022, prohibited primary caregivers from cultivating
cannabis for qualifying patients after December 31, 2024. Your Committee believes that qualifying
patients should have multiple options for obtaining medical cannabis, including
having a primary caregiver grow an adequate supply of cannabis for medical use
on their behalf.
However, your Committee also recognizes the concerns raised in testimony before your Committee by the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Health that allowing a primary caregiver to care for and cultivate cannabis for up to five patients would risk commercializing the caregiver role, which could potentially harm both patients as well as the integrity of the medical cannabis program.
Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Making administrative penalties, cease and desist orders, and orders for corrective action final twenty calendar days after the date of the written notice, unless a contested case hearing is requested;
(2) Reverting to existing statutory language authorizing a primary caregiver to provide care to only one qualifying patient and removing language that allowed each location used to cultivate cannabis to be used for cultivation for no more than five qualifying patients;
(3) Extending the sunset for the exemption from
civil service requirements for personnel hired by, or contracts entered into
by, the Department
of Health to July 1, 2029; and
(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1429, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1429, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |
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