Hawaii Marijuana Legalization Bills Are Likely Dead For 2026 Session, Key Lawmakers Say

A pair of Hawaii House bills aimed at legalizing marijuana in the state are
effectively dead for the 2026 session, key lawmakers say.

Despite renewed hopes that the proposals—including one from House Judiciary
and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman David Tarnas (D) that would have
put the issue of legalization before voters at the ballot—would advance
this year, the sponsor and House Speaker Nadine Nakamura (D) say there
isn’t enough support within the legislature to pass them this year.

“We’re the same members from last year,” Nakamura told the Honolulu
Star-Advertiser on Friday, “and when we checked around, it didn’t sound
like it would change anyone’s mind.”

“It’s just not a clear-cut ‘let’s do it,’” she said, adding that
legislators “represent 1.4 million people” across the state, and “the
constituencies are so different and they have to represent their
constituencies.” The speaker said an informal head count of House lawmakers
that leadership conducted last month revealed no clear signs that the
general sentiment toward legalization had meaningfully changed.

“The feedback we were getting from members is that this doesn’t rise to the
level of a constitutional amendment where we’re changing the way government
operates,” Nakamura said. “This is more of an issue that should be
addressed within the body.”

*If the legislature agreed to advance the latest legalization plan, voters
would see this on their November ballots:*

“Shall the Constitution of the State of Hawaii be amended to:

(1) Authorize individuals aged twenty-one and older to use and possess
personal-use amounts of cannabis; and

(2) Require the legislature to enact laws governing the use, manufacture,
distribution, sale, possession, regulation, and taxation of cannabis within
the State?”

If a majority of voters approved the ballot measure, cannabis legalization
would take effect on July 1, 2027.

Tarnas, for his part, said he believes “the bill we put out this year
addressed the concerns better than the bill last year.”

“So I think we got more votes from our internal polling but it’s not
enough. So I still need to keep working on it,” he said. “I’m being
courteously persistent. I think it’s incumbent upon me to continue the
conversation in a productive way and a collaborative way to address the
concerns of House members and the concerns of the chairs of those
committees that have referred the bill.”

A Senate version of the legislation is still technically in play, but the
same political dynamics on the House side would still complicate its path
to passage if it were to cross over to that chamber.

Karen O’Keefe, state policies director at the Marijuana Policy Project,
told Marijuana Moment on Monday that the Hawaii House “is not only blocking
legalization against the wishes of those it represents, but it is also
depriving voters of the transparency needed to hold their lawmakers
accountable.”

“Last year, instead of allowing a floor vote on legalization, the House
sent legalization back to committees it had already passed due to a lack of
‘consensus,'” she said. “This deprived voters of the knowledge of where
their representatives stood. Now, it appears poised to kill a
voter-referral and a legalization trigger bill, with no committee hearings
or votes.”

“Hawai’i voters deserve a chance to legalize cannabis if their lawmakers
are unwilling to do so. And they deserve to know which lawmakers are
responsible for their continued criminalization,” O’Keefe said. “We hope
the Senate has more respect for liberty, democracy, and transparency.”

State officials last month released a report on the potential economic
impact of recreational marijuana legalization in the state, including
revenue implications related to domestic and international tourism.

All told, researchers said survey data and comparative analyses indicate
that Hawaii could see anywhere from $46-$90 million in monthly marijuana
sales by year five of implementation, after accounting for a maximum 15
percent tax rate on cannabis products.

Hawaii’s Senate last year narrowly defeated a proposal that would have increased
fivefold the amount of cannabis that a person could possess without risk of
criminal charges.

Had the measure become law, it would have increased the amount of cannabis
decriminalized in Hawaii from the current 3 grams up to 15 grams.
Possession of any amount of marijuana up to that 15-gram limit would have
been classified as a civil violation, punishable by a fine of $130.

A Senate bill that would have legalized marijuana for adults, meanwhile,
ultimately stalled for the session. That measure, SB 1613, failed to make
it out of committee by a legislative deadline.

While advocates felt there was sufficient support for the legalization
proposal in the Senate, it’s widely believed that House lawmakers would
have ultimately scuttled the measure, as they did last February with a
legalization companion bill, HB 1246.

In 2024, a Senate-passed legalization bill also fizzled out in the House.

Last year’s House vote to stall the bill came just days after approval from
a pair of committees at a joint hearing. Ahead of that hearing, the panels
received nearly 300 pages of testimony, including from state agencies,
advocacy organizations and members of the public.

Green signed separate legislation last year to allow medical marijuana
caregivers to grow marijuana on behalf of up to five patients rather than
the current one.

And in July, the governor signed another bill that establishes a number of
new rules around hemp products in Hawaii, including a requirement that
distributors and retailers obtain a registration from the Department of
Health.

Lawmakers also sent a bill to the governor that would help speed the
expungement process for people hoping to clear their records of past
marijuana-related offenses—a proposal Green signed into law last April.

That measure, HB 132, from Tarnas, is intended to expedite expungements
happening through a pilot program signed into law in 2024 by Green.
Specifically, it will remove a distinction between marijuana and other
Schedule V drugs for the purposes of the expungement program.

The bill’s proponents said the current wording of the law forces state
officials to comb through thousands of criminal records manually in order
to identify which are eligible for expungement under the pilot program.

Meanwhile, in November, Hawaii officials finalized rules that will allow
medical marijuana dispensaries to sell an expanded assortment of products
for patients—including dry herb vaporizers, rolling papers and
grinders—while revising the state code to clarify that cannabis oils and
concentrates can be marketed for inhalation.

The department also affirmed its support for federal marijuana rescheduling—a
policy change that President Donald Trump ordered to be completed
expeditiously but has yet to come to fruition.

Meanwhile, Hawaii lawmakers recently advanced a bill to allow qualifying
patients to access medical marijuana at health facilities.


*— Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug
policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon
supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps,
charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.*


*Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on
Patreon to get access. —*

Regulators are also launching a series of courses designed to educate
physicians and other healthcare professionals about medical marijuana as
the state’s cannabis program expands.

The underlying medical marijuana expansion bill signed by the governor in
late June, in addition to allowing more patients to more easily access
cannabis, also contains a provision that advocates find problematic.

Before lawmakers sent the legislation to Green, a conference committee
revised the plan, inserting a provision to allow DOH to access medical
marijuana patient records held by doctors for any reason whatsoever.

*Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.*

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Session, Key Lawmakers Say appeared first on Marijuana Moment.