Hawaii Senators Approve Limited Marijuana Legalization Bill After House Punts On Reform For 2026

Hawaii senators have approved a bill to legalize low-dose and low-potency
marijuana, even as their counterparts in the House of Representatives say
cannabis prohibition will not be ended in the state this year.

Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee advanced the
measure—SB 3275 from Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D)— on Wednesday after
holding a hearing on the proposal a day earlier.

The legislation would allow adults 21 and older to legally possess and use
certain amounts of low-dose and low-THC cannabis for personal use, with
products limited to a maximum of 5 milligrams of THC per serving. In liquid
form, they could have up to 5 milligrams of THC per twelve ounces.

The bill does not provide for licensing of commercial cannabis cultivation,
production and sales.

Before approving the proposal, members amended it by removing some
provisions concerning home cultivation and swapping out a regulatory role
for the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs with the Office of
Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation. They also deleted sections of the
bill that would have protected marijuana consumers’ workplace, parental and
medical care rights.

The Commerce and Consumer Protections Committee, which also participated in
the joint hearing on the bill on Tuesday, deferred its own action on the
measure until Thursday.

The Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday also approved a bill
to allow patients to immediately access medical cannabis once their
registrations are submitted, instead of having to wait until their cards
are delivered as is the case under current law.

A separate marijuana legalization bill that contained provisions making the
reform contingent on changes to federal law or the state Constitution, SB
2421, was deferred for action by both panels. Both panels additionally
deferred action on a measure to allow for the sale of certain hemp-derived
cannabinoid products.

The state attorney general’s office voiced opposition to the legalization
proposal that advanced, stating that, as currently drafted, the bill
“effectively legalizes a level of non-medical adult-use cannabis without
the necessary resources and regulatory scheme required to safely and
effectively administer a non-medical adult-use cannabis program.”

The Senate committee action comes after key House lawmakers signaled that
cannabis legalization proposals would not be advancing in the 2026 session,
citing a lack of sufficient support in their chamber.

Despite renewed hopes that those bills—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) said there
wasn’t enough support within the legislature to pass them this round.

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.

Gov. Josh Green (D) 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.

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


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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 Philip Steffan.*

The post Hawaii Senators Approve Limited Marijuana Legalization Bill After
House Punts On Reform For 2026 appeared first on Marijuana Moment.