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Last month Ohio voters approved a measure by a wide margin to have the Buckeye State join 23 other states and the District of Columbia that have legalized adult-use cannabis.

In the coming weeks and months, Hawaii’s Legislature will have the opportunity to assess offered by Attorney General Anne Lopez and offer measures of its own. One poll found last year that a significant majority of Hawaii residents for recreational use, representing an ongoing shift in opinion toward ending cannabis prohibition.

In 2021, the Maui County Council unanimously supporting the legalization, regulation and taxation of cannabis for responsible adult use. Among the council’s recommendations were “equitable ownership and employment opportunities in a legal cannabis industry,” the expungement of cannabis convictions, and “investment in non-punitive programs and community-based services.”

Legalization Reduces Risks, Creates Opportunities

Recent statements by legalization opponents in Hawaii have noted that cannabis grown today often has high potency and will increase health risks among the state’s youth and those with mental health conditions.

Unlike an unregulated illicit market that offers cannabis products of uncertain composition and uncertain potency, a well-regulated adult-use cannabis market can provide quality assurance practices like accurate labeling and batch testing.

Cannabis use poses health risks that are very small compared with two widely used licit substances: alcohol and tobacco. As with alcohol, retailers would be required to verify a person’s age before they purchase cannabis products.

With fentanyl-related overdoses on the rise in Hawaii and across the nation, cannabis can provide a safer alternative to substances procured from the illicit market.

The provision of science-based, harm reduction-focused educational materials, the Canadian Nurses Association, can support informed decision making by those who consume cannabis.

Despite repeated recommendations from legislative working groups, Hawaii’s Department of Health has yet to provide this kind of information in the context of Hawaii’s unduly restrictive medical cannabis law.

Continued cannabis prohibition is an increasingly untenable policy given the progress toward adult-use regulation in other states and the prospect of sweeping changes at the federal level. The primary concerns for cannabis reform should instead focus upon three large policy areas.

First, promote meaningful equity throughout the cannabis sector, including production, manufacture, transportation and sale. Diversifying production of cannabis flower has broad ramifications for rural growers, including those engaged in the legacy market.

Second, repair the harms of cannabis prohibition through the granting of clemency and expungement of cannabis-related criminal records.

Third, dedicate revenues from cannabis sales to improve the health and well-being of those from rural communities and other under-resourced populations, including behavioral health services, homelessness prevention, and youth programming.

A professional cannabis control board can be charged with promulgating necessary regulations to implement beneficial changes, including . Hawaii certainly doesn’t need more input from right-wing extremists from the continent like those invited to an August forum hosted by Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm in Waikiki.

Decrease Burdens On Vulnerable Communities

Hawaii’s criminal legal system continues to adversely impact far too many families, those with behavioral health issues, and those from under-resourced communities.

This includes enforcement of and paraphernalia laws, a probation system with in the nation (59 months), and squalid carceral facilities. A large majority of those in jail are pre-trial detainees.

Reports from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs the disproportionate treatment of Native Hawaiians of the criminal legal process. Sending members of Hawaiian families to private prisons to their children and other loved ones.

Despite the bleak situation, legislative efforts to mitigate the destructive impacts of the state’s criminal legal system in recent years have been reflexively opposed by prosecutors and other entrenched interests.

Hawaii deserves better. Cannabis legalization can reduce the scope and reach of Hawaii’s criminal legal system upon those from under-resourced Native Hawaiian and Pasifika communities.

It was also offered at the forum that Japanese tourists would not come to Hawaii should it legalize adult-use cannabis. This assertion typifies the misleading fear-based rhetoric undergirding eight decades of punitive cannabis prohibition.

Japanese tourism in California increased after it legalized cannabis, according to figures provided by . A recent Civil Beat article noted that Japanese tourists are not coming back to Hawaii for a range of factors, including inflation, an unfavorable exchange rate, and poor experiences with transportation and customer service.

Official over the first seven months of 2023 indicate that 75% of Hawaii tourists come from the United States. Two-thirds of that figure are from the U.S. west, where legal cannabis is widely available, with over $6 billion in spending.

Canada legalized cannabis on a nationwide basis in 2018. In 2023 that nation provided more tourists contributing significantly more revenue (284,544 visitors spending $726.2 million) than Japan (267,131 visitors spending $427.5 million) to Hawaii’s visitor industry.

Cultivate A More Prosperous State

With an appropriate amount of regulation and taxation, Hawaii is well positioned to cultivate a thriving cannabis economy that can secure the position of local farmers and businesses in prospective national and international markets.

Just as visitors now tour commercial farms growing coffee, pineapple, cacao or lavender, there would be significant interest in connecting with those working on Hawaii cannabis farms through day visits or overnight stays. Maine and other states are encouraging that champions smaller-scale farms, in contrast to a cannabis sector that is largely dominated by corporate multi-state operators in most states.

Cannabis tourism is a growing sector in states where cannabis is legal, despite its continued listing on Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act. Forbes estimates was a $17 billion industry in 2022.

The federal government should remove cannabis from the CSA, and a large majority of Hawaii’s Legislature called upon the federal government to do so via in 2019.

In those states that have legalized adult-use cannabis through the legislative process, visible and active executive leadership helped guide the parameters of the policy conversation.

This was most recently the case in Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Walz publicly lent his support to legalization as legislation moved through the process. Govs. Tim Murphy (New Jersey) and Michelle Lujan Grisham (New Mexico) were also vocal proponents.

We are hopeful that Gov. Josh Green will make a similar personal commitment.

Building a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable economy in this state should include fair, active, and continuous participation for those living in rural areas of every county. Cannabis grown by Hawaiian hands on Hawaiian lands should be a key component of that grand effort.