STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3668

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2443

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2443, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, 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) Repeal the sunset date of the authorization for primary caregivers to cultivate medical cannabis for qualifying patients;

(2) Clarify that primary caregivers may continue to cultivate medical cannabis for qualifying patients subject to certain restrictions; and

(3) Increase the maximum number of qualified patients for which each location used to cultivate cannabis may cultivate cannabis from five to ten patients.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Cannabis Society of Hawaiʻi, and four individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Aloha Green Apothecary, Care Waialua, Oahu Cannabis Farms Alliance, and thirty-one individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Akamai Cannabis Consulting, and one individual.

Your Committees find that grow site limits are important for ensuring patient safety and monitoring compliance with state rules for growing cannabis for medical use to prevent excessive growth and diversion from the medical-use system. Additionally, each patient is permitted to grow up to ten plants, meaning a ten-patient limit will restrict the total number of plants at a grow site to no more than one hundred plants. Your Committees believe that this is a manageable grow site size for the Department of Health to adequately monitor. This measure will therefore increase patient access to medical marijuana without compromising patient safety.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2443, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair