Attitudes toward marijuana in Hawaii continue to evolve

Hawaii has gone from the full-throated roar of National Guard helicopters swooping over homes searching for illegal marijuana plants to an ambivalent shrug at the thought of a neighbor puffing a small amount of the same prohibited weed.

Hawaii’s thinking about marijuana splits from hating to loving the stuff.

When former Hawaii Attorney General Warren Price was declaring war on marijuana with Operation Green Harvest in 1989, he proclaimed that marijuana in Hawaii “has grown from a backyard problem to the largest industry in Hawaii.”

Combining military resources, National Guard helicopters and county police forces, the operation ripped up an estimated 6.3 million plants, according to reports in 1996.

Critics, including a 1990 Legislative Auditor’s report, said the drug enforcement effort was based on “unsystematic, intermittent planning geared to federal funding.”

By 2008, Big Island voters overwhelmingly voted for a ballot initiative directing police to make marijuana enforcement the “lowest priority.” In 2014 the state Supreme Court ruled the initiative illegal, noting that county ordinances can’t overrule a state law saying marijuana is illegal.

Hawaii continued to be of two minds about marijuana as the Big Island County Council in 2008 voted to reject three federal grants totaling $528,000 for marijuana eradication.

And by 2012, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration had closed its Big Island office and airport hangar, saying it was just saving money, but Hawaii County Police Department Maj. Randy Apele was quoted in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald saying that the county doesn’t carry out aerial enforcement anymore.

While police and military police were rappelling from choppers to hack away at the pakalolo, folks in Hilo were seeing the illegal weed’s cash sales prop up an economy devastated by closing sugar plantations.

“I’m against legalizing marijuana and I never smoked it, but yes, I would have to say it helped the local economy,” says Big Island Democratic Rep. Clift Tsuji.

“It was a cash crop,” the former Hilo banker recalls.

Because it was also a cash business, there are no real figures for how much marijuana contributed to the economy, but longtime Hawaii islanders all have stories of growers buying big new shiny trucks with cash.

Conventional legislative wisdom has it that if Gov. David Ige approves a bill passed this year to set up medical marijuana dispensaries, it will make extensive marijuana farming legal.

Marijuana is illegal according to both state and federal laws, with possession of less than an ounce considered a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The feds classify it as a Schedule I drug under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.

The other side of the coin is that Hawaii’s weed has already been branded and promoted. The Maui Wowee, Kona Gold and Puna Butter cachet from the 1980s is now a drug with medical research potential.

After years of negotiating, the University of Hawaii was able to get a U.S. Justice Department permit to import hemp seeds from Australia. Hemp is a far less potent variety of the cannabis family that includes marijuana. UH hopes to start its research at a Waimanalo test site.

Actual testing with marijuana is not allowed because it is a federally prohibited plant, but if the situation changes, Hawaii should be in a position to realize major medical and economic benefits even before any action is taken on legalization.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.