All we really need to know about the latest move in the Legislature to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis is that the measure was crafted by an attorney general who doesn’t support it.
Attorney General Anne Lopez wrote the legislation at the request of lawmakers, but as the state’s chief law enforcer urged them not to pass the bill, which is moving in the Senate but facing resistance in the House.
“Issues of federal illegality, the growth of the illicit market, driving while high and problems protecting children are issues the Legislature should consider,” her special assistant David Day told a Senate hearing.
While 24 states have legalized recreational cannabis, “There is no state that’s come out completely unscathed in this process,” Day said.
The attorney general’s reticence is shared by county law enforcement agencies, while some supporters grumble that the bill, which would create a Hawaii Cannabis Authority overseen by a Cannabis Control Board to regulate a recreational cannabis industry, is too deferential to law enforcement.
Obviously, there’s still much work left to reconcile these differences, and law enforcement isn’t the only concern about state-promoted cannabis.
Visions of a vast tax windfall to fund other Hawaii needs are greatly oversold. State analyses project our relatively small market would produce annual tax revenue of $20 million to $50 million, while legalization supporters put it at $30 million to $80 million.
Either way, it’s barely enough to cover the cost of a new cannabis bureaucracy, educating the public on safe pakalolo use and addressing abuse — especially among minors.
Claims that legal cannabis curtails the black market haven’t proved true; cheaper street pot continues to thrive in states that allow regulated recreational cannabis.
The same is true in Hawaii since the legalization of medical cannabis in 2015. Illegal sales are pervasive as ever despite the Legislature’s liberal list of qualifying conditions that enable virtually any adult — including tourists — to easily get a state card to buy cannabis from licensed dispensaries.
The dispensaries haven’t been the cash cows operators expected, and medical cannabis still isn’t built out to the number of dispensaries allowed by law. Dispensaries blame overhead from state regulations that keep their prices well above street weed.
Why rush into knotty recreational sales before the simpler medical program works out kinks?
Hawaii has done poorly with grandiose authorities and boards created to regulate complex matters, leaving the public dubious of local government’s competence to deliver what it promises. Boards overseeing tourism, housing, law enforcement, commercial development, agriculture and Honolulu rail have ranged from ineffective to disastrous.
Legally, cannabis is already decriminalized in Hawaii, with users possessing less than three grams facing only a $130 civil fine. Lawmakers are considering a bill to raise the limit to an ounce and cut the fine to $25.
Simple possession cases are seldom enforced by police, and notions that jails are full of small-time cannabis violators are false.
Given valid concerns about uncertain plans, there’s no urgency for lawmakers — with so many more pressing needs before them — to prioritize recreational weed until we have a clearer picture of what we’re getting into.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
