Hawaii Governor Signs Executive Order Protecting Medical Marijuana Caregivers Who Grow For Patients After Lawmakers Neglect To Extend Deadline

The governor of Hawaii has signed an executive order protecting medical marijuana caregivers who are responsible for growing cannabis for patients from “undue enforcement”—stepping up with a policy fix after lawmakers neglected to extend those protections that expire on Wednesday under current statute.

While legislators have said they plan to correct the oversight in the 2025 session, Gov. Josh Green (D) said the interim executive action is necessary to ensure that patients maintain an adequate supply of medicine.

“We have medical cannabis statutes to provide patients the relief each desperately needs as they navigate very serious health issues,” Green said in a press release on Monday. “We must protect the patients and their caregivers when the caregivers cultivate cannabis for a patient in a manner that fits squarely within the spirit of the medical-cannabis law.”

To that end, the governor’s executive order directs the Department of Health (DOH) not to take enforcement action against medical marijuana caregivers operating in compliance with the provisions of the law, regardless of the expiration of the protections. The order also lays out other scenarios where enforcement is appropriate, such as in cases of illegal diversion.

@GovJoshGreenMD today signed an executive order to protect caregivers who provide medical cannabis to qualified patients, from undue enforcement.

More: https://t.co/zYZCYhVOxY

— Office of the Governor, State of Hawai`i (@GovHawaii) December 31, 2024

“The Hawaiʻi Department of Health strongly supports continuing to allow primary caregivers to cultivate medical cannabis for qualifying patients as needed for the patients’ health,” DOH Director Kenneth Fink said.

The order itself says that “the expiration of the authority of a primary caregiver to cultivate cannabis for a qualifying patient may lead to negative health outcomes for qualifying patients suffering from a debilitating condition.”

Further, DOH and its Office of Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation “have limited resources to investigate and enforce minor violations” of the laws around caregivers.

Lawmakers have recognized that they erred in neglecting to extend the caregiver protections, with House Public Safety Committee Chair Della Belatti (D) telling HawaiiNewsNow that the “failure” of the legislature brought a “crisis upon us.”

Patients would be “left either to the black market, which we know is unregulated and untested and unsafe potentially,” she said. “Now the we’re faced with the situation and we’re going to have to deal with it.”

Meanwhile, Hawaii regulators recently solicited proposals to assess the state’s current medical marijuana program—and also estimate demand for recreational cannabis sales if the state eventually moves forward with adult-use legalization.

While Hawaii’s Senate approved a recreational marijuana legalization bill in March, proposals to end prohibition have consistently stalled out in the House of Representatives before reaching the finish line. But the regulatory agency evidently sees a need to prepare to the potential reform—a policy change that is supported by the governor.

The request for proposals was released just weeks after the governor signed into law a bill to create a task force charged with crafting legislation that would expunge certain criminal records, likely including some past marijuana arrests and convictions.

In the meantime, Green signed a separate bill into law, HB 1595, to create a single-county pilot program that will expunge certain non-conviction marijuana records.

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As originally introduced, that measure from Rep. David Tarnas (D) would have directed state officials to automatically expunge tens of thousands of arrest and conviction records for low-level marijuana possession. But the Senate Judiciary Committee later gutted the proposal, replacing the statewide plan with a pilot program in Hawaii County that would apply only to non-conviction arrest records.

Advocates have said the limited reform measures represent victories despite the legislature’s failure to pass a marijuana legalization bill this session. A separate bill to expand the state’s existing law decriminalizing small amounts of cannabis also failed to pass this session.

Following the failure of the broader legalization push, Green said in April that he has “a possible solution” to the situation: vastly expanding the Hawaii’s existing medical cannabis system to allow people to register based on any health concern rather than needing to have one of a specific list of conditions.

“This would make it very available—that’s marijuana—for those who choose it in their lives,” the governor said in an interview with Hawaii News Now, “and it would still keep kids safe, which has been everyone’s priority.”

At the same time, Green reiterated his support for full recreational legalization.

“I think for adults who can responsibly use marijuana, it should be legal,” he said.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.