STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2373

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2175

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Agriculture and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2175 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Authorize the growing of industrial hemp for certain purposes under specified conditions;

 

     (2)  Establish an advisory group to make recommendations to the Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture on all matters pertaining to the cultivation of industrial hemp;

 

     (3)  Require a report and opinion from the Attorney General regarding certain reported incidents and the authorization of this measure pursuant to federal law, respectively; and

 

     (4)  Require a report from the industrial hemp advisory group, in consultation with the Hemp Industrial Association, regarding the economic impacts of industrial hemp cultivation by January 1, 2019, or four years after this measure is authorized under federal law, whichever is later.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Kona Chapter of Hawaii Farmers Union United; Artel, Inc.; Pacific Biodiesel Technologies; Vote Hemp; Paradise Action Women's Alliance; Hawaii Sustainable Community Alliance; Green Futures and Hawaiian Standard; Hui O Malama Aina; and seventy-six individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Honolulu Police Department and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that industrial hemp products are a $500,000,000 industry in the United States.  Hemp fibers are used to make thousands of different items, including fabrics, yarns, carpeting, home furnishings, construction materials, foods, body-care products, and auto parts.  Although it is a variety of Cannabis, industrial hemp is genetically distinct from the psychoactive marijuana plant and requires different cultivation practices.  However, due to its close relationship to the psychoactive variety of the plant, it has been illegal for cultivation in the United States until recently.  Fortunately, earlier this month, President Obama signed a farm bill legalizing hemp production for research purposes by state agriculture departments and colleges and universities.

 

     Your Committees further find that industrial hemp would be highly useful in Hawaii for the purpose of remediating toxic soil and as an efficient feedstock for biofuel.  In fact, the University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, is prepared to conduct a research project that studies hemp remediation and biofuel production.  This type of research project is now authorized by federal law, making the current measure legalizing industrial hemp cultivation largely unnecessary.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language that:

 

     (1)  Authorizes the Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa to establish a two-year industrial hemp remediation and biofuel research program; and

 

     (2)  Requires the Dean to submit a final report to the Legislature twenty days prior to the convening of the 2016 Regular Session.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2175, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2175, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair