“This has been underway for a long time and the reason I think that it hasn’t come to fruition up till now is it got lost in the weeds of the arguments about marijuana,” Abercrombie said during the bill-signing ceremony. He later added, “Regardless of whatever has been in the past, I think we’re ready to move forward.”
Thielen touted hemp as an economic engine that could create jobs, encourage entrepreneurship and fill an agricultural void created when the isles’ sugar industry dissolved.
“We’re going to have a wonderful agricultural crop that will cleanse our soil and clothe us, feed us, and shelter us,” she said, lifting up a hempcrete brick and giving it a tap.
The state in 1999 implemented a law similar to the proposed bill, but Thielen said earlier this session that the DEA “really yanked the rug out from under that project after three years.”
RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL HEMP.
Report Title: Industrial Hemp; Two-year Industrial Hemp Remediation and Biofuel Crop Research Program; College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; University of Hawaii
Description: 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. Requires a final report to the legislature prior to the convening of the regular session of 2016. Defines industrial hemp. Repeals 07/01/2016. (SB2175 HD2)
Contact: repthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
House Minority Caucus 