Hawaii lawmakers are pressing ahead with an updated cannabis legalization plan, and while the Aloha State could very well be one of the next to embrace adult-use reform, the original plan is already seeing some substantial shifts. Namely, it appears that the Senate is looking to significantly scale back some of the actions surrounding social equity.

The original measure, passed by the House last week, would have automatically expunged tens of thousands of arrest and conviction records for low-level cannabis convictions in the state. On Tuesday, a Hawaiian Senate panel has instead amended the proposal to a single-county pilot program, first reported by Marijuana Moment.

Limiting the Scope of Cannabis Expungements in Hawaii

Similar to the recreational legalization plan, which state lawmakers are separately working to advance, this move is based on plans from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez. 

“Instead of the bill’s statewide automatic expungement program for arrests and convictions,” said Sen. Karl Rhodes (D), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I propose that we adopt the attorney general’s pilot program for state-initiated expungement of marijuana possession arrests.”

The measure would also only apply to criminal cases “terminated with a final disposition other than a conviction,” 

Back in November 2023, Lopez released her own legalization plan, which the most recent legislation passed by the Senate primarily pulls from. While many lawmakers have praised the new bill and the plan it’s based upon, advocates have expressed concern around the bill’s creation of additional law enforcement protocols.

Among other provisions, the legislation proposes a THC blood limit for drivers (even though THC metabolites can be detected in the body days or even weeks after consumption), the creation of a cannabis enforcement unit within the Department of Law Enforcement and adds eight positions in a drug nuisance abatement unit in the AG’s office.

Rhodes suggested that the pilot program could be located in Hawaii County, the states’ second most populous county, comprising the Big Island and hosting about 14% of the state’s total population.

According to bill sponsor Rep. David Tarnas (D), the original legislation would have made approximately 30,000 people eligible for expungements. Though, if the amendments from the AG’s office remain in place, HB 1595’s ultimate impact would be far smaller. 

Influence from the Attorney General’s Office

Lopez’s office issued a statement saying that, without these amendments, the department “reiterates its strong opposition to this bill.”

“Instead of the bill in its current form, the Department proposes a pilot project whereby certain individuals who have been arrested solely for marijuana possession…and whose arrest resulted in a non-conviction disposition, have the arrest expunged via a state-initiated process,” the department said in a statement.

It continues, arguing that limiting the expungement process to one county would keep the case load manageable using its existing resources and suggested an approximate 14-month duration for the program.

“Results of the pilot project could then be used to evaluate the project’s effectiveness, utility, and efficiency, and to allow the Data Center to make more informed recommendations for future efforts,” the department said.

Hawaii has already introduced cannabis decriminalization, in turn ushering in a record sealing process from the courts, though advocates attest that the process isn’t accessible and can be challenging to navigate. 

Mixed Reception as Hawaii Presses Forward With Potential Reform

The original bill would have automated the process, ensuring that the attorney general’s office “issue, without petition and on the department’s own initiative, an expungement order annulling, canceling, and rescinding all criminal records, including records of arrest and any records of conviction” for crimes of possessing up to three grams of cannabis. The process would have included records for civil violations, petty misdemeanor convictions, juvenile convictions, arrests and convictions, along with any pending charges.

The prior version would have also required the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center to identify all eligible cases within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, providing that information in biennial reports to the attorney general’s office, county prosecuting attorneys, county police departments and each state court. 

After receiving those lists, the attorney general’s office would have 60 days to issue expungement orders for the records under the previous version. Within one year of receiving those orders, the judiciary would finish the job.

Some advocates emphasized that the passing of an expungement process in the state was monumental despite the narrower scope.

“This is a huge step forward that will encourage Gov. Green to amplify relief for those with cannabis records through his clemency powers, something the Hawai’i legislature has already urged him to do,” said Frank Stiefel, senior policy associate for the Last Prisoner Project.

Others like Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for Marijuana Policy Project, said that the changes “represent a severe blow to cannabis justice.”

“An economic life sentence is an outrageously disproportionate penalty for possessing a substance that most Hawaii residents—and the Hawai’i Senate—believe should be legal,” O’Keefe told Marijuana Moment. “Testimony at the House Judiciary Committee’s informational briefing made it clear Hawai’i can and should remove this stigma which derails so many lives.”

The changes to HB 1595 come fresh off the Senate’s passing of SB 3335, which would allow adults over the age of 21 to possess up to an ounce of cannabis and up to five grams of cannabis concentrates, along with establishing a recreational cannabis sales framework. 

That bill now heads to the state’s more conservative House for consideration, which has historically been resistant to adult-use cannabis policies.

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Local government officials in the Swiss capital of Bern are discussing the possibility of launching a pilot program to study the effects of legal cocaine sales on the general public.

According to Reuters, legislators in the Bern Parliament have proposed the idea as a potential solution to increased cocaine usage in a country already infamous for some of the highest levels of cocaine use in Europe. The discussion began just weeks after a select few Swiss cities, Bern included, launched a similar pilot program to analyze the effects of legal adult-use cannabis sales, the first of its kind in Europe.

“The war on drugs has failed, and we have to look at new ideas,” said Eva Chen, a member of the Bern council from the Alternative Left Party who co-sponsored the proposal. “Control and legalization can do better than mere repression.”

Legislators in support of the idea proposed that due to falling prices of cocaine and rising levels of use, especially in Switzerland, the most common sense solution would be to regulate and control the flow, distribution and purity of the supply rather than continue to fight the uphill battles of prohibition policies. 

“We have a lot of cocaine in Switzerland right now, at the cheapest prices and the highest quality we have ever seen,” said Frank Zobel, deputy director at Addiction Switzerland. “You can get a dose of cocaine for about 10 francs these days, not much more than the price for a beer.”

The measure has already passed the Bern Parliament but still needs approval from the city government before a program can be officially implemented. The measure would also require a legislative change at the national level, so there are still many hurdles to overcome before Bern residents can expect to walk into a cocaine store without fear of legal repercussions. This is at least part of the reason why the proposal is for a pilot program/study rather than direct legalization.

“We are still far away from potential legalization, but we should look at new approaches,” Chen said to Reuters. “That is why we are calling for a scientifically supervised pilot scheme trial.”

This program would be the first of its kind in the world at large where cocaine remains largely illegal for any purpose in a majority of Earth’s sovereign nations. There are some notable exceptions. In Mexico, for instance, it is legal to carry up to a half-gram of cocaine for personal use. In some South American countries low-level possession and cultivation of a small number of coca plants is legal. Many countries have decriminalized personal possession of cocaine and in the United States there are some states like Oregon which have decriminalized as well. In many countries cocaine can also be prescribed for medical purposes, though the rates or prescription are likely very low because comparable medicines exist with far lower rates of abuse. 

Nowhere on God’s Green Earth, however, is cocaine legal to be sold under the guise of adult-use. Swiss legislators hope to change that in the name of personal safety and harm reduction, to say nothing of the economic incentives that must exist for texable cocaine sales.

“Cocaine can be life-threatening for both first-time and long-term users. The consequences of an overdose, but also individual intolerance to even the smallest amounts, can lead to death,” the Bern government said.

The issue remains hotly contested both around the world and among addiction experts in Switzerland and not all are in favor of legalization. Boris Quednow, group leader of the University of Zurich’s Centre for Psychiatric Research told Reuters the issue differed from alcohol 

“Cocaine is one of the most strongly addictive substances known,” Quednow said.

Those in favor of legalization have expressed that common sense measures need to happen because of prohibition’s abject failure to keep cocaine out of Swiss cities, not to mention everywhere else. 

“Cocaine isn’t healthy – but the reality is that people use it,” said  Thilo Beck, from the Arud Zentrum for Addiction Medicine to Reuters. “We can’t change that, so we should try to ensure people use it in the safest, least damaging way.”

Before anyone gets all gung-ho about emigrating to Switzerland, these proposed changes could take years before they go into effect. National law would need to be amended, as aforementioned, and that process largely depends on the success of the adult-use cannabis pilot program currently underway. Many other measures would also need to be taken before any sort of launch date or approval process could be considered. Quality control measures, supply chain concerns and harm reduction practices to name a few would all need to be ironed out to stand up to full Swiss legislative scrutiny. 

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The Danish Parliament’s Health Committee recently stated that it has destroyed more than 145,541 kilograms (or approximately 320,862 pounds) of cannabis, measured in dry weight. According to a parliamentary inquiry response, the committee has also issued 303 permits to undergo the destruction of the plant material.

According to an email obtained by MJBizDaily, the destroyed cannabis all comes from companies who are permitted to cultivate in Denmark through its pilot program. Any cannabis cultivated after the growers received approval to participate in the pilot program.

The pilot program, “Act on a Medical Cannabis Pilot Programme,” was approved by the Danish government passed in 2017 and it went into effect starting on January 1, 2018. “The purpose of the pilot programme is to offer patients a lawful way of testing treatment with medicinal cannabis if they have experienced no benefits from authorised medicines. That is the intention with the programme,” the Danish government states on its website. It also states that the pilot program has an end date of December 31, 2025.

The country has approved 11 companies to manufacture cannabis products in Denmark: Aurora Nordic Cannabis A/S, DanCann Pharma A/S, Little Green Pharma Denmark ApS, MEDICAN A/S, Movianto Nordic ApS, Schroll Medical ApS, Sterigenics Denmark A/S, Tetra Pharm Technologies ApS, Valcon Medical A/S, Valeos Pharma A/S, and Vertanical Denmark ApS. Each is authorized to cultivate or manufacture cannabis through one of four permits, including approval for the pilot program, pharmaceutical manufacturing, propagating plants, and the “development authorization.”

The development authorization “scheme,” as it’s referred to on the Denmark government website, also began on January 1, 2018. “Under this scheme, companies can apply for an authorisation to cultivate and handle cannabis with a view to producing cannabis suitable for medicinal use,” the government states. “Cannabis developed under the development scheme cannot be used in the pilot programme or for other medicinal purposes.”

The government explains that the development authorization permit was created “…to give companies the opportunity to develop cultivation and production methods so that they could be ready to apply for a permit in the pilot scheme,” the government states in an official document that was translated.

According to MJBizDaily, a Danish Medicines Agency spokesperson explained that the 145,541 kilograms of destroyed cannabis is a combined total of cannabis that comes from any of the four permit types, and that there’s no way to confirm how much of it was made for the pilot program specifically.

The Danish government agency didn’t confirm exactly why the cannabis was destroyed. The parliamentary inquiry only partially stated that it was due to “faulty productions, discarded products including imported products and all cannabis cultivated in the development scheme are also included in the stated quantity.” All of the cannabis contained more than 0.2% THC.

The amount of cannabis destroyed in Denmark was at an all time high in 2023, compared to previous years. In 2022, the Danish Medicines Agency described “lost or destroyed cannabis” specifically not related to the pilot program amounted to 10,753 kilograms (23,706 pounds).

Alternatively, in 2019 Denmark medical cannabis pilot program approved companies produced 2,112 kg (4,656 pounds) in 2019, 6,587 kg (14,521 pounds) in 2020, and 32,433 kg (71,502 pounds) in 2021, with numbers not yet released for 2022.

Cannabis sales in Denmark have continued to grow as well, with about $30.8 million kroner (~US$2.8 million) in 2020, $64.3 million kroner (~US$5.9 million) in 2021, and $62.5 million kroner (~US$5.8 million) in 2022.

Destroying cannabis products aren’t uncommon in other countries either. Between January and December 2021, Canadian companies destroyed 425,325 kilograms (~937,681 pounds) of dried cannabis, as well as 40,454 kilograms (89,185 pounds) of extracts, 97,959 kilograms (21,5962 pounds) in edibles, and 3,940 kilograms (8,686 pounds) worth of topicals—all of which was categorized as “unpackaged.” Packaged cannabis destroyed in the same time frame amounted to 3,576,232 units of dried cannabis, 1,118,148 units of extracts, 2,421,823 units of edibles, and 15,359 units of topicals, according to Health Canada.

For Canada, reasons for destroying product “include, but are not limited to: crop losses; post-harvest disposal of unusable plant material (e.g., stalks); recalled products; and elimination of unsold or returned products,” a Health Canada spokesperson told High Times.

In the U.S., destroyed cannabis data relates to the seizure and destruction of illegal cannabis. In May, the Drug Enforcement Administration stated that it had seized more than 5,581,839 cannabis plants—90% of which were from California.

Earlier this month in Christiana, Denmark, a neighborhood commune that has long been associated with soft drug use, Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen urged tourists to stop buying cannabis in the area to deter violence. “The spiral of violence at Christiania is deeply worrying,” Andersen said, asking “the hundreds of thousands of visiting tourists and the many new foreign students who have just moved to Copenhagen to stay away and refrain from buying weed or other drugs at Pusher Street.” This response was due to a shootout that occurred in the area on Aug. 26, which resulted in the death of a 30-year-old man.

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The Netherlands government recently confirmed that it plans to start its pilot program on December 15 later this year. “The most recent planning shows that two legal growers are expected to be ready for delivery to coffee shops in the fourth quarter of 2023,” the Dutch government wrote. “This is sufficient to start the start-up phase of the experiment in Breda and Tilburg. In this phase, participating coffee shops from these municipalities may offer both legally grown and tolerated products. The next two growers are expected to start supplying coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg in February 2024.” Breda and Tilburg are located in the southern part of the country, near the border of Belgium.

The timeline for this program begins with a “start-up phase” that will last up to six months. “The initiative for the start-up phase was introduced by the mayors of Breda and Tilburg and embraced by Minister Ernst Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport and Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security as an opportunity to start the experiment on a small scale around a legalized production and sales chain,” the government wrote.

The start-up phase is described as a sort of warm up time frame for businesses to adjust to the program, however the government notes that if “public order or safety is seriously threatened,” then they will stop the program prematurely. “The insights will be shared with all participating municipalities and used to improve processes and systems for a smooth transition phase,” the government stated.

After the start-up period ends, then the “transition phase” begins. “It is expected that all participating municipalities will be able to start the transition phase at the earliest at the end of the first quarter of 2024,” the government wrote. “In this transition phase, coffee shops in the participating municipalities may offer regulated products in addition to tolerated products.”

According to Forbes, there will be a six-week period where coffee shops can continue to obtain their cannabis products from illegal sources “while the new legal suppliers are phased in.” Following the transition phase, the experimental phase will begin. “From that moment on, participating coffee shop owners may only sell regulated cannabis,” the government added.

The Netherlands announced its plans for the pilot program years ago, and was intended to begin in 2020, but was delayed until 2022. In March 2022, the program received another delay, expecting the program to begin in Q2 2023. “Unfortunately, it has now become apparent that starting in 2022 is no longer realistic,” the letter stated last year. “The selection procedure of the remaining growers is taking longer than expected, and some growers are having trouble securing a location.”

Breda Mayor Paul Depla explained his disappointment that the program continued to be delayed. “It is clear that everyone who is in favor of the cannabis test is disappointed,” said Depla. Tilburg Mayor Theo Weterings also echoed his frustration. “Again delay—how much more can you delay. We expect that some MPs will now be scratching their heads, wondering: what is happening here?”

The Netherlands has never legalized cannabis, although it has long been associated with its “soft drugs” policy, called gedoogbeleid, which allows cannabis business owners to sell their product at coffee shops without being prosecuted. “Dutch coffeeshop policy has long been a subject of public debate. At the heart of the debate is the ambiguous status of cannabis: while the sale and use of cannabis for recreational purposes are tolerated, production and distribution are strictly prohibited,” the Netherlands government stated. “Under the current policy of toleration, selling and using are still criminal offences under Dutch law, but the authorities choose not to pursue or prosecute lawbreakers.”

Due to this policy, the number of coffee shops increased drastically. In 2007, data from Statista shared that an estimated 229 coffee shops were operating within the city of Amsterdam. The most recent data shows that 166 shops were operating, as of 2020. The Netherland government estimates that 570 coffee shops operate across the country’s 102 municipalities.

Amsterdam banned public consumption of cannabis in April 2018, and more recently a ban was also implemented in the Red Light District in May. The Amsterdam City Council approved the ban earlier in 2023. “Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets,” the city council explained. “Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable.” The city council added that the ban would “reduce nuisance.”

The Netherlands isn’t the only country to start implementing cannabis pilot programs. Fellow European Union (EU) country of Luxembourg, which recently legalized cannabis for personal use in June, began a pilot program to test out legal access to cannabis. Switzerland, which is not a part of the EU, began its own cannabis pilot program in January 2023.

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Weed is for sale in one of the largest cities in Switzerland—for a select few, anyway.

The country officially launched its pilot cannabis project on Monday, clearing the way for a few hundred selected participants to purchase marijuana for recreational use in various pharmacies throughout the Swiss city of Basel.

Swiss officials last year gave the go-ahead for the pilot project, with the country’s “Federal Office of Public Health [saying] the idea of the project is to increase understanding of ‘alternative regulatory forms,’ such as regulated sales at pharmacies that could be a basis for future legislation,” according to the Associated Press.

“Basel’s project, which involves the local government, the University of Basel and the city’s University Psychiatric Clinics, will get under way in late summer,” the AP reported last year. “Nearly 400 participants will be able to buy various cannabis products at selected pharmacies in Basel, the city government said. During the 2 1/2-year study, they will be questioned regularly on their consumption of the substance and on their physical and mental health.”

Participants in the program will be strictly monitored by government regulators, and they are barred from sharing the cannabis with anyone outside the program. 

Vigia AG, a Swiss company that provides track and trace software, said this week that it “has developed the Cannabis Dispensary System in partnership with the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in order to reliably document the dispensing of the products,” which in turn “makes it possible to track the cannabis goods transparently and gives the foundation for scientific research.”

“We are in an emerging industry where various paths to legalisation are currently being discussed. With a structured legalisation process, maximum conformity and transparency, Switzerland is setting an example. With our existing Cannavigia software and the Cannabis Dispensary System, we provide the various stakeholders involved with the necessary tools to track and document every step along the supply chain. We are proud to be part of the Swiss pilot projects and this historic milestone,” Philipp Hagenbach, the chief operating officer of Vigia AG, said in a press release on Monday.

The release contains more details on Vigia AG’s involvement in the landmark Swiss program:

“Vigia AG is the FOPH’s official track & trace partner for the pilot trials. This kind of partnership between the government and a commercial business in the cannabis industry is unique to the sector. Vigia AG has added a Cannabis Dispensary System (CDS) to its existing Cannavigia software solution. Thanks to the combination of the two, the companies cultivating cannabis for the projects can monitor their cultivation and supply chain, which serves to ensure the quality of the final products.

“Those in charge of the projects can use the software to register the study participants, with those responsible for the Weed Care study starting this as early as September 2022. It allows the dispensaries to keep track of sales as well as individual quantities dispensed to participants, guaranteeing that only authorised persons can purchase the products. This ensures consumer and especially minor protection and results in a transparent and traceable supply chain which can also be maintained in a future legalised environment. The Cannabis Dispensary System provides the FOPH with an overview of the circulation of cannabis in Switzerland and supports the reporting obligation to the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board. The data of the participants are always stored pseudonymously in order to ensure data protection.”

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