Former Gov. Linda Lingle testified for the first time before the state Legislature on Tuesday since leaving political office in 2010 and took a high-profile, political stance urging a House committee to kill the latest, perennial effort to legalize adult recreational cannabis use in Hawaii.

After more than three hours of testimony, the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, instead, voted to keep Senate Bill 2335 alive, with minor tweaks.

Lingle, a Republican who served her first of two gubernatorial terms beginning in 2002, called SB 2335 “a very dangerous bill” during Tuesday’s hearing of the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

The hearing provided yet another opportunity for senators and representatives to hear arguments pro and con from supporters and opponents of legalized recreational use from law enforcement, Republican legislators, Hawaii’s medical cannabis industry, consumers, people in recovery, medical professionals and several others about what they said are the benefits and drawbacks, including their effects on public safety, impaired driving, Hawaii’s black market, tourism — especially Japanese tourism — tax revenue, addiction and, especially, concerns about harms on Hawaii’s children, youth and young adults.

After more than three hours of often-conflicting testimony and data, members of the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce emerged from executive session and voted Tuesday night to keep alive the current effort to legalize recreational cannabis.

Lingle, Honolulu Prosecutor Steve Alm, representatives for state agencies and others stayed until the end of Tuesday’s hearing, which does not always happen for members of busy county and state departments.

Both Lingle and Alm — along with representatives from the state Attorney General’s Office and Honolulu Police Department — returned to the podium to answer questions from committee members, underscoring the importance of whether to legalize recreational cannabis use.

Lingle cited the annual debates in the Legislature over whether to allow recreational cannabis use — along with making Hawaii the 49th state to legalize any form of gambling.

Legalized-gambling bills again appear dead this session, making Hawaii and Utah the only states to prohibit any form of gambling because — just like legalizing cannabis use — legislators know the impact of legalizing gambling “could be severe on the poorest communities,” Lingle said.

If killing SB 2335 makes Hawaii a U.S. “outlier” in legalizing adult recreational cannabis use, then, Lingle said, “good for us. I think that makes us a better state.”

She focused on prohibitions in SB 2335 against setting up dispensaries and advertising within 750 feet of Hawaii public housing but not around other dense housing projects such as condominiums.

“There is no such restriction on signage near apartment buildings, townhouses, condominiums, or any other domicile, only public housing,” Lingle said in written testimony ahead of her appearance.

After testifying in person, Lingle told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that this session’s debate over SB 2335 — after it crossed over from the Senate into the House — prompted her to show up in person Tuesday because “the negative impacts would be extreme in Hawaii.”

“If I can do anything to stop this, I will,” she said. “It will just hurt the people.”

In written testimony ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Lingle wrote that she opposed legal recreational cannabis “as an individual and a former Governor of Hawaii who is deeply concerned about the devastating impacts drugs and alcohol continue having on our community as well as our state’s uncertain economic and fiscal future.”

“I am against legalizing the commercial sale of recreational marijuana for all the reasons others have written and spoken about — it will lead to increased mental health problems, particularly for teenagers; it will negatively impact the state’s economy because legalizing marijuana will discourage Japanese tourists and families from everywhere from visiting Hawaii; it will cause more fatal car crashes; it will increase black market sales of the drug.”

She wrote that legalized recreational use will lead health care costs to quadruple “over what you might collect in taxes. But I am particularly opposed to SB3335 because of the disproportionate negative impact it will have on those communities and residents having the hardest time surviving in these times of high crime, high drug use, and high inflation.”

———

Staff writer Victoria Budiono contributed to this report.