Hawaii plans to plant industrial hemp this summer for the first time in 15 years, thanks to a bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Senate Bill 2175 authorizes the dean of the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to establish a two-year industrial hemp research program and requires a report to the Legislature ahead of the 2016 session.
On a single site, CTAHR scientists will begin to explore how hemp pulls contaminants from the soil and will research its viability as a biofuel.
A signing ceremony in the governor’s office was bursting with bipartisan excitement. Several legislators attended the event clad in aloha shirts made from hemp.
For one lawmaker in particular, the festive atmosphere marked the closing of a lengthy chapter in her legislative career.
"In 20 years, to have this happen, it’s wonderful," said Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe), a longtime hemp advocate. "And there is such support. I mean a huge amount of support among the legislators, the governor, the administration. It’s very exciting."
Hemp can be used to purify soil and make food, clothing, rope, paper, plastic, pest-resistant building material, oil, fuel, animal bedding and tens of thousands of other products, but the crop Thielen describes as environmentally friendly has been illegal to grow in the U.S. for more than 50 years.
In February, however, President Barack Obama signed the Agriculture Act of 2014, which permits state agriculture departments and universities to grow industrial hemp for research purposes without having to obtain a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Although hemp is part of the cannabis sativa plant species along with marijuana, it contains a small fraction of the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol needed to get a user high. But in 1957, the DEA began interpreting the Controlled Substances Act as preventing industrial hemp growth.
"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."
