Hawai’i & the State of Cannabis

Jenny Pell
Right, well, as a younger teen smoking marijuana, I was definitely doing, you know, Panama red Acapulco gold, I remember. Well, what we want to talk about today is like what’s going on with the state of legalization of cannabis in the state of Hawai’i. We’re watching 19 states across the country go legal, and we’re also seeing other countries adopt, you know, really brand new June 2023 laws, legalizing cannabis and watching their industries flourish. And we want that for Maui as well. So what’s the state of legal cannabis in Maui?

Will Grinnell
Well, the state of Hawai’i is definitely very behind. And it’s such an amazing opportunity that is in front of us. I mean, there’s really two words that break it down – it’s agricultural, legacy, and branding. So that’s three words really, but that says it all about Hawai’i, we could be the top cannabis brand and International Cannabis trade is now a real thing. It’s quite a few countries that are already participating. Canada included – they export medical cannabis. Where are we at here in Hawaii? That’s an interesting question. We haven’t seen any favorable bills go through the lot of cannabis legalization bills have hit the floor in the past few years in the past few sessions. The last one was a pretty good example as to how Hawai’i has been heading with their legislative bills. And it was terrible bill. It was in favor of large farms, only not promoting jobs but promoting keeping it corporate.

Jenny Pell
And you’re a co-founder of the Maui Cannabis Guild. And I think one of your charters is trying to save trying to safeguard rights and access to smaller growers so that the big players don’t come in and just gobble up the market when it inevitably does become legal.

Will Grinnell
Yeah, small farms, especially with cannabis. Cannabis is an artisanal craft. It really is. I’ve seen the large cannabis growers in California in Washington. And they cannot produce the kind of craft cannabis that smaller farmers can. I’ve also seen examples in Colombia where the the large farms and the small farmers can exist side by side, if the branding is done right, and so forth. But letting the small farms get traction first is very important. Right. And that creates the most jobs at the end of the day to places like Colorado that have brought in over $4 billion in taxes through legalization. It wasn’t done by having a small amount of corporate owners it was done by allowing a cannabis industry to thrive. Therefore creating businesses and lots of employees that could pay these taxes that created that revenue.

Jenny Pell
So I’m watching in Thailand, for example, they legalized cannabis just this month, and in a month are 1,000 new cannabis businesses, catering to tourists. And I was reading about that this morning. And they said that 50% are locals and regulars and 50% are tourists. So it’s not just a tourist industry. It’s also a local industry, and it’s dignified living wage jobs, tourism dollars, all that stuff. And it’s also really kickstarting their agricultural industry at the same time. One of the things I’ve heard discussed here is, what if we were to mandate that in the cannabis grow, it was 60%, cannabis and 40% food? Is that something that’s been talked about? Or is that just something I’m hearing?

Will Grinnell
It is, a few years ago, when the Maui Cannabis Guild was active full-time, that was one of the legislative bills that we were working on. And one of the frameworks within it was what we simply called the Farm Bill. And it was that if you were going to be a participant in the cannabis industry here in the state of Hawaii, and you’re gonna go larger than say, a backyard footprint and you’re going to do it commercially, well, then a certain part of that footprint needs to be for food as well. You’ve committed to being a farmer, right? And cannabis is a big part of that. And that helps subsidize being a food farmer as well because normally a food farmer can’t afford to buy property here in Maui, and grow just a food crop. So it’s seemed a very good pairing, right?

Jenny Pell
Well, the nature of tourism itself is changing. So the Hawaiian Tourism Authority HTA has two years in a row lost significant funding. And they’re changing it from promoting Maui, which really doesn’t need any promotion internationally, to managing tourism. And I’m really curious to see how the HTA is going to get on board with promoting boutique cannabis, because driving tourism business to the smaller growers, the smaller experiences that we know that would have a huge international boon for our economy.

Will Grinnell
Yeah, yeah. Cannabis tourism is just about to blow up all over the place. And there’s certain countries that are focusing on just that. It’s a win-win. I mean, cannabis tourists are the best, they tip better than most people, they don’t get in fights, a lot of them -the lions share – don’t drink much, right? I’ve traveled all over this country for cannabis events, in particular expos, conventions, and so forth, and now most recently, internationally, and the communities – they’re the taxi drivers, the local restaurants – everyone expresses that the cannabis community is the best. It’s their favorite for all those reasons. Right. So you know, we’re, we’re good consumers. And on down the line.

Jenny Pell
How soon do you think we’re going to see legalized cannabis in the state of Hawai’i?

Will Grinnell
That’s a tough question. We’ve been faced with it so long, but I think for the very first time that the lawmakers ears are open, because it’s too big of an issue it’s too big of a currency for them not to hear anymore. Right. So I think, they really are ready to hear some of the examples of legalization. I mean, there’s so much good data out there about how it works economically, socially, less drug addiction in all the communities where cannabis is legalized, you know, opiate use is down a giant percentage. So that data is getting to the lawmakers now they can’t avoid it anymore. And I believe that their ears are open and something could happen sooner than later. We’ve seen that for Hawai’i sooner than later still could be a few years. We’re out of the international trade right now. I’ve sat at roundtables with international traders in Colombia, and at these conventions around this country. And of course, Hawai’i is the number one brand, we could be in the world. We’re the trillion-dollar baby. Right, we literally are and the other brands recognize this, South Africa being a brand, Columbia being a brand. These are already participants in the international cannabis scene. If our lawmakers really could get a grasp on it and the trillion-dollar baby and just how low-hanging fruit it really is for us here in Hawai’i to bring in a cannabis industry ASAP and a lightly regulated small farm. Every little backyard could be doing something, yep. I mean agricultural, legacy, and branding we don’t need a publicist. Right. You know, we have some of the best growers operating green or black market whatever you want to call it now. And I know a lot of people have concerns about that. Black market money has kept these communities alive, in little towns like this, right? There’s a strong cannabis currency. And that’s one reason lawmakers across the country are bringing legalization in state by state, it’s not because they’re feeling strong memories of their frat boy days when they did a bong rip, it’s because they see it’s a cannabis currency. It’s dollars and cents. They have to accept it, right? And if they did it’d be tremendous.

Jenny Pell
Well, and don’t the states get to choose what they do with their taxation of the industry? So I know that in Colorado, they tied it to schools, for example. Yeah, I’ve been trying for years to get a green fee. A green fee is it’s a tourist tax. In the country of Palau, every tourist that visits pays a $100 green fee, and it goes towards Pristine Palau. When you go on an adventure, you hire a local guide. So it’s like living wage jobs in this tourism industry. But if we could tax the cannabis here and have it go to watershed restoration, reef protection, fish ponds, indigenous agriculture, I think that would be also a great way to not get priced out of paradise for locals.

Will Grinnell
Yeah. And if we actually did integrate that in and have a cannabis currency and industry here, all those issues would have money and would be taken care of there would be reef restoration. There would be watershed protection because the funding would be there.

Jenny Pell
Well, I look forward to learning more about what’s going on in the state of Hawai’i. I’d like to see it happen sooner rather than later. I can see these other countries and other places basically, snapping up the industry. I feel like our state’s getting left behind.

Will Grinnell
Considering we are one of the top brands in the world and we’re recognized as, so yeah, we’re really missing out.

Jenny Pell
One of the legal things you can do in Hawai’i is sell seeds, correct?

Will Grinnell
Correct, and all 50 states

Jenny Pell
So you can go online DeepGreenGenetics.com. And you can get Sticky Finger seeds and a variety of products.

Will Grinnell
Very cool collection of craft breeders from all around, but certainly we have a Hawaiian group as well.

Jenny Pell
All right, thanks. Will, I really appreciate you joining. Aloha!