Hawaii has experienced its shares of ups and downs in the past several months when it comes to cannabis.
After the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill in March to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis, the momentum—and most progress the state has seen surrounding recreational reform—quickly came to a halt when a House committee chair announced about a month later that his panel would not hear the measure ahead of the legislative deadline.
While it’s now clear that supportive lawmakers and advocates in the state will need to wait until 2025 to try once more with legalization, some progressive efforts are still alive. Namely, members of the Hawaii House approved legislation that would significantly reduce penalties for cannabis possession shortly after the House committee decision—penalizing those caught with an ounce or less of cannabis with a fine of $25.
Easing past criminalization and restrictions around cannabis isn’t a new trend in Hawaii, as the state passed a 2020 law that decriminalized possession of under three grams of cannabis and additionally deemed that those convicted of possessing that amount of cannabis could have their records expunged.
Even so, a new report from Hawaii Public Radio calls progress in this regard “painfully slow,” finding that only a small fraction of those eligible for relief in the four years since the law’s passing have actually had their convictions expunged.
Hawai’i Criminal Justice Data Center notes that about 12,000 records could qualify for expungement. So, how many of those records have been successfully expunged since 2020? Only two, according to the report.
The center falls within the state Department of the Attorney General, which has data showing that about 40,000 arrest records potentially involve possession of less than three grams and could be eligible for expungement. These people were not convicted, though the arrest records are still active. The report notes that Hawaii has only expunged about 50 of those records each year since 2020.
Hawai’i Innocence Project Associate Director Jennifer Brown referenced the shortcomings in a statement to Hawaii Public Radio, suggesting a state-initiated process. Currently, it’s up to individuals to apply to the state on their own to seek relief, which also requires a fee. Brown argued that this move would not only be a positive move for individuals affected but for the state as a whole.
“If you have people that have arrests or even convictions that are eligible to be expunged and then their criminal records, background checks are coming in and it’s preventing them from housing, it’s preventing them from certain social services, preventing them from employment — all of that is costly to the state as well,” Brown said.
It does appear that most of those who follow through with the process are able to get their records expunged. Only a few applicants have been rejected throughout the years, largely because they did not send the proper payments.
The House passed a measure in March that would have automatically expunged eligible convictions, but it was later amended to a single-county pilot program. The measure would only apply to criminal cases “terminated with a final disposition other than a conviction.”
Sen. Karl Rhodes (D), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested Hawaii County as a location for the pilot program. It’s the state’s second-most populous county, comprising the Big Island and hosting about 14% of the state’s total population.
The measure has received support from the attorney general over another alternative bill, which would establish a Clean Slate Expungement Task Force to develop a state-initiated record clearing program.
The AG’s office argued in a statement 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 in March.
Conversely, advocates like Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for Marijuana Policy Project, have argued that the bill’s amendment and limited scope is detrimental 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.”
