Hawaii May Tweak MMJ Cultivation Rules, Allow Outdoor Grows

Hawaii lawmakers, concerned with a possible disadvantage to medical cannabis growers and the cost of power for warehouse cultivation operations, could tweak the law soon to allow greenhouses and even outdoor growing.

If they do so, the ramifications for the eight upcoming licenses would be enormous, since real estate in Hawaii is a precious commodity and the law currently requires all MMJ to be grown “in an enclosed structure,” the Associated Press reported on Saturday. Allowing for greenhouses or outdoor growing could save dispensary license winners enormous amounts of money, just on electricity costs alone.

Some lawmakers even toyed with the idea of re-opening the state’s dispensary application period, which ran from Jan. 12-29, but policymakers speculated that the anticipated sky-high cost of growing MMJ indoors acted as a deterrent for many locals who otherwise would have applied.

The state received 66 applications for the eight dispensary licenses, the winners of which will have to grow their own MMJ.