 Think tech away civil engagement lives here. I'm Marcia Joyner and this is cannabis chronicles a 10,000 year odyssey So tell me news of that plant of many resources Which wandered far and wide the ancient plant of food fuel fiber Cultivated for millennia as We venture through the past 10,000 years we will explore and discover the plant From which cannabis derives the many uses of the plant hemp cannabis Ashes Cannabis and religion Cannabis and medicine cannabis and dear old uncle Sam and so our odyssey begins Today our odyssey is not long ago and far away. In fact, it is current and in progress So we have invited My dear friend and everybody knows I only invite dear friends my dear friend senator Mike Gabber Who will talk today about? hemp the hemp industry Where we're going with this industry and all of the wonderful benefits of the hemp industry and what it can do or Hawaii So aloha senator aloha Marcia. Thank you so much. Thank you This is such a pleasure and it's it's an auspicious date because actually June 5th through the 10th is hemp history week Yes, so this is a very appropriate. Good timing. Good timing. Who decided on hemp history week? It goes back many years, but it's celebrated here I didn't know Maui to have a whole the whole week-long celebration. I'm not sure what their activities are this week. Yeah, that's great Yeah, hemp week. Yeah, so let's talk about hemp. What is hemp? well, it's a a lot of people have a misunderstanding of What hemp is it is a cousin of marijuana cannabis? But the difference is is that the THC content for hemp is only three tenths of 1% Versus 10 to 30 percent for marijuana. So you cannot get high on hemp and this is one of the things that I had to convince my colleagues of because of that So many years a stigma attached to industrial hemp is just the same thing as marijuana But and it's interesting Marcia because the the story you talk about the odyssey with the local odyssey for hemp actually began in 1999 When the legislature passed a bill that would allow a three-year study to grow hemp out in Wahiwa It was a privately funded no taxpayer dollars. I think it was $200,000 It was a hemp shampoo maker from the mainland that wanted to see how hemp grew in Hawaii And so with the passage of that law in 1999, Hawaii became the first state to plant hemp since World War two And during the World War two efforts, there was hundreds of thousands of acres that were used the For that purpose, but this was the first Hawaii was the first state and so The results of that three-year study Was that the Chinese variety of seed was the best fit for Hawaii's climate, etc. And December 14th 1999 governor Kaetano proclaims industrial hemp day Hawaii 1999 and Then as unfortunately the wheels of government tend to go very slow sometimes If you know what I mean, it's 1999. We have the results of the study 2014 a very dear friend of mine John Rogers who had cancer at the time he said Mike Why don't you look at the possibility of our farmers here in Hawaii growing industrial hemp? So I said, yeah, okay, sure. We checked out a film. It was Bringing it home. It's the name of the documentary By Linda Booker and it was excellent because it told the history It told all that gave the facts about industrial hemp. So then in 2014 I introduced a bill Remember now 1999 15 years later, but you know during that period from 1999 to 2014 There were actually 43 pieces of legislation that were introduced related to hemp So in 2014 I introduced a bill that would allow our farm actually, let me backtrack It was actually President Obama in his farm bill of 2014 at the federal level In added a clause saying Farmers would be allowed to grow hemp if it was through the State Department of Agriculture And or through their University for research purposes, right? So that was the entree So I said, okay, so why don't we do a local level bill and allow our farmers to do it? So I thought oh, this is gonna be a piece of cake Yeah, right So the bill gets introduced. I wasn't on any of the committees and low and behold the final result of the bill was They turned it into a two-year study Another study and I'm thinking does anybody ever read studies So I'm thinking we had the three-year study in 1999 Do we really anyway? So in the course of the hearings that the bill actually it was interesting Marsha because HPD officer from HPD came in and To testify and his testimony was well look actually in a private conversation. He said look You know our dilemma is this we pull somebody over for speeding and We're giving writing the ticket and low and behold we look on the side next to the driver and there's a baggy now senator How can we tell whether that's hemp or marijuana? And I remember looking at the officer and saying officer The likelihood of somebody having a baggy of industrial hemp Which you cannot get high on because the THC content is three tenths of one percent the likelihood of have somebody having that on their seat next to him driving is slim to none and The officer said hmm. I see your point Look at this And so it got turned into a two-year study so Professor Harry Ako from UH was in charge of the study. So he orders the seed to grow 11 months later He was able to get the seed because the DEA the Drug Enforcement Agency the federal they Got the seed and they do not want to release it right 11 months So finally in April of 2015 we have the Kahoo comes There's a blessing out at the Waimanalo site for you aged plant the seed It's wonderful. Here we go and then about 16 weeks later almost to the day heard from Dr. Ako to come out for the harvest and I remember thinking 16 looked at my calendar and I said wow, I mean how tall can the plants be so a drive out there I got out there a little early and and as I'm parking my car Look, there's this figure and he's kind of against the backdrop of This this plant this plant one of the plants. Yeah, that's a stalk. This is actually from the study Marsha the shortest plant was 10 feet tall. This is most of the plants were 10 This is almost 8 feet. I would guess yeah 8 to 9 feet tall Most of the plants were 12 to 16 feet tall and and there's Dr. Ako and he's kind of almost dancing and you look at our back room. Yeah And he's saying hey, I said Harry you were kind of a skeptic at the beginning. He said what's your thoughts now? And he said we got to do this in Hawaii said senator look at this and The punchline was this Marsha from seed to this in 16 weeks and all we used was water No fertilizer no pesticide nor is I just water and so Professor Ako had to submit his study to the legislature for the 2016 legislature and I'll quote him right here. He says Hem seed production may become a lucrative activity for farmers There is significant potential for a successful hemp ag industry in Hawaii based on the preliminary findings of the 2015 industrial hemp research project and so given that 2016 I introduced another bill The second bill and this one would set up the five-year pilot program it passes and then also during 2016 we find that there's a Coach a former NB coach Don Nelson who lives at Sugar Beach Maui He's built his guest house is a law guest house 850 square feet out of hemp Crete. Yes, not concrete Using the stalks of the hemp plant with lye and water and so they invite me to come over I'm walking to this thing. I'm going this is incredible and not only that he's going to build his 4500 square foot home and back of the guest home out of hemp Crete, so they had this big dinner and and I Make a presentation from the Senate and then they had a surprise presentation for me a little award a little plaque and I was voted the 2016 Hempster of the year I Have that plaque in my office at the Capitol prominently display I have some that hamster of the year for 2016 and so it passes it sets up the the The pilot program and then in 2017 I introduced the third bill and this would basically just kind of fine-tuning Makes it so that the counties cannot ban cannot override the state. There were some other things that farmers could apply year-round That was in 2017 And then in 2018 I introduced the fourth bill related to hemp and basically that sets up a special fund So that the fees that the farmers pay to get their License fees or if there's any fines or it would go into this fund Which would help self-fund the hemp program the hemp pilot program So the four bills have passed and as I mentioned altogether 1999 2018 47 pieces of legislation to get to where we are today So that is the hemp Odyssey Hawaii in a nutshell now we have talked to Farmers on the big island who are working with the Department of Agriculture to Create a plant a seed that is endemic right to Hawaii right and Needless to say they're they're very excited about the possibilities So We're gonna take a break and when we come back We're gonna talk about all of these wonderful products that you bought us. Okay made of hemp sounds good. Okay. Thank you Everyone I'm Andrea Gabriele The host for young talents making way here and think that Hawaii we talk every Tuesday at 11 a.m About things that matters to tack matter to science to the people of Hawaii with some Extraordinary guests the students of our schools who are participating in science fair So young talents making way every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Only on think-tack Hawaii mahalo I'm Marcia, and we are back With my dear friend senator Mike Gabbard, and we are talking about The senator bought lots of things with him Let's start over here. Can we see the briefcase? Oh Here's a hemp briefcase that my staffer gave to me And this is made out of all of made out of hemp. Yeah, here's a hemp shirt What is this? Does it feel it looks like plastic? Yeah, it does. I'm not sure of all the other ingredients besides hemp But obviously from stocks. Yeah, yeah so and then At least our count shows over 25,000 different products made Here's a hemp shirt made out of hemp and the aloha shirt that I have on is also made out of hemp That's beautiful. Right and then we've got different products here This is with hemp and chia. Here's hemp seeds toasted hemp seeds hemp milk and hemp protein smoothie and here's one actually from a company on the main Excuse me on the big island mana artisan botanics. It's a CBD tincture and what they're doing is they're making these pure hemp extracts using Hawaiian herbs and so they're already on the cutting edge of this thing and so the whole idea of Course that I've had the vision that I've had from the very beginning was to Hawaii branding, right absolutely with the Hawaiian hemp shampoo Hawaiian grandola Hawaiian hemp smoothies and this one the hemp milk Yes, delicious. It is and you can buy it now This is not an ad but I can tell you you can buy it at the Market on University King Street where King and down there's not down to earth the other one. Oh kakua Okay, yeah, the earth has some whole foods has I'm pretty sure all of them. Yeah, they had I don't know This is not this brand but they have a hemp Yeah, but I wanted to mention this Marsha because a lot of people don't realize this but Last year 2017 the hemp Industries Association. They did an estimate $688 million in retail sales of products like this and here's the punchline Most of that money went to China mm-hmm and to Canada because it is against the law in United States to grow because of Jeff sessions. It's on the I don't want to get political here, but it's on the control subs. It's been out of control substance list since 1970 we have and therefore, that's why we we have Dr. Otto, you know Dr. Yes, Dr. Cliff. He has worked tirelessly. Yes to change that. Yes Yes, and our legislation I have to put in a plug because our congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard She has been working and let me just give you a quick update because for your viewers It's stop. It's Rep. James Comer a Republican from Kentucky HR 5 are 85. That's the bill in the house has six co-sponsors which includes Tulsi and then on the Senate side Mitch McConnell also a Republican from Kentucky. He's got 27 co-sponsors Which include our senators her own on shats on those bills So that basically what both bills will do is that it will remove industrial hemp from the control substance list Yes, and see it's just when you think about it control substance Peruvian LSD marijuana and all of us derivatives including yes hemp even though you can't get high on hemp So so anyway, so at least at the federal level if and when that happens and hopefully it's going to be sooner than later Then that's going to solve all our problems. Our farmers will be able to just start growing hemp. Yes, and also in the Congress there is a Cannabis caucus In the in the house yeah cannabis caucus now Just a little this is not off the subject. Yeah Your fellow legislators Some of them are scared Because of Jeff sessions and his threats What can we do? How can we and I don't mind doing whatever you say To educate them About what we're talking why so there is no fear to get rid of the fear. Yeah, how do we do that? You know Marsha? I think And we have to make the distinction between hemp and marijuana, right? So as far as hemp They're all on board when they finally learned when they were educated as to what this is What it is and what it can do for our economy for that's what we're talking about now in terms of And then of course we have medical marijuana We do and then they're you know the dispensaries are having their issues and then if you start moving into legalizing marijuana No, I'm not going there. Okay. You're not going. Okay. I wasn't sure so yeah. Yeah, I'm just talking about what we have yeah, because The Supreme Court says that Jeff sessions can't mess with medical Right, right, but yet we have people that are afraid. Yeah, that's right. So how do we how do we deal with that? I think they're just you know education where at Town hall meetings and legislators communicating with their constituents at any opportunity perhaps through TV through social media So that people understand and that's been the biggest problem is people just they're confused I remember constituents in my district. They said, oh, senator. Oh, you want to legalize marijuana? I said no, I want to legalize the growing of industrial and it's a separate issue We can talk about that at a different time Let's talk about this and then when they found out about it the 25,000 different products with the Hawaii branding You know the guy strumming is ukulele and the girl doing the hula on the label and how wonderful this is they go Oh, oh, wow, that's great. Let's do this the the mayor of Kauai sitting right where you are and We're talking about the possibilities of farming and what have you and you could see this Look in his face and I had to assure him That we're not talking about adult Pleasures we are talking a farming industry and his whole demeanor change See that's it. Yeah, so when people get educated, especially policy makers when they understand what we're talking about here and that and how Great this is going to be for the Hawaii economy and I have to tell you a quick story because I was at the national hemp conference last year and So we're talking story with some my counterparts from all over the country and I they've got like 12,000 acres of hemp growing right now in Kentucky because tobacco farmers, you know, it's gone fewer people are smoking Therefore there goes their livelihood. So they're looking at industrial hemp as a replacement crop But I was talking to him. I said look dude, you got no chance when Hawaii starts When they have the Hawaii hemp shampoo Hawaii hemp granola, etc. Etc. Who's gonna buy Hawaii? I mean, who's gonna buy Kentucky hemp shampoo when they can get the you know, and I said and by the way 9 million tourists come to Hawaii and each one of them they want to take home a little bit of Hawaii when they leave You know, and then I looked at one of the others and I said another thing I wanted to bring up was up in Hawaii We have three harvest a year Colorado, how many do you have the guys like this and he goes? This year around So yeah, that's what we were talking about the fact that this this this is of course But what the senator bought me from which way did this one this was the first the 2015 study Yeah, and then after 16 weeks and we harvest it in July of 2015. Yeah Yeah, so I'm just I got a few stairs by the way when I was walking down the studio Fishing Yeah, well, you know that would be good for fishing because it wouldn't pollute whatever. Yeah, so many uses So many it's just up to yes, and then here's another thing and actually there is a Maui hemp research Institute And they've been doing work on okay, so the farmers plant all this hemp they start so what do we do with it? Right, how can we start? What's the processing and that all is being worked out as we speak, but I remember Last year a year before we had an info informational briefing at the Capitol and and Steve rose from the Maui research Hemp and he came up to me. He looked at me. He says senator Toilet paper. Yes, I looked at him. I went My toy he said he said toilet paper we import 100% of our toilet paper They are making hemp toilet paper in China right now as we speak And since you brought up It takes 27,000 trees to supply the United States with toilet paper each week Wow, there you go. There you go. Yes, and we have 10 as the chair of the agriculture committee in the Senate We have of course. I'm my primary Interest right now is is helping grow more of our local food since we're importing 90% of our food, right? But there are still thousands of acres that we need to be looking into it may not pencil out But the fact is we should be looking at whether it's toilet paper or any of these other products as what's going to work here in Hawaii for our folks And as I told you a friend of mine is really interested in Fuel for 3d printers. Yep. Now when we figured out there was 20 30,000 products made nobody talked about 3d printers. That's right. That's right. That's right, and she is convinced that that's and There's so many people with so many ideas and in the Application online for at the Department of Agriculture Agriculture It asks you now if you're they say you have to have 10 Acres can't go over 10 acres 10 acres. You got to have and And your life annual license fee is 250 dollars. Okay, and it says What is your end product? You go you have to say what it is? Okay? I'm gonna grow this now what and for me. It's the now what yeah, yeah Then what are we doing to do? Yeah, okay? I've got this beautiful crop and I'm gonna harvest it then what where do I send it? Who do I give it to what are they? Right gonna do with it right and those are the questions. I think we need to that's where we need to deal It's the what if what what now? That's right, and that's you know when I was given this a while ago I was told that these they're like thirty five dollars for like an ounce and a half and this is very I mean Epileptics are using this all different types of medicinal medicinal purposes Alcoholics are using all different types of wonderful thing. So this is it is going to make a lot of money So so I guess the question is if I grow this I don't have 10 acres, but if I had What what would be the next step? What do I? Who picks up this harvest? Where does the harvest grow? Do we have machinery to transfer to turn it into? Right the oils right Where where is that that is that's what's being worked out right now? Okay? That's the piece that needs to be exactly It's a pie. It's a five-year pilot program and those kinds of questions That's what's being looked at right now, and so you know another use that came up at the legislature polystyrene Takeout containers, right? Yes, so there's it's being made locally, and so there's been a bill to introduce to ban it, right? It means a hundred people are going to lose their jobs. I am sure that That can be used exactly absolutely instead of the polystyrene so and I have a friend who makes a suntan lotion without the oxybenzone and oxygen oxy uses the Mineral base. Yeah. Yeah. Oh cool, and it is You know she sells it and at the SWAT meat yeah, yeah, and swells it oh so many people buy Because it doesn't it's great for the skin, and it doesn't kill the Coral and you know if we kill the coral we kill tourism that's right, and When you think of all the things that can be done, right? So I just wanted to add of the Hawaii Farmers Union They did a survey a year or two ago and over a hundred farmers said that they are ready and ready to put MC Into the ground and so now it's just a question of I think there's only been eight Applicants so far and one has been an issue to license because the licenses are just being issued this month in June Right, but I think that people are kind of waiting They're a little cautious because they don't want to jump on they have bandwagon until you know the wrinkles are ironed out and We're we're totally sure it's it's a 100% go so yeah exciting stuff. It is so I and for me it's that okay now what how do I once I harvest this right? That's when what's the next step? That's right. So I think that's what we need to talk about So we you will come back. I will and talk about the next step. Yep. How do we go from here to there? Yep, sounds good great. Thank you so much for coming. This is a real pleasure, and we'll see you next time. Thank you, Marsha