HCC §14-99
County makes adult cannabis use its lowest law enforcement priority
Read the official text at hawaiicounty.gov ↗This law says that for adults using cannabis for personal use, enforcing cannabis laws is the lowest priority for county police and prosecutors. County officials cannot seek federal powers to enforce these laws, and the county cannot accept money for enforcement that goes against this policy.
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The ordinance, as written (Hawaiʻi County) — Lowest law enforcement priority policy relating to the adult
A copy, taken August 21, 2026. The version published by Hawaiʻi County is the one that governs, and it may have changed since. Check it before relying on anything here.
personal use of cannabis. (a) The cultivation, possession and use for adult personal use of cannabis shall be the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for law enforcement agencies in the county. (b) The council, the police commissioner, the chief of police and all associated law enforcement staff, deputies, officers and any attorney prosecuting on behalf of the county shall make law enforcement activity relating to cannabis offenses, where the cannabis was intended for adult personal use, their Lowest Law Enforcement Priority. Law enforcement activities relating to cannabis offenses include but are not limited to the prosecution of cannabis offenses involving only the adult personal use of cannabis. (c) Neither the chief of police, the police commissioner, nor any attorney prosecuting on behalf of the county, nor any associated law enforcement staff, deputies, nor officers shall seek, accept or renew any formal or informal deputization or commissioning by a federal law enforcement agency for the purpose of investigating, citing, or arresting adults, nor for searching or seizing property from adults for cannabis offenses subject to the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority of cannabis where such activities would be in violation of that policy, nor shall such authorities exercise such powers that may be ancillary to deputization or commissioning for another purpose. (d) The council shall not authorize the acceptance or the issuing of any funding that is intended be used to investigate, cite, arrest, prosecute, search or seize property from adults for cannabis offenses in a manner inconsistent with the county’s Lowest Law Enforcement Priority policy. (2008, ord 08-181, sec 5.) 14-99 14-43 SUPP. 1 (1-2017)
Published by the County of Hawaiʻi Office of the County Clerk.
LawTrove is not legal advice. The summary above is a computer-generated restatement — the authoritative text is the official version linked above.