“Shortly after I was elected, in 1990, my son came into the Capital and he said, ‘the sugar plantations are all closing, why aren’t we growing hemp?’ My immediate response was, isn’t that a drug? I started educating myself, and reaching out to people throughout the world, primarily in England, where they were growing hemp. Hemp is not a drug. There are 25,000 uses, none of which will get you high. I realized let’s get moving in Hawaii, and I put in legislation that took a number of years to get through because I had to educate my colleagues.

“Finally, in 1999, we were the first state to authorize growing industrial hemp again. Governor Ben Cayetano signed the bill into law. We were the first in 50 years to be able to move ahead, and that meant I had to get a Drug Enforcement Administration permit. We were the first in the nation to get the permit. We were able to hire Dr David West to come out and plant the first seeds and it was a very successful industrial hemp research project. The University of Hawaii did some testing and realized it would pull contaminates from the soul. They used hemp at Chernobyl after the explosion to pull contaminates from the soil.

“We moved ahead and Governor Abercrombie was good on other hemp legislation. And then we ran into a brick wall of ignorance with Governor David Ige. He thought hemp was a drug. It was incredibly disappointing. He killed the hemp movement. His attorney general wanted to have farmers convicted of a felony if they grew hemp without a license.

“Then we move forward to today and I retired in 2020, and there is no one at the legislature moving ahead with this.”

Thielen suggests hemp construction could be used to help Lahaina fire victims. “They build these tiny hot boxes. It’s miserable. Before the Lahaina tragedy, I kept pushing in the legislature, let’s build shelters for homeless out of hemp. I’ve been in hemp homes in England and it is the most calming, nurturing environment that you could imagine. It’s climate and moisture controlled. It’s soothing and if we were to build hemp structures for housing people, their mental well-being would improve and their physical well-being certainly would improve.

“There are prefab hemp shelters that cost, with a door and windows and everything, around $18,000. What would be better if our farms were growing the product and we wouldn’t have to have anything shipped in. It’s such a no-brainer, but it isn’t happening.”