Hawaii and Federal Hemp Regulations Are Putting Jobs at Risk
An employee’s fear reveals how sudden cannabis and hemp enforcement — without a grace period — threatens livelihoods across the state and country
She didn’t come to me angry. She didn’t come demanding answers. She came scared.
One of my employees recently pulled me aside and asked a question no business owner ever wants to hear from someone who depends on their job to survive: “Am I going to lose my job?”
She wasn’t being dramatic. She wasn’t overreacting. She was responding to uncertainty that has been growing quietly across Hawaii’s hemp industry.
She has rent to pay. Bills. Responsibilities. A routine she relies on. Like most people, she built her life around the assumption that if she followed the rules, showed up to work, and did her job well, she would be able to support herself.
Right now, that assumption feels fragile.
What she’s feeling is not unique. It’s not limited to one store, one island, or one employee. It’s the same fear being felt by workers across more than 100 hemp-related businesses in Hawaii.
Behind every hemp retail store is not just an owner, but employees. People who stock shelves, help customers, manage inventory, and keep the doors open day after day. When laws change abruptly, those people are the first to feel it.
What makes this moment especially difficult is the lack of clarity.
As of now, the State of Hawaii has not provided a clear grace period for businesses to adapt. There has been no meaningful transition window for inventory already purchased, already tested, and already stocked under the prior rules.
That matters. A grace period is not a loophole. It is a basic tool of fair regulation. It allows businesses to wind down compliant inventory, adjust operations, and protect workers from sudden economic shock.
Without it, uncertainty spreads fast.
Employees start wondering if their hours will be cut. If their job will still exist next month. If they should start looking elsewhere, even when there may be nowhere else to go.
This is what regulatory impact looks like on the ground. Not headlines. Not talking points. Real people quietly worrying about whether they’ll still be able to pay their bills.
Small businesses don’t have the buffer that large corporations do. We don’t have layers of redundancy. When inventory becomes unsellable overnight, it doesn’t just hit a balance sheet. It hits payroll.
That is why this issue goes far beyond hemp.
Any industry can be placed in this position when rules change without transition, clarity, or acknowledgment of downstream impact. Today it’s hemp. Tomorrow it could be something else.
My employee’s fear is not an isolated story. It is a reflection of what happens when policy moves faster than the lives it affects.
This is why I chose to speak up and sue the government. Not just for my business, but for the people who rely on it. The ones who don’t get to sit at policy tables or hire teams of lobbyists, but who feel the consequences immediately.
Regulation should protect the public without ruining livelihoods overnight. That balance matters.
Right now, too many people are left waiting in uncertainty. And that silence is the most damaging part of all.