A roundtable on what’s holding back the local cannabis industry and another three-year waiver of lab testing requirements are in the works for Sen. Telo Taitague, as the federal government moves to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug.
President Donald J. Trump this past week signed an executive order easing decades-old restrictions on cannabis.
The order puts cannabis into the same Schedule III category as doctor-prescribed drugs like Tylenol with codeine, opening up to more research for medical use, instead of the harsh federal ban previously in place.
Recreational cannabis has been legal on Guam since 2019, and medical cannabis has been legal since 2015.
But to date, not one business is licensed to grow, process or sell cannabis.
A bill recently introduced by Sen. Taitague would extend a waiver on cannabis lab testing, something that’s been pointed to as one roadblock to a new industry.
Local regulations require that any cannabis grown on island must be tested in a certified lab before going to market. Opponents have argued the requirement has discouraged businesses from opening, because Guam doesn’t have a testing lab.
The testing requirement was temporarily waived in July 2024, through Public Law 37-116, originally introduced by Sen. Will Parkinson. It allowed cannabis to be sold without being tested for two years, or until a testing lab opened.
But the testing waiver will expire in July 2026, and there’s still no lab on Guam, Sen. Taitague, chair of regulatory affairs at the Legislature, told the Pacific Daily News.
She spoke days before the president rescheduled cannabis on Friday.
Taitague’s Bill 245-38 would extend the lab testing waiver on Guam another three years, until 2029, if enacted into law.
“It’s basically just to allow them a little bit longer time, because they’re not ready. The lab’s not ready yet,” Taitague said.
‘Nothing to regulate’
The senator noted that the Cannabis Control Board, which would license any business to grow, sell, or test cannabis, has not met since February.
Meeting minutes show that at the Feb. 26 meeting, board members discussed that no organization held a cannabis testing license.
“They really have nothing to do. There is nothing to regulate. Nobody’s gotten anything,” Taitague said.
She also plans to host a Jan. 8 roundtable discussion on what exactly the holdup is, with cannabis regulators and those looking to get into the industry.
The PDN asked the Department of Revenue and Taxation how many cannabis business license applications were pending with the department. No response had been received as of press time.
Jon Savares, long-time cannabis advocate, said he would support extending a waiver for cannabis lab tests. But problems with getting the cannabis industry going for the island extend beyond the testing, he said.
Savares said he is seeking election to the Guam Legislature next year.
“I firmly believe that the lab isn’t the problem,” he said. “If the lab bypass is in play and nobody has stood up to say, ‘Oh, hi, I got a license,’ then it tells you the lab is not the problem.”
Savares said he believes that the regulations set up for recreational cannabis are so overbearing that it makes it hard for any business to get a permit to operate.
One of the big hurdles was the Guam Environmental Protection Agency, he said, which was holding up permit clearances for business over concerns about harmful chemicals—something that no other agricultural producer on Guam had to deal with.
Also a problem is the zoning scheme for cannabis, which limits grow or manufacturing operations to either industrial zones or agricultural zones where Guam EPA permitting became another challenge due to septic and other issues, Savares said.
Those factors blocked any small-scale cultivator from opening up shop, Savares said, who couldn’t afford to put up a $100,000 warehouse in an industrial area to operate.
He said the restrictions for medical cannabis business licenses were actually far less stringent than the recreational side, but the government has put much less emphasis on the medical side of the industry in the past six years.
“The only thing that the government of Guam cares about is … the recreational program, despite where the voter mandate is,” he said.
Medical cannabis use has been legal on the island even longer than recreational use, dating back to 2015.
But a 2024 report on the Medical Cannabis Program shows that only 16 patients or caregivers were listed with the Department of Public Health and Social Services.
Savares, one of the first medical cannabis cardholders on Guam, said he believes the program offers benefits to patients who want to be transparent with the government, work with their doctors, and grow their own plants for medical use.
But with no dispensary on island, many people who would sign up for the medical program get their cannabis on the street — where the product is more abundant and cheaper than ever, according to Savares.
Also an option for patients is the imported “D8,” a hemp-derived product, which is already available on the shelves of vape stores and mom-and-pops where locally grown weed can’t be found he said.
D8 hemp products get consumers high just like regular “weed,” but are legal under the federal 2018 Farm Bill.
The product has grown a sizable, largely unregulated, industry on Guam, but Congress last month voted to make D8 illegal again starting in November 2026.
Savares, who spoke to the PDN in anticipation of the president’s Friday executive order easing cannabis restrictions nationwide, said the potential opening of cross-state trade in cannabis would have a big impact on Guam’s hopes of a homegrown cannabis industry.
“If we don’t put … an importation ban on cannabis that is coming from off island, we can’t compete,” he said. “Power in the states is dirt cheap. You can grow massive amounts of cannabis in the states at substantially lower cost than Guam.”
He said it was not too late, but, “I feel like we dropped the ball … I had hoped that this industry would have been stood up five years ago, and we haven’t seen that.”
