Partner Content with Noa Botanicals
As CEO of Noa Botanicals and a steadfast advocate for cannabis reform, Karlyn Laulusa is nurturing a culture rooted in compassion.
Images by James Edens
Growing up in Kalihi on Oʻahu, Karlyn Laulusa always saw pakalolo (the Hawaiian word for cannabis) as medicine. “The adults in my life, my protectors who kept me safe, were partaking in this positive routine,” she recalls. “It made my grouchy uncles relax, and my anxious or anti-social cousins come out their shells.”
When helicopters flew over their neighborhood as part of Operation Green Harvest, the federal government’s DEA-led initiative to eradicate Hawaiʻi cannabis farms in the late 1970s, Laulusa’s reality was upended. “I couldn’t understand why these big, brave men were suddenly panicking and running to cover their plants,” she says. “It contradicted what I knew to be true: that good people grew and consumed pakalolo.”
Nearly a quarter century after Hawai‘i became the first state to legalize medical cannabis in 2000, Laulusa was appointed to lead Noa Botanicals on Oʻahu, one of eight licensed producers and retailers in the state. After joining in 2020 as Production Director, she rose the ranks and became CEO in September of 2024, thanks largely to her open, aloha-driven approach to relationships. “Growing up I was fortunate to have so many influences around from different cultures, and incredible mentors who always made me feel seen and heard,” she says. “I learned that everyone has something to teach.”
As the first and only woman of Native Hawaiian and Samoan descent to lead a medical cannabis company in Hawai‘i, Laulusa is championing cannabis as a critical tool of lā‘au lapa‘au, the indigenous practice of using plants for healing. By aligning the company’s seed-to-sale enterprise with the Hawaiian values of aloha (compassion), kuleana (responsibility), ha‘aha‘a (humility), and pono (integrity), and introducing product lines that honor Hawai‘i’s native culture, she is aiming to make the therapeutic benefits of cannabis more accessible.
“Lā‘au lapa‘au is the perfect way to describe what we grow, produce and what we believe in because it means ‘plant medicine,’” Laulusa explains. “Reframing the conversation in terms of a natural remedy can help people who are new to cannabis, or who grew up with the wrong information, let go of any stigma around using it.”
Striving to create a climate of belonging and respect within Noa Botanicals, Laulusa holds personal check-ins with her 50-plus employees and spends time at the cannabis farm, production center, and four retail locations to better understand each department’s unique challenges across all levels of operation. She has launched new policies and pathways supporting purpose driven work, professional development, and cultivating ‘ohana throughout the company, its partners, and its patients. “When people feel how much they are valued and appreciated, it trickles down,” she says. “Everything we’re doing behind the scenes translates to a higher quality plant and happier patients.”
Lā‘au lapa‘au is the perfect way to describe what we grow, produce and what we believe in because it means ‘plant medicine.
Karlyn Laulusa, CEO of Noa Botanicals
Amanda Lenhart, Noa Botanicals’ Director of Sales and Marketing, has witnessed a powerful shift in the team dynamic since Laulusa stepped into the driver’s seat. “There’s a feeling of genuine connection and inclusion now, where people don’t just show up to do their job,” she says. “They show up for one another, and for what we’re building together.” It’s a culture rooted in mentorship: Lenhart’s mother, Lauren Moder, guided Laulusa early on, and now Laulusa is doing the same for Lenhart.
While Noa Botanicals is enjoying a new internal synergy, Laulusa stresses there is much work to be doneto build a medical program that serves Hawai‘i and her people. Facing overregulation and prohibitive rules in current cannabis law and by the state’s Office of Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation, she is rallying other medical cannabis licensees, local growers, and cannabis advocates in search of creative solutions. “We all benefit from a cannabis industry that supports local economic development and provides safe, accessible, and affordable cannabis to patients.”
In July 2025, Hawaiʻi passed HB 302, expanding medical cannabis eligibility to any condition providers deem the benefits outweigh the risks. HB 302 also expanded access by enabling certifications via telehealth, allowing hospice participation, capping the cost of a 329D card at $115.50 per year, and finally allowing medical dispensaries to carry cannabis accessories. Currently, Laulusa and other advocates are backing an adult-use bill that would legalize recreational cannabis for ages 21 and older. If it passes, “Hawaiʻi will be the last Democratic state to move,” she notes, referring to similar non-medicinal cannabis laws currently greenlighted in 24 states, Washington D.C., and three territories including Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In the meantime, Laulusa will continue her leadership at Noa Botanicals and advocacy within the greater community to shift the collective consciousness beyond borderline tolerance to enthusiastic embrace of plant medicine. “If we’re going to create a thriving cannabis industry, we need to be pono, to look around and accept that things have changed, and transform the program and the way we write the laws,” she says. “The people of Hawaiʻi deserve quality, safe, regulated, cannabis — period.”