WSLCB - Board Caucus
(June 7, 2022)

Here are some observations from the Wednesday June 7th Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Enforcement and Education division leaders brought board members up to speed on reforms in their office, including education outreach to stakeholders, adaptation to rule changes, and the status of projects (audio - 14m, WSLCB Video, TVW video).
  • Education Program Manager Matthew McCallum, who previously served as the agency Marijuana Advertising Coordinator with a role on the internal Packaging and Labeling Review Board, started off updating the group on the educational program mandated by SB 5318 in 2019. He indicated the program fulfilled a “need identified by stakeholders, a need identified by enforcement staff” and a “desire for our staff to be the best public servants they can.” Program development included “auditing the material that we had, how we’re delivering them, the preparedness of our field staff to discuss topics when they first come out, or years down the road, our ability to be consistent, and our ability to have detailed discussions with licensees on difficult topics,” he stated. McCallum said the attitude of staff was that these were areas they “had room to grow in, and that we wanted to grow in.”  
  • McCallum relayed that division staff had expressed an interest in working with a broad array of stakeholders, not just the licensees they policed, to generate “content that stakeholders need.” He went over some of the existing educational content, remarking that the review by agency staff was “really about what is…the specific rule, of what is the specific topic, what is the LCB expecting and our field staff being able to clearly articulate that with licensees…to talk about it when they need to.”
  • Believing the “foundations” for the program were established, McCallum acknowledged internal outreach to other divisions at WSLCB which he found had “a lot of good information” which wasn’t being utilized by Enforcement officers because “their ability to talk about it comes from a different perspective at times.” Attributing this to the fact that “the type of information needed in the field is gonna be a little bit different” in addition to “what the follow up questions are,” McCallum argued Enforcement and Education officials wanted to “be as professional and prepared as possible” in order to be “proactive about education.”
  • A crucial aspect of this work was “measuring our education once we have something built,” commented McCallum. He mentioned that Enforcement and Education Director Chandra Brady had “stressed” the importance of quantifying the effectiveness of their educational resources “and being purposeful so that we’re not just kicking something out…whether or not it works.” McCallum explained a need for different resources for officers and licensees, in addition to increased partnerships “with other law enforcement agencies" or community organizations.
  • He said there were “detailed workflows for how we create education” and “we pilot our education with licensees when possible,” citing the example of a “canopy measurement.” The canopy policy document was made by WSLCB “subject matter experts” who then “pilot it with licensees” to get their feedback on whether it was understandable and “how can we do a better job of explaining this.” McCallum called this process a way to teach enforcement staff “how to educate on the topic before we roll it out to the general public.” 
    • While not a rule change, the new policy on the measurement of production canopy was publicly announced in January.
  • McCallum collaborated with Policy and Rules staff as well as Justin Nordhorn, Director of Policy and External Affairs, on the impact of quality control (QC) rule changes and what educational staff needed to be “prepared to discuss this at the point of contact, face-to-face with licensees.” He was confident they’d given enforcement and education staff sufficient notice of the change along with a guide to hand out to licensees.
  • At the safety training sessions for cannabis businesses organized by agency officials along with the Washington State Crime Prevention Association (WSCPA) and local law enforcement agencies, they were averaging “20 different participants per training,” McCallum reported. He said the training emphasized “how our rules were designed to keep them safe.”
  • McCallum showed a list of completed projects by the Enforcement and Education team, indicating some materials had been supplemented with educational videos:
    • “Settlement conference dashboard”
      • McCallum stated this was a “public facing website” for WSLCB adjudicative proceedings with “settlement details” as well as “a running total for the annual year.”
    • “Canopy measurement protocol education
    • Safety handout for cannabis retailers
    • QC guide
    • Enforcement education page on website
    • Enforcement education bank on internet”
  • McCallum identified a partial list of projects underway or planned for the future:
    • “Cannabis Robbery Safety Education”
      • Continuing “every single week” through July with the exception of the week of July 4th, he added.
    • “Idea Submission Project
    • Axe Throwing guide
    • Alcohol Delivery Video from Texas
    • [Washington State Department of Labor and Industries] Safety Education presentation
    • Money’s worth informational sheet
    • Annually Filing for Distillers
    • [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] team web education content”
      • He felt it was “not always clear how that relationship works with the LCB” so staff were “providing the data and information that they collect, externally.”
  • There was “forward momentum” on educational updates both internally and for external stakeholders, claimed McCallum, adding there was an “open door to everyone to reach out” to learn or give feedback to officials. He suggested that the "transparency on it is meant to be exponential as we move forward" to make agency leaders’ intentions and goals more clear to the public.
  • Enforcement and Education Director Chandra Brady chimed in to say staff were “tailoring” educational resources for employees as well as licensees. She was complimentary of McCallum’s work so far, framing it as part of the division’s “strategic goals for the next two years” (audio - 1m, WSLCB Video, TVW video).
  • Board Chair David Postman promised to follow up with staff to hear more, but wondered about metrics for gauging success and whether division staff would later be able to show that “for the last 12 months” (audio - 3m, WSLCB Video, TVW video). 
    • McCallum replied that there were “project-specific” standards for measuring success, and updates to educational materials were likely to take time before they could be re-released. Measuring the broader success of their educational improvements would take time, he remarked, describing how staff were still looking for “what might be useful” to evaluate. An example was partnering more closely with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) to use data they collected to “look at the success” of a “specific education piece.” McCallum was comfortable continuing to refine their educational offerings, and admitted, “what we want to get away from is the measurement of ‘we provided the education this many times: success.’” Because this approach was new to the division, he anticipated some “trial and error” in their approach, but they were hoping to be more “dynamic.”
    • Brady commented that her team did “have success measures identified in our strategic plan overall.”
  • Board Member Jim Vollendroff planned to follow up with division staff in order to get a “full version of this conversation…and get more of the background in.” McCallum offered to arrange for Vollendroff to spend time with Enforcement officers to see “the training that our staff get” in addition to the materials and announcements to licensees (audio - 2m, WSLCB Video, TVW video).

• Policy and Rules staff went over continuing rulemaking projects which impacted cannabis licensees including electronic service, cannabinoid regulation, HB 1210 implementation, social equity, and pesticide action levels.
  • Electronic Service (audio - 1m, WSLCB video, TVW video, Rulemaking Project)
    • Policy and Rules Manager Kathy Hoffman reported that there’d been no comments on the project so far and the public hearing remained scheduled for June 22nd. Under this timeline, she affirmed that a CR-103 would likely be presented to the board for adoption on July 6th.
  • Cannabinoid Regulation (audio - 3m, WSLCB video, TVW video, Rulemaking Project)
    • The project was continuing with “internal rule development meetings,” said Hoffman. She revealed there’d been one comment on the CR-101, and the public comment period for that stage would end July 1st.
    • A listen and learn forum “on draft conceptual rules” was being set up for July 14th. Hoffman expected that would give staff a month to make any changes before presenting a CR-102 to the board on September 14th. If this schedule continued, a public hearing would be hosted by agency leaders on October 26th and, absent substantive changes, a CR-103 for final adoption would go before the board on November 23rd. This would be “very close to the…commencement of the 2023 session,” pointed out Hoffman.
    • The deliberative dialogue on cannabis impairment on May 31st conveyed "law enforcement perspectives around what impairing meant," according to Hoffman. She identified “the Druid app” designed to “judge impairment” as something she’d downloaded and tried (it was “kind of an interesting app”). A final deliberative dialogue focused on behavioral health perspectives on cannabis impairment was scheduled for June 21st, she indicated, naming University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI) Research Scientist Beatriz Carlini as a panelist. Hoffman thanked Vollendroff for his “assistance on recruitment,” adding that she’d contacted Seattle and King County Public Health as well, and that details would be announced “this week.”
  • HB 1210 Implementation (audio - 1m, WSLCB video, TVW video, Rulemaking Project)
    • The expedited rulemaking on cannabis terminology would conclude on July 6th when a CR-103 would be offered for adoption, Hoffman told the board. Public comment would end days earlier on July 2nd, and she indicated “two non-substantive comments” had been received.
    • Changing ‘marijuana’ to ‘cannabis’ in law and rule would involve wording changes “throughout our agency,” from documentation to their website, added Hoffman.
  • Social Equity (audio - 1m, WSLCB video, TVW video, Rulemaking Project).  
    • After withdrawing the project on May 11th, Hoffman said that "additional research and analysis" by officials continued, as did public comment on the project. The comments were “largely asking the agency to achieve things through rule that would require a statutory or legislative revision,” she remarked, such as making licenses “mobile” in the state. Another request she’d seen was inclusion of “producer/processor licenses in the social equity program,” but the program’s restriction to retail licensing was in statute.
      • Both concepts were recommended by the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF) in 2021 and proposed in HB 2022, "Concerning social equity in the cannabis industry" during the 2022 legislative session. The bill was not passed by lawmakers.
      • The WA SECTF Department of Agriculture Work Group was scheduled to meet for the first time on June 21st and would consider recommending transfer of regulatory authority for production licenses to that department.
  • Pesticide Action Levels (audio - 2m, WSLCB video, TVW video, Rulemaking Project) 
    • Policy and Rules Coordinator Jeff Kildahl informed the board he’d present a CR-103 to finalize changes to pesticide action levels in rule at the June 8th board meeting. He stated that the changes “update technical information for some of the pesticides that are approved for use with cannabis,” enforce “consistency with the quality control testing rules,” and take out “some redundant rule language.”
    • The text had changed from the proposed language, but only to accommodate implementation of HB 1210, commented Kildahl. Four public comments on the project had come in, he noted, but all were “outside the scope of the rulemaking.”
    • An email from Jim MacRae of Straight Line Analytics sent shortly after the caucus took issue with Kildahl’s characterization of MacRae’s May 11th comments as beyond the scope of the project. He asked the board to reject the CR-103 and require better consideration of stakeholder input.

• Policy and Rules Manager Kathy Hoffman provided new information about upcoming rulemaking projects, a petition to make curbside cannabis service permanent, and “world café sessions” on federal legalization.
  • On May 10th, Hoffman believed rulemaking projects for packaging and labeling and for cannabis advertising could begin in “early June.” During the caucus, she told board members that both were “looking more like August at this point given the complexity of these projects.” She said there remained “a lot of people we need to touch base with before we commence that work.” Hoffman still expected both efforts to happen "this year" after more internal and external work (audio - 1m, WSLCB Video, TVW video)
  • Hoffman swiftly mentioned having received “a petition for rulemaking on May 24th” to make the temporary allowance for curbside cannabis retail permanent. She planned to prepare a response to the petition for the board’s consideration on July 19th (audio - <1m, WSLCB Video, TVW video).
    • On May 24th, the idea of extending the temporary allowance further was rebuffed by Nordhorn as it was “in direct conflict with” state law.
  • Hoffman returned to a previous promise that the agency would host “world café sessions” about nationwide cannabis legalization, remarking that the events would likely begin “the last week of July” (audio - 1m, WSLCB Video, TVW video) 
    • Hoffman indicated staff were engaged in learning more about “what’s happening now with some of the conferences we need to attend,” coincidentally the same day that some WSLCB staff were participating in a private Cannabis Regulators Association (CANNRA) conference.
    • Marijuana Moment shared the agenda of the two-day event occurring on June 6th and 7th, which was intended to bring together cannabis regulatory officials from across the country as well as national cannabis associations and a few companies - though no cannabis licensees or Washington-specific groups were invited. WSLCB Director Rick Garza, who simultaneously served as CANNRA’s First Vice President, was scheduled as a panelist for “A Regulator’s Perspective – State regulatory alignment, differences, and challenges.”
    • CANNRA Executive Director Gillian Schauer was quoted as saying “because we are an organization of government officials, there are some parameters around who we invited…There may be some in the room representing trade associations or coalitions that they’re with—and that was a decision to try to have balance and not show favoritism to one type of licensee or one state, but to try to engage as many of the trade associations and coalitions as we could to gain that perspective.” She was later quoted as saying the organization “would certainly look to expand who is under that umbrella [of attendees] based on how things go at this meeting.”