WSLCB - Executive Management Team
(September 11, 2024)

Here are some observations from the Wednesday September 11th Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Executive Management Team (EMT) public meeting.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Staff reviewed planned comments for a legislative work session the following week which could include mention of a new hire working on cannabis traceability (audio - 3m,  video - TVW).
  • Director of Legislative Relations Marc Webster spoke about potential agency request bills the day before the EMT, and said his planned remarks for a Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) virtual work session set for Tuesday September 17th had “morphed as we've been talking with the Chairs” to reflect areas of interest for committee members. Webster suggested the WSLCB would cover:
    • “The implementation of House Bill 1453, the medical cannabis excise tax exemption. And of course, you had some presentations about that at the meeting.”
    • Planned agency request legislation on “information sharing between the LCB and the [Washington State] Department of Health” (DOH).
      • Legislators would hear separately from leaders of the Department's Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program (DOH YCCTPP, slidedeck, fact sheet) as well as the Washington State Patrol (WSP, slidedeck).
    • “We're going to talk very briefly…about traceability…Legislators want to know first, how we're approaching the study requirement that was in the high THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] bill from Representative [Lauren] Davis, House Bill 2320…we're totally on track, and CCRS [Cannabis Central Reporting System] can get us the information that we need to answer the questions that they've set out for us. But…it's also an opportunity to mention that we're beginning that process of looking into the next generation of traceability for cannabis…and how it can work and integrate with SMP,” the long promised systems modernization project.
      • Started in 2015, the SMP went through project delays and the loss of a vendor in 2017 leading to a need for more funding, including almost $18 million in a budget request from November 2021. $35,278,000 from the liquor revolving account was approved for the effort in the supplemental operating budget signed into law on March 29th.
    • “And then finally, we're going to do a review of the whole [dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene] DDE-Okanogan County issue from…2023: how we found it, how we do testing, what we've done since, as well as…how we keep customers safe going forward…that all leads into presentations by [Washington State] Department of Ecology and…Department of Agriculture [because] they got funding in the budget [and would] go over some of the results that they had and what they found.”
      • See the combined WSLCB slidedeck covering all planned subjects and the Ecology slidedeck titled, "Pilot Project Remediating DDT in Cannabis Farm Soils."
  • Webster anticipated that Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn would talk about HB 1453 whereas “Captain Murphy from the [Enforcement and Education] team was going to do that D[D]E review.” Less sure of who would talk about traceability, Webster expected it “might be me.” He also welcomed ideas for what they should cover in other work sessions for the 2025 legislative session, forecasting another discussion with lawmakers “in January.” Given the 100-day session, he expected “there's going to be an appetite…just to hear from us. So if there's a story that we would like to share. Let's, let's collect those ideas.”
    • Board Chair David Postman asked to see their traceability presentation materials before the work session (audio - <1m,  video - TVW).
  • Later in the meeting, Deputy Director Toni Hood described how Krystin Boydstun, a recent project management hire in the Director’s Office, was "getting up to speed on traceability." Hood indicated Boydstun was meeting with division leaders and would speak with her and Director Will Lukela the following day. She also said Boydstun would “come here to present as soon as we have something ready, so you guys can all meet her” (audio - 1m,  video - TVW).

• Officials acknowledged rulemaking changes were being considered related to SB 5080 and the social equity program as well as THC regulations in SB 5367, more equity licensing was being finalized, plus WSLCB representatives would continue engaging on public health matters.
  • Nordhorn mentioned a legislative report “due on biased-based language…we are looking at finalizing that this week so we can submit it over for review.” He then discussed rulemaking for two cannabis legislation implementations (audio - 1m,  video - TVW).
    • SB 5367 Implementation (audio - 1m, video - TVW, Rulemaking Project)
      • Postman was curious if a list of cannabinoid compounds which would be considered THC content under revised rules was feasible. Nordhorn agreed there was "some potential opportunities to examine" creating such a list, but was reluctant, since “by creating lists, we're typically stuck with lists…whereas if we were able to identify it in a different way, and…we would create an agency publication so it's very transparent and visible, but not necessarily built in the rule.” Keeping flexibility in adding or removing compounds was of keen interest to staff, he said, “because of the technical nature of the draft…we intentionally created that language around tetrahydrocannabinol, not THC, so anything that just has a tag of THC isn't necessarily going to be brought into that mix.” Nordhorn continued, stating that “the allowance approach becomes burdensome with additional rule changes in the future [but if] we do that through some other avenue, other than the rule, then we wouldn't have a substantive change, and we can move forward with the [CR-]103” (audio - 4m,  video - TVW).
        • Using a similar approach of referencing external documents from within agency administrative code, on June 18th Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) staff adopted rules codified in WAC 16-309-160 covering cannabinoid concentration analysis. Section (2) indicated labs must “use a method approved by the department to analyze cannabinoids.”
        • The WSDA Cannabis Lab Analysis Program had previously published method standard documents on their website, and stated certified labs “must use a method approved by the WSDA. You can use one of the pre-approved methods listed below, or submit your own.”
    • SB 5080 Implementation (audio - 1m, video - TVW, Rulemaking Project)
      • Nordhorn relayed that staff would be contemplating changes following the critical testimony their proposal had garnered earlier that day.
      • Postman wanted to know what the “threshold there for…substantive change requires.” After staff discussed it would they “bring proposals to the board for supplemental? Does the board tell you if we heard something that we think is worthy of supplemental?” Nordhorn replied that “all of the above” was appropriate. They still had to review written comments and testimony to see if they saw a way to improve the rule draft, but “I think I can confidently say [a CR-103 planned for September 25th was] not going to happen.” Should there be a substantive revision, Nordhorn was clear that the CR-102 stage would start over with another board vote on new language along with another public comment period and hearing scheduled. He felt there was likely to be both a policy and legal review of any changes “over the next couple of weeks” (audio - 3m,  video - TVW).
  • Director of Licensing Becky Smith brought up the request for proposals for a vendor to score the next round of social equity applications in a future licensing window, indicating, “we are finished with our request.” She told the board to expect public confirmation of the apparently successful vendor ”in the coming days.” Some applications were progressing towards licensure, added Smith, noting four had been issued and five applicants had secured locations for their store (audio - 1m, video - TVW).
    • Postman wanted to know when the applicants with locations would be issued licenses and Smith answered “most of them, it appears, will be done by…December at the latest” (audio - 1m,  video - TVW).
  • Nordhorn made a brief mention that the Research Program had “been completing a lot of research briefs.” A process of prioritization was also paramount, “we really have to look at what that resource implication is before we dig in too far on all of the requests, because we are getting a lot, which is great” (audio - 1m,  video - TVW).
    • The board received an overview from Research Program staff on August 20th, who then briefed Washington State Health Care Authority Prevention Research Collaborative (WA HCA PRC) participants about the program on September 4th.
  • Moving to public health interests, Nordhorn remarked, “we did some hybrid THC work groups this last month” starting in June and would be “launching an internal discussion group for policy in a couple weeks.” The focus would be on brainstorming rather than setting policy, and the internal group would be looking at alcohol product placement in stores as well as cannabis topics (audio - 3m,  video - TVW).
    • Besides focus groups on high THC products on June 26th and July 10th, the agency hosted four additional focus groups on the subject between June and August for public health and substance prevention interests. The only insight provided into these events has been as a result of public records requests by Cannabis Observer.
    • Public Health Education Liaison Kristen Haley and Research Manager Sarah Okey were scheduled to moderate panels at the Thursday September 19th University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI) symposium titled, “Cannabis, Schizophrenia, and Other Psychotic Disorders: Moving Away from Reefer Madness Toward Science.”
    • Nordhorn mentioned WSLCB conversations with the Washington Health Youth (WHY) Coalition, “particularly around the THC rule development, trying to clarify some of the questions” on the “highly technical rule set.”
      • The WHY Coalition Cannabinoid Work Group submitted written comments in early February regarding the SB 5367 Implementation rulemaking project.
        • While the Coalition name emphasizes a focus on "youth" under the age of 18, their scope remains inclusive of "young adults" through age 25 and a leading focus is "Promoting changes in industry policy and practices by intentionally using data to inform strategies and tactics."
      • Haley Co-Chairs the WHY Coalition along with WA HCA Cannabis Policy and Project Manager Harrison Fontaine - who would also be co-moderating a panel at the UW ADAI symposium.
    • Nordhorn noted that Haley had also participated in a panel for the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) with Arnaud Simon, Public Health and Consumer Protection Policy Analyst, “her counterpart down there to discuss the role of public health liaisons at these state agencies, because we're one of the very, very few in the nation that does this and prioritizes that work, and so trying to spread the word on…what are the benefits of these types of programs.” Nordhorn indicated the comments were well received.

• Director of Communications Brian Smith discussed increased media interest related to cannabis testing labs (audio - 7m, video - TVW).
  • Smith had first noticed media inquiries around testing results when “the Wall Street Journal…did a deep dive into lab results, and we never quite got to the bottom what they were looking for, but they did ask us to review some of the data that they found, and…our chemist and enforcement folks, took a look at it and it didn't quite match up to some of the inferences that they were pulling from that.”
  • He wasn’t sure of the connections, but there were also several “questions from the LA Times about our lab practices, and specifically one incident from 2019 and a chemical that we had found in a pesticide test that had turned up, and…in LA, there's one lab that's suing 13 other labs in the news…driving a lot of this.” Smith explained how he and Director of Enforcement and Education Chandra Wax were interviewed by a reporter for the Times “to explain our role with the Washington State Department of Agriculture and how they test for us with investigations, as well as the random testing aspect, which I don't think they have in California, which they thought was significant.”
    • The LA Times published an article on June 16th asking, “How dirty is your weed? A joint investigation finds high levels of pesticides in products.”
  • On September 6th, Chemical and Engineering News published a cover story about laboratory shopping with the following brief: “Laboratories licensed to test cannabis in markets regulated by US states claim that they’re losing customers to competitors willing to provide favorable results. The ‘lab shopping’ problem began with labs inflating levels of THCa, the acid form of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in cannabis flower. But labs say they have evidence suggesting that some competitors are also overlooking mold and pesticides, thus allowing contaminated products to reach consumers. Regulators in some states are addressing fraudulent test results better than those in others. A handful of states are opening reference labs to help with investigations, but most facilities are slow to get up and running. Labs that play by the rules are tired of waiting for regulators to address what they say is a public health issue.”