WA Hemp in Food Task Force - Meeting
(June 22, 2023)

Here are some observations from the Thursday June 22nd Washington State Hemp in Food Task Force (WA Hemp in Food Task Force) Meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• Cannabis Programs Manager Trecia Ehrlich kicked off the final task force meeting and mentioned the participation of Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) and Washington State Department of Health (DOH) representatives (audio - 2m).
  • Input from other agencies was raised at the group’s June 8th meeting as some task force members considered potential legislation on the topic and were after some feedback from regulators.
    • Find out more from the work group’s final legislative report.
  • Ehrlich indicated that with “eight days left in the biennium,” some task force members had committed to “lick every last drop” of discussion before the budget proviso for their group expired. She mentioned that DOH Division of Environmental Public Health Policy Director Joe Laxson would be “able to join us for the second half hour” and WSLCB Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn was in attendance. DOH Prevention and Family Services Division Policy and Legislative Affairs Director Colleen Thompson spoke up to say she would attend for the first half of the meeting. These officials were “invited under the premise of helping folks figure out what age gating restrictions for CBD [cannabidiol] products might look like” and WSDA staff were “here as the convener, and it is up to you folks to…make the connections and build forward.” Ehrlich had understood at their previous meeting “there was energy around creating a bill for [the 2024 legislative] session.”
  • Bonny Jo Peterson, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington (IHEMPAWA) Executive Director, brought up prior comments on having a pilot program for hemp in food, asking where officials would “be comfortable at” while also considering age restrictions, “what that would look like, and what a license would look like, as well as the funding mechanisms for that” (audio - 1m).

• Questions on dosage; age gating products; program funding and enforcement; and implementation of approved tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) legislation were posed by two task force members.
  • Peterson acknowledged ​​University of Washington Center for Cannabis Research (UW CCR) Director Nephi Stella had made remarks on his need to feel “comfortable” with any additional task force advice, and invited him to talk about his concerns on “the CBD end of things.” Stella had found the “dosing that I am comfortable with for CBD, and I arrived at the number of 10 milligrams per proportion, and considering that there's going to be a 0.3% amount of THC out of CBD based product that would actually bring the THC level” to 30 micrograms. He felt cannabinoid servings at this level “sound like they…have a good safety profile,” and his next concern was over vulnerable populations where “this low dose of CBD might actually have detrimental effects,” specifically in relation to youth. Stella wanted an age restriction on any policy, plus labeling “guidelines…for some health conditions,” particularly after he’d seen a study “a couple months ago [on] the combination of five milligrams of CBD and five milligrams of THC actually exacerbated symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients.” He argued they needed disclaimers that “ten milligrams of CBD should not be used in those certain conditions” (audio - 3m).
  • Verda Bio CEO Jessica Tonani remembered that “the sticking point was a little bit on the THC side, and that we on the CBD side had come to the conclusion of a hundred milligrams and 300 milligrams per package based upon…studies that were done in Australia, Canada, other countries. The ten milligrams is a pretty significant pullback.” However, Stella contended “that's because I've…never actually agreed on the hundred milligrams [serving of] CBD. I've always said that that was way too high.” Tonani suggested that there had been “concordance on that number” from members, and Stella replied that he would “retract” his participation from the work group should they recommend that limit (audio - 3m).
    • Stressing her view that recommending any specific numbers for cannabinoid limits should be avoided, Ehrlich felt a “hyper focus on the number for this extended period of time just means that nothing passes and nothing happens.” She wanted the group to have recommendations that “age gate CBD products” and set up other rules for licensees and manufacturers, as focusing on the number “keeps these products in the gray area where they have been for a very long time.”
    • Responding to a question about CBD dosage to the task force in August 2022, Stella had told members his belief that “eating quite a bit of CBD is quite safe in the acute setting,” and that studies had found medical patients, even “children that are pretty vulnerable” could consume “into the hundred milligrams and you’re still kinda safe.”
    • Stella was listed as part of the advisory board for Defined Research, a company which sold servings of CBD as a "sleep aid for insomnia" in 150mg capsules with a recommended dosage of two capsules (300mg). The website cited a paper Stella contributed to summarizing a survey of six participants which was awaiting peer review at time of publication and included a FAQ suggesting "it is safe to incrementally adjust the dosage up four capsules (600mg) to find your optimal sleep experience." Stella didn’t respond to a request for comment about his role advising the company.
  • Peterson confirmed Stella wasn’t going to approve a specific CBD dosage, but he added that he would be open to advising on other policy aspects of having CBD in food (audio - 1m).
  • Considering age restrictions, Peterson believed the “path of least resistance” was an age limit of 21, similar to tobacco and liquor products. She invited Thompson to provide a DOH perspective, particularly around “what you would see as an endorsement, versus a license being the best path forward.” As it was her first meeting, Thompson wasn’t prepared to “give an official statement” yet felt “generally” the limit of 21 was more likely to be accepted should legislation be considered, and that enforcement around hemp consumables was likely to fall beyond DOH authority. Nordhorn considered local officials would be the first people enforcing rules on the items, but if they were being stocked in stores licensed by WSLCB “there may be some overlap” in their enforcement powers (audio - 4m).
  • Contemplating county-level health official enforcement of rules on hemp consumables, Peterson wondered about “funding coming down to the counties…to do the work that they need to do.” Nordhorn brought up how tobacco enforcement relied on various funding sources related to preventing youth access, as well as WSLCB compliance checks done for DOH under contract where minors attempted to purchase tobacco or alcohol. He knew under these local government efforts “they would refer any type of sale to us, and then we would take action against the tobacco retailer’s license based on the compliance check so long as they were meeting the standard protocols that we had set forth.” He noted, “there used to be a lot of local jurisdictions doing that, and then it kind of shifted into a more umbrella contract” on tobacco and vapor enforcement. Nordhorn continued, commenting that WSLCB participated in the federal SYNAR program to reduce underage sales, and reiterated, “if you don't have a license that's issued by the board, or you don't have an endorsement of some sort that would tie into the LCB licensing provisions, then we would likely not do enforcement in that area because we don't have the administrative authority over licenses that we don't issue” (audio - 4m).
  • Turning to the enforcement role for DOH, Thompson told Peterson she wasn’t prepared speak to, to that point.” Peterson talked about the difference between giving enforcement money directly to county governments, or having it go through a statewide agency such as DOH. When Thompson asked about draft language for the program, Peterson stressed that “we're not at that point,” but she had been retooling some legislative language but was still in “in the information gathering” phase of that process. She was confident informal meetings would continue after the task force expired (audio - 4m).
  • Looking at funding concerns, Peterson brought up a meeting she’d had with Washington State Department of Revenue Legislative Liaison Steve Ewing. He had steered her away from considering a hemp consumable tax “specific to food, because food can't…be taxed,” but there could be a dedicated “excise tax on that specific category of products.” She speculated on other funding sources, expecting greater “pushback” on funding a program if they couldn’t demonstrate how much revenue they would bring in. Nonetheless, Peterson stated she was “leaning” towards favoring a “purchase fee” on consumables (audio - 4m).
  • Tonani asked about funding for WSLCB enforcement against products containing delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8-THC) which she understood was already underway. Nordhorn emphasized that WSLCB wasn’t a “fee for service agency," with exceptions such as contracting with DOH on compliance checks. So new enforcement requirements of WSLCB were evaluated in legislative fiscal notes and paid for through “direct allocations” by lawmakers. “If something is occurring within a business that we already license and the oversight authority is within our context then” costs could get “bundled into other operating costs.” After some prompting by Tonani about what enforcement was underway for delta-8-THC items, Nordhorn told the group enforcement staff did look at products carried by licensees and might engage in “education” on what could be sold. Vapor licensees had a restriction against selling cannabinoids, so the enforcement over those businesses was robust, he remarked (audio - 5m).
    • WSLCB board members chose to deny a petition seeking to narrow vapor regulations on June 21st.
  • Tonani asked about the general number of retail stores WSLCB personnel were responsible for. Nordhorn explained there were “over 18,000 liquor licenses, but they're not…all retailers. We have about 6,600” tobacco sellers, but “the predominance of” CBD sales happened in tobacco outlets. He speculated that the other types of businesses that might carry CBD items could number “10,000, or something like that” (audio - 2m).
  • Peterson invited additional remarks from Nordhorn around the implementation of SB 5367, THC legislation the board initiated rulemaking around on June 21st. He said that the bill specified “anything with a detectable amount of THC…no longer can be sold unless you have a license that's issued by the LCB.” Generally, “if there's some non-compliance issue under a license, it becomes an administrative type…of a procedure or offense,” he commented, and it was his understanding that “predominant sales” were taking place “either online, or are occurring in, in most of the stores that we license already” (audio - 2m).
    • Nordhorn expressed frustration over how they would implement the law when speaking to the WSLCB Cannabinoid Science Work Group on June 1st.
  • Nordhorn offered a personal insight that funding for oversight of businesses the WSLCB already licensed could be “linked somehow” into the realm of what agency officials already did for under 21 enforcement of other products, something which might have efficiencies and a “lower fiscal note” for a hemp consumable program (audio - 2m).

• Industrial Hemp Association of Washington (IHEMPAWA) Executive Director Bonny Jo Peterson briefed on a draft bill to regulate hemp consumables and received input from agency staff.
  • Peterson described the 2023 draft legislation, which wasn’t introduced during the session, as a pilot program which would have relied on cannabinoid limits set by WSDA and DOH rather than WSLCB staff, but knew there were “concern with having LCB involved with that specific rulemaking over the milligrams and such” (audio - 15m).
    • WSLCB leaders weren’t “really supportive" of the pilot program, Nordhorn said, and when agencies create rules their “area of oversight and responsibility…are what's going to be the driver for the enforcement component of those.” This meant “unless you're going to have some statutory provisions to say this is what's governing” the oversight, “administrative rules still don't apply to those people who don't have licenses.” He advised legislation that would modify statute “to be able to provide for those considerations because if you're not licensed, it doesn't matter what the rules say, you're going to fall back on statute and the current language in statute right now is ‘no detectable limit’ or ‘no detectable THC.’” Nordhorn added “if you don't change the statute the rules are not going to be probably as effective because there's a conflict” in law.
    • Ehrlich questioned the focus on a CBD limit, noting only cannabis edibles had a serving limit. She believed most CBD items were already being sold by someone with an WSLCB license and that the age gating policies should take precedence over CBD limits. Nordhorn had been “confused on some of the numbers” for CBD limits as staff would be evaluating “THC, not CBD at all.” Ehrlich was unsure if Peterson was attempting to “preserve” some products as not being age restricted, but argued “I don't think that would serve in your interest.”
    • “I think the CBD piece goes back to a couple years ago of a certain WSDA food program person that wanted to see a safe level” for CBD, said Peterson. Nordhorn reaffirmed that any detectable THC content in a product meant it would need to be restricted, or the law would need to be modified again.
    • Tonani stated “when you look at CBD safety thresholds, most countries have gone pretty high, much higher than the products that you generally see in the market.” She believed it was better to focus on the cannabinoids which “get people high.” Besides product warning labels, Ehrlich expected there wasn’t a need to regulate a CBD limit for adults, and that it was a “clean conversation” to propose that age restrictions cover all CBD items. “Correct me if I'm wrong, Justin, but if you're throwing THC in there, then you're gonna need some support from the LCB to determine the THC number,” she noted. Nordhorn agreed, but the agency still couldn’t act without a statutory change. Tonani highlighted that she wanted products with “little to no THC” to have a place in the adult-use market, but that meant settling on what that level was.
    • Erhlich said that since 2024 would be a “short” 60-day legislative session, “I think your best bet is…to keep it as clean as possible, and recognize that you would be amending RCWs that are written through [SB] 5367.” The “simpler the bill, the better,” she concluded, urging Peterson to “set your own THC number and see how agencies respond to it, and see how it plays out in the legislature.”
    • Tonani felt stakeholders wanted the natural ratio of cannabinoids extracted from hemp, but there remained “a fair amount of confusion” regarding "what products we are talking about."
  • Peterson asked whether Laxson joined the call, but Ehrlich explained he had not.

• Remaining stakeholders continued to advocate for legislation to allow hemp consumables as the task force’s final meeting concluded (audio - 3m).
  • Nordhorn encouraged stakeholders to continue collaborating on what would be a good statute, organize existing background research on the topic, and talk to public health and prevention officials to address their concerns before a bill was introduced. When Tonani asked for specific officials, Nordhorn identified Scott Waller from the Washington Association for Violent and Substance Misuse Prevention (WASAVP) and Ehrlich mentioned including researcher Bia Carlini from the University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI).
  • The Washington State University Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (WSU Prosser IAREC) in collaboration with Oregon State University (OSU) planned to host a hemp field day on July 26th focused on “how fiber and grain hemp perform with and without irrigation, nitrogen management, dual-purpose production systems, and current pest and disease issues.”