WA House RSG - Committee Meeting
(January 16, 2024)

Here are some observations from the Tuesday January 16th Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) Committee Meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• Committee Counsel Matt Sterling gave the committee an overview of HB 2182, “Creating a data dashboard to track use of regulated substances” to be hosted by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB).
  • Using the staff bill analysis, Sterling explained the legislation’s impacts (audio - 1m, Video - TVW):
    • Requires the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) to annually publish on its website certain information related to compliance rates, citations issued, information reported to the LCB by other agencies, and the amount of taxes and penalties collected.
    • Agency leaders regularly discuss some of these data points in Enforcement and Education updates during Executive Management Team meetings, most recently on January 10th.
  • Sterling said WSLCB annual reports included “information related to taxes and fees collected, and compliance rates, citations related to the sale or possession of liquor, cannabis, cigarettes, tobacco products, and vapor products.” He also noted WSLCB officials played a role in the bi-annual Healthy Youth Survey (HYS). Sterling reported that under HB 2182, WSLCB staff would have to work with counterparts at the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and Washington State Health Care Authority (WA HCA).
    • During the November 2023 EMT, staff mentioned that the new Public Health Education Liaison Kristen Haley would take over as the agency designee for HYS from her predecessor, Mary Segawa. Haley also serves as a co-chair of the State Prevention Enhancement (SPE) Policy Consortium.
  • Co-Chair Shelley Kloba asked whether these data sets were already collected by state agencies “and that it's really a matter of putting them in one place in a cohesive way that the public can access.” Sterling responded that the legislation “directs information that the LCB has to be published and then other information that is received from certain agencies. So, I think that's the expectation” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • In a fiscal note released after the hearing briefing, WSLCB staff acknowledged that the cost to implement HB 2182 was indeterminate, offering the explanation that “Because the requested data has not been shared previously between these agencies and the LCB, the agency does not know the level of complexity that performing these tasks will entail. The scope of the data, as well as its current method of storage, is currently unknown to the LCB, and will require additional time and collaboration with these agencies to understand. With interfaces between systems, complexity and resources needed can vary wildly and require significant investment.”

• The bill sponsor, Representative Kristine Reeves, explained her goal to require development of a data dashboard to further transparency and understanding of industries WSLCB regulated.
  • HB 2182 was “really focused on a recognition that the Liquor and Cannabis Board regulates a variety of different substances in the state and nowhere do we really have the opportunity to see aggregated data around that mission,” said Reeves. The legislation would help increase transparency for the public, consumers, and legislators, she argued, including “what the standards of health are being met in each of these compliance areas.” Reeves recognized some stakeholders wanted the dashboard to be used “to put industry contributions to our community, whether that be in the number of jobs that industry produces, or in the amount of revenue that's being generated by these regulated substances to Washington state.” Better “metrics that we can measure over time that add to the transparency of the work LCB [was] doing” could benefit the public and state officials, she stated (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • Ranking Minority Member Kelly Chambers wondered whether there would be details about specific citations, “so that licensees would be able to say ‘okay, here are some details around that event and how I can learn from that and not make the same mistake.’” Reeves replied her intention was more about "the metrics of citations,” and she was “concerned as a small business owner about publishing specific data that create unintentional harm to a small business.” While open to discussing changes to the bill, “the underlying intent is really just saying how many citations in this particular substance area is LCB issuing. What is the compliance rate of the industry, looking at metrics like that in generality, or in aggregate, not in specific to this particular business at this particular location,” she said (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).

• Three speakers testified to the merits of the bill, finding WSLCB was already collecting lots of data, and the measure would support public and officials’ understanding of the markets for regulated substances.
  • Lukas Hunter, Harmony Farms Director of Compliance and Government Affairs (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Hunter hoped lawmakers would “be really specific in the bill to look at only regulated substances if that's what we're intended to do.” Saying he’d contacted Reeves to clarify “if we're intended to just look at the regulated cannabis industry, the regulated tobacco, vape, and alcohol that we stay on point with that.” Looking at other kinds of data was “great as well, but just to make sure that distinction is there when appropriate.”
    • “Personally, I'm a bit of a data geek,” Hunter acknowledged, promising to speak during public hearings before the committee on Thursday January 18th on “a lot of amazing data that's already collected and organized by the board and the ability to write reports, that are completely automated, that just are a low-cost to keep up to date, but then provide an incredible amount of transparency.” He felt HB 2182 was “a pretty cool idea.”
  • Vicki Christophersen, Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA) Executive Director (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Sharing that WACA members supported the bill, Christophersen offered “a couple suggestions as well.” She remarked that some in the cannabis industry had “been working on this for quite some time, telling the story of how this industry in particular has been stood up, the compliance rates which were very proud of…all good things and also the use of data to better inform the public but also to better inform the work that we do here in Olympia.” Christophersen noted a 2022 economic impact analysis commissioned by WACA which identified “over 10,000 jobs in the state of Washington. I think it's more now, and with family wage[s]...we think those economic impact indicators would be important” to include in a data dashboard.
    • Christophersen then mentioned HB 2255, “Concerning inversion and diversion of cannabis” sponsored by committee member Representative Kevin Waters, which she felt would go “very nicely hand in hand.” Both measures together could help in “maintaining the integrity of our industry, and we'd like to work with you on both of those bills,” she told committee members.
  • Marc Webster, WSLCB Director of Legislative Relations (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Calling the concept in the bill “a great idea, and a timely one," Webster offered agency support for the dashboard, seconding what others had said. He mentioned how staff at the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) published a final report on Appropriations and Expenditures of the Dedicated Cannabis Account “about two weeks ago recommending that we provide more information on revenues and how the state distributes the money from the dedicated cannabis account.” WSLCB staff concurred with that recommendation.
    • Additionally, representatives from “public health and prevention ha[ve] been talking a lot about centralizing already existing information on some of the health outcomes of some of these substances, and we agree with that.” Webster was also supportive of the call by cannabis industry stakeholders to “include some information about some of their economic impact. We think transparency is a good thing, and this is a very good time to work on it.”
    • Find out more about the analysis from the January 4th JLARC meeting, through the report overview, presentation, and video which were released in December 2023.

• Ezra Eickmeyer, Producers Northwest Founder, signaled a position of “other” on the bill, asking for a clarification about the dashboard presentation (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • Generally finding the bill a “fantastic idea,” Eickmeyer framed his position as “other” to request the sponsor “clarify with just a little bit more language that each of the substances being tracked be presented in their own lane…so that we don't have aggregate data saying all these substances together are causing all these problems.” He wanted “to know which substances are causing which problems,” finding the bill wording was specific and “might leave room for them being presented in an aggregate format.”  With amended language on this point, he said his organization would be in “enthusiastic” support of the bill.
  • In addition to the four people testifying, nine people signed in supporting the bill, and five registered their opposition (Testifying, Not Testifying).

Here are some observations from the Tuesday January 16th Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) Committee Meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• HB 2320, “Concerning high THC cannabis products,” was outlined for lawmakers in a briefing by Committee Counsel Peter Clodfelter (audio - 1m,  Video - TVW).
  • Using the bill analysis, Clodfelter hit the major points of the legislation:
    • Includes legislative intent related to high-THC cannabis policy and funding, and requires the Department of Health to develop optional training for retail cannabis staff about health and safety impacts of high THC cannabis products.
    • Increases the minimum legal age of sale of cannabis products with a THC concentration greater than 35 percent, to be age 25, with an exception for qualifying patients and designated providers.
    • Requires the University of Washington Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute (ADAI) to develop and implement guidance and health interventions for health care providers and patients at risk for developing serious complications due to cannabis consumption, with reports to the Legislature, and subject to funding.
  • Besides the legislative reports, Clodfelter mentioned how the “guidance and health interventions could also be used by [the Washington Poison Center (WAPC)] and recovery hotlines to promote cannabis use reduction and cessation.”

• Representative Lauren Davis introduced her bill as an improved iteration of her mission to improve health outcomes for young adults by confounding access to cannabis concentrates (audio - 4m, Video - TVW).
  • At time of publication, Davis worked as the Strategic Director of the Washington Recovery Alliance (WRA) and had a history of advocacy related to substance abuse treatment.
    • In 2022, Davis addressed researchers at the UW ADAI symposium on “High-[tetrahydrocannabinol] THC Cannabis in Legal Regulated Markets,” and spoke about her legislative efforts along with criticisms of the cannabis industry.
    • She’d sponsored earlier measures which aimed to restrict the production or sale of cannabis concentrates, most recently two bills heard by WA House RSG in February 2023.
    • Plant cannabinoid levels had been reported as a research concern as far back 1980, though cannabis prohibition had a poor track record when it came to accurately monitoring potency before then, or in stopping increases in substances’ concentration.
  • Introducing HB 2320, Davis said this was her fifth attempt to “address this issue of the public health harms of high potency cannabis products.” She noted the first two attempts had included “a potency cap” which hadn’t gained traction with legislators. She’d then secured funding for UW ADAI staff to “look at what science would suggest are public health levers that we could pull to address these harms short of a potency cap.” Davis noted the recommendations were published in December 2022 and she’d done her best to put them into legislation the following year. “Unfortunately, none of the bills that I've worked on have advanced out of committee,” she remarked.
    • Davis explained how she was trying to codify “that the cannabis that we have that’s sold today is an entirely different drug than the cannabis plant that voters legalized in 2012.” She argued that cannabis items in the former criminal market harbored “less than 10% [THC], in the state of Washington today it's up to 99% potency.”
    • The concentration of THC was attributed to differing health impacts she categorized as “physical health impacts, primarily something called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome…also mental health issues, primarily psychosis and psychotic disorder, and then finally cannabis use disorder (CUD).” Davis pointed to newly published research which suggested a “50% increase in cannabis related diagnoses between 2019 and 2023 related to these high potency products.” She attributed this change to “adolescents and young adults being particularly susceptible to health impacts, and those concerns are often dismissed by the industry” since cannabis wasn’t legal for those under 21. However, she said responses to the state’s Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) “and other sources [showed] the products that adolescents and young adults are using are in fact from the legal market, and they are products that were not accessible prior to legalization in the high potency form.”
    • Having worked in the substance prevention field, Davis compared profligate use of concentrates to the opioid overdose epidemic, “and by the time we call something an epidemic it's too late.” Rather than overdose deaths, she referred to a “schizophrenia epidemic,” citing a Wall Street Journal article about underage cannabis use which warned “we're just making this huge population of people who we can no longer fix.” Davis urged her colleagues to “give this legislation serious consideration this year and to move something out of committee.”

• Several members of public health and substance prevention organizations lauded the bill, asserting it helped the public and health practitioners reduce youth health consequences of concentrates.
  • Linda Thompson, Washington Association for Substance Misuse and Violence Prevention (WASAVP) Board Member (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
  • John Daviau, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Director of State and Local Affairs (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Calling SAM a “leading voice on the harms of marijuana commercialization,” Daviau said restrictions on “potency caps [had been] gaining some traction across the country, both with states that have already legalized marijuana, and with states that are considering legalization.” He associated cannabis concentrate products with public health concerns around “schizophrenia and psychosis, road safety, homelessness, and crime issues.”
    • Additionally, Daviau felt that "because of brain development" going "until about the age of 25,” HB 2320 aimed to restrict concentrate access until that age, stating “early onset of schizophrenia [was] happening with young adults as well as children.” Sharing his interest in “the issue of the reduced potency caps that this bill, 2320, suggests,” he asked lawmakers to make Washington “a role model for the country in setting some standards for more optimal THC potency on products.”
    • Representative Davis was a founding member of the Leadership Council of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, a think tank offshoot of SAM operated by the same staff. Generally opposed to commercial cannabis markets, SAM Founder Kevin Sabet pushed against concentrates in other states, though he was found to have misled audiences in 2016 regarding edibles, and the organization has faced accusations of perpetuating false statistics on the societal costs of legalization.
  • Jordan Davidson, SAM Government Affairs Manager (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Dasvidson acknowledged he was there on behalf of SAM, “but perhaps more importantly I'm a young person in addiction recovery. I struggled with a cannabis use disorder over five years ago.” Having sought treatment at age 17, he’d been sober since December 2018.
    • Wanting to “paint a picture of what's going on in the country and in Washington,” he cited US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) cannabis potency data, and a 2017 study finding that “marijuana use among eighth and tenth graders increased following Washington State's recreational marijuana legalization law,” and mentioned a 2020 paper to allege legalization in Washington had “predicted a more than six times likelihood of self-reported past year marijuana, and more than three times likelihood for alcohol use.” Recognizing the state’s reputation as a leader in cannabis legalization policy, Davidson urged lawmakers to pass HB 2320 “to take that bold leap to do the right thing for our youth, to do the right thing to protect the kids.”
      • HYS statistics from the Washington State Health Care Authority (WA HCA) in 2019 showed a modest decrease in eighth and tenth grade cannabis use following legalization. However, 2022 research indicated that self-reported use among young adults increased once they were legally allowed to possess cannabis products.
    • Davidson’s SAM profile indicated he worked in “Connecticut politics” before joining SAM in 2019, having sought addiction treatment two years before that state legalized cannabis for those over 21.
  • Beatriz Carlini, UW ADAI Research Scientist, ADAI Cannabis Education and Research Program (CERP, audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Carlini testified that while studying “survey data from 2700 Washington State cannabis consumers, I learned that 32% of them were harmed by…their cannabis use” with effects like “panic attacks, fainting, vomiting, hallucinations, psychosis, and flashbacks.” Under a fifth of those surveyed “felt so bad that they went to [an] emergency room or called a poison center for help,” she added, arguing this was the result of “a state that has not actively curved cannabis products containing 60 to 90% THC.” Concentrates at this level were “harmful and they should not be consumed by people under 25 years of age,” she said.
      • WSLCB leaders discussed the survey with the lead researcher in November 2022.
    • Carlini voiced her hope that the legislation could contribute to developing “health programs and clinical guidance to prevent psychosis among consumers” of concentrates.
      • At time of publication, a fiscal note had not been published for HB 2320. However, mandates for UW ADAI would continue a series of budget provisos Davis secured for the organization to look into cannabis potency policies in addition to their recurring funding for “creation, maintenance, and timely updating of web-based public education materials providing medically and scientifically accurate information about the health and safety risks posed by cannabis use” as a statutorily mandated by RCW 69.50.540.
    • Chair of the 2022 symposium on high-THC products hosted by UW ADAI, Carlini had been one of the Institute’s top researchers of public and expert opinion on cannabis concentrates. In April 2023, she hosted a webinar on “Addressing the Risks of High THC Cannabis - The Public Health and Legislative Saga” where she discussed her work and personal advocacy of Davis’ prior bills.
  • Denise Walker, UW Research Professor and Innovative Programs Research Group Director (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Noting she was speaking in her personal capacity, Walker mentioned her work with the Washington State Health Care Authority Prevention Research Subcommittee (WA HCA PRSC) when they produced a 2020 consensus statement related to cannabis concentration health risks. Walker affirmed research had suggested “high potency THC increases the risk for both addiction to cannabis and psychosis particularly for youth and young adults.” She found this was impactful since areas of the brain “responsible for decision making and planning, things like that, continue to be developed into our late 20s…well beyond the current legal age of sale for cannabis products.”
    • Walker considered the substance treatment field to be “clamoring for science-based information,” commenting that she’d had “multiple requests from organizations on training on cannabis,” as well as “conducted focus groups with providers, family members, and patients and the resounding message [was a] need for science-based information.”
      • Cannabinoids have continued as one of the most common drugs in research literature. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), in 2020 “a record 3,500+ scientific papers on the subject of cannabis, according to data compiled by the National Library of Medicine and PubMed.gov…Since 2010, scientists have published over 23,000 peer-reviewed papers specific to cannabis, with the annual number of total papers increasing every year. By comparison, researchers published fewer than 3,000 total papers on cannabis in the years between 1990 and 1999 and fewer than 2,000 total studies during the 1980s.” They subsequently found this increased by over 3,800 new citations in 2021.
    • Co-Chair Shelley Kloba asked about harm reduction, observing the “quality of what information is being conveyed is very important and sometimes looking at harm reduction is something we're seeing more and more effectiveness in but can you speak to how it might fit in this bill?” Walker praised the aspects of the bill that would further education and intervention approaches, stating that she’d been “developing interventions and for specifically young adults with early psychosis who are using cannabis and harm reduction is part of that intervention and part of the work that we do with them.” She favored abstinence, but it’s “not the path that everybody takes. But part of those messages are ‘please use lower potency products, please use products that have a more of a balance of THC and CBD [cannabidiol].’” Walker continued, saying she was working with clients in the regulated market “who didn't know the things that they could do to reduce their harm of a rehospitalization [or] worse outcomes from their psychosis. So I think it can be and should be part of the education and messages that needs to be developed and promoted” (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
    • Walker presented on “Risk of High THC Concentration for Young Adults with Psychosis: Intervention Implications” at the UW ADAI symposium in 2022.
  • Beth Ebel, UW Pediatrician and Washington Chapter of the American Academy of PediatricsBoard of Trustees President (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Considering HB 2320 to be "reasonable guardrails to guide safer use,” Ebel echoed the health concerns over use of concentrates by minors and young adults. She recognized that some opponents were “suggesting that we should just talk on education, [but] regulation works. That is the powerful piece that made a difference for tobacco. And the education is focused on letting people know about the regulation,” Ebel said, asking for action against the “significant risk” posed to children and young adults.
    • Representative Greg Cheney asked Ebel a question about HB 2194, “Legalizing the home cultivation of cannabis,” another bill being heard by committee members in that meeting (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
  • Mary Lou Dickerson, Former Washington State Representative (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Dickerson explained she’d supported cannabis legalization, but since then she saw “very high potency pot has been developed. It's a way different beast than the cannabis of 2014.” She believed some product types “spell serious trouble for a lot of people, adolescents and young adults especially, and we can't be blind to that.” Dickerson conveyed that the 2020 consensus statement “opened my eyes and it convinced me to support this bill.” As a lawmaker, she said she’d “focused most of my efforts on the well-being of young people and young adults. And that's what this bill would do.”
    • Representative Eric Robertson commented on his first term in the legislature with Dickerson (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • David Coffey, Recovery Cafe Executive Director (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • Ryan Orrison, BRIDGESExecutive Director (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Orrison described himself as a substance use disorder professional running a “Seattle alternative peer group” for youth. They alleged “the folks…against this bill are the folks that are making money off of this. The folks…for this bill are health care providers, doctors and people that care for the wellness of our children and young people.” Promising to share “a host of different studies” to reinforce his point, Orrison claimed “it's easy to see that this is the next step for us…saying that they're gonna get it from…the streets or from other from other places is, is disingenuous because if we sit here and we don't do anything then we're culpable in the damage.” They reiterated that the committee should favor “information and the testimony provided by experts in the field, people that care about the kids, and measure that against folks that…are trying to make money.”
    • Co-Chair Sharron Wylie asked Orrison and others to keep in mind legislators were “very careful to not question motives in our discussion and in our testimony” (audio - <1m, Video - TVW).
  • In addition to the ten people that requested to testify in favor, two individuals signed in to support the bill; SAM representatives Davidson and Daviau registered their enthusiasm five times together (Testifying, Not Testifying).

• Several representatives of the cannabis sector and a consumer advocate opposed HB 2320; they viewed raising the purchase age of concentrates as a “prohibition” which wouldn't be more effective than prevention education and enforcement of existing laws.
  • Lukas Hunter, Harmony Farms Director of Compliance and Government Affairs (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • Ezra Eickmeyer, Producers Northwest Founder (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Calling the proposal “a huge improvement from last year,” Eickmeyer said he was still against raising the purchase age as that was “not going to work...we've raised the age of tobacco use to 21 nationally and teenage tobacco rates in general across the country [were] still going up.” He hoped to see better prevention approaches for those under 21, otherwise “some industry is going to sprout up to get it to them.”
    • The “parts of the bill I love and that we've been saying we support for so long” included taking “funding of education programs for youth prevention, really, really seriously. And this is where we have a proven track record of success.” Eickmeyer pointed to a “huge tobacco settlement” in 1997 won by then-Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire which resulted in “giant well-funded campaigns,” followed by “tobacco use rates plummet[ing] across the country.” He felt the “biggest issue [was] the low perception of harm” among youth that needed better answers than raising the concentrate purchase age over 21. Insisting that “there's nothing you can do on the supply side to change things,” he asked the committee to “please pass a modified version of the bill.”
  • Bailey Hirschburg, Washington Chapter of NORML and consumer advocate on the WSLCB Public Education Work Group (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
    • Encouraging review of written comments he’d emailed members, Hirschburg also considered there to be “merit in the educational components and in some of the workforce training components,” yet found “the age limit for concentrates really smacks of cannabis being held to a different standard than liquor, than other things like tobacco, or even gambling.” These were also behaviors he claimed research had “shown to be incredibly problematic, particularly when a person starts doing them early in their life,” and that “a lot of the problems that we've talked about actually relate to teenagers who are starting to use some of these very potent products.” Hirschburg wanted prevention education to also address “parents and family members and peers on not supplying these products,“ arguing licensed retailers had “good track records of not making…any type of cannabis [available] to youth,” whereas supply by older acquaintances was a more common avenue for access.
    • Representative Tina Orwall, speaking as a “mental health professional” familiar with evidence of cannabis consumers in their 20s having psychiatric disorders, wondered whether Hirschburg had heard about “some populations that would be more impacted by the higher concentrations” of THC (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
      • Hirschburg responded with his understanding that “people in poverty have…worse health outcomes, people with no health care have—probably not shocking—worse outcomes when they start using these products earlier in their life.” He further felt “if you're seeing a psychotic break” of a person in their 20s, they were more likely to have initiated substance use in their teen years. He conceded a person in their mid-20s may have “had a couple of crazy years” of heavy cannabis use, “but unfortunately the people I have met that have those kinds of problems were people who started as teenagers.” Hirschburg then pointed to a 2014 study of treatment admissions indicating the “vast majority of them are people that did begin using a substance before 21.” For individuals who avoided substance use before this age, “I know that there's more information about that for alcohol than there is for cannabis, but my understanding is that trend still holds true, so that's where…the focus [sh]ould be on this.”
  • Caitlein Ryan, The Cannabis Alliance Executive Director (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • “It's frankly challenging to address the multitude of demonstrably false assertions upon which this proposed legislation is predicated, let alone collaborate in seeking meaningful ways to address the very real concern here,” Ryan commented. She noted that all types of concentrates had existed to different degrees on the “legacy market” prior to the licensed adult use industry, some “as long as humans have consumed cannabis, which is to say as long as there have been humans.”
    • Ryan also challenged proponents’ assertion that “cannabis causes schizophrenia,” arguing it “has been proven a false causality, and is at most a correlation” by citing a 2023 Journal of the American Medical Association article regarding schizophrenia diagnoses and associated health care utilization, which reported “no statistically significant increase in psychosis-related diagnosis and prescriptions in states where cannabis was legal for adult and/or medical use compared to states that prohibited cannabis.”
  • Vicki Christophersen, Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA) Executive Director (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
  • Micah Sherman, Raven Co-Owner and Washington Sun and Craft Growers Association (WSCA) Board Member (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Recognizing that people had concerns about public health, Sherman viewed the “biggest drug policy failure [from] a public health perspective is prohibition. Most harms from drugs comes from the war on drugs and the policies that we've created in response to them.” For him, HB 2320 was “a continuation of that same policy.”
    • Considering approaches to the “new era of legal cannabis with manufactured products,” Sherman felt the bill would “just continue to push products into the illicit market, including synthetic cannabinoids that we've been having tons of problems with” and “exacerbate those sorts of issues” without solving the problem “that is purportedly being brought as the concern.” He agreed with others that educational improvements were more feasible, “and hopefully we can talk about how do we address these issues for real.”
  • Becca Burghardi, Northwest Cannabis Solutions Assistant Director for Research and Development (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • In addition to the eight people testifying against the bill, 39 individuals signed in as opposed (Testifying, Not Testifying).

Here are some observations from the Tuesday January 16th Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) Committee Meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• Committee Counsel Peter Clodfelter explained the impacts of HB 2194, “Legalizing the home cultivation of cannabis” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • In 2012, the right of adults to grow their own cannabis wasn’t included in Initiative 502 (I-502), but had since become common among states that have legalized the plant. As far back as 2015, legislation had been proposed to allow limited cultivation allowances for those 21 and older, including HB 1614 in 2023. WA House RSG members hosted a hearing in February 2023, then approved the measure. The Washington State House Appropriations Committee (WA House APP) heard the bill later that month, however it was pulled from their schedule and received no further legislative action.
  • In the hearing, Clodfelter referred to the bill analysis, stating that the measure would:
    • Legalizes the production and possession, by a person age 21 or over, of six cannabis plants and the cannabis and cannabis products derived from those plants, on the premises of the housing unit occupied by the person. 
    • Creates a class 1 civil infraction for the production or knowing possession of more than six but fewer than 16 cannabis plants, and specifies it is a class C felony to produce or knowingly possess 16 or more cannabis plants.
    • Modifies real property seizure and forfeiture provisions in the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (UCSA) related to to [sic] cannabis.
      • This was “a term currently used in the context of real properties; seizure and forfeiture; and determining the intent of an offender,” Clodfelter noted.
    • Adds a definition of "commercial activity" to the UCSA.
  • The fiscal note prepared by Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) staff anticipated “a workload impact of 0.2 FTE LCB Enforcement Officer 2 (LEO2) ongoing as a result of increased complaints and seizures.”Staff projected costs of $26,840 a year, related primarily to salary, benefits, and travel to investigate an estimated 12 complaints and engaged in one seizure per month.
    • Washington State Patrol staff indicated “an indeterminate fiscal impact as investigation time may increase to differentiate between allowable home grown production versus illicit production. We do not anticipate that this impact would be significant.”
    • The Washington State Department of Corrections reported an indeterminate impact of $50,000 or less, as HB 2194 “would likely result in prison and jail bed savings.”
    • The largest expenditures were predicted by officials at the Washington State Department of Commerce (WA Commerce), which forecast that city “law enforcement agencies would incur first year training costs totaling $471,937 plus indeterminate impacts resulting from legalizing the possession of cannabis plants,” while counties would have similar training costs estimated to be $161,928 statewide.

• Committee Co-Chair Shelley Kloba shared her reasons for sponsoring the measure, including implications for personal rights and broader social equity (audio - 4m, Video - TVW).
  • Kloba acknowledged her history of sponsorship on this issue, remarking how I-502 "was very conservative," and she felt that officials exercised caution implementing it. She further felt the initiative did not “appropriately understand the social equity impacts yet,” and officials had “go back with the work of my colleagues here to address some of those things, and I think this is a tiny piece of that as well.”
    • The Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF) met between 2020 and December 2022, producing a final report which included support for legalization of cannabis home grows.
  • “The fact that cannabis is legal for people over 21, they can walk into a store and purchase it,” Kloba established, “I think we've all gotten used to that.” However, it was “still a class C felony to possess this in plant form,” she said, even after “we've taken a look at other illicit drugs and changed the way we think about those, and yet this stands unchanged.” She stressed, “this is very much designed for personal use, it is very similar to what an authorized patient is able to grow in their home,” and likened the practice to a "recreational hobbyist.” 
  • Kloba mentioned that in 2023, HB 1614 had gotten “hung up” after recommendation by WA House RSG in “the fiscal committees,” the unfortunate recipient of an uncommonly speculative staff briefing on potential impacts to cannabis revenue. Kloba was dubious of any negative effect, comparing it to microbrewing which she felt had “increased the appreciation for good beer. I think that this is also the type of effect that this bill would have.” She asked for support to “fix this situation…so that it is not illegal to grow a plant that you can purchase on the market.”
    • Kloba spoke in Seattle at the March For Homegrow in August 2023. She also touched on her background as a leader on cannabis issues in remarks at an October 2022 event hosted by the Cannabis Alliance, and in a symposium convened by the University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI) in September 2022.
  • Representative Kevin Waters asked Kloba to “talk about what the offense is right now if someone is caught with a home grow [and] how maybe it is at an unfair advantage versus the real drug problem that we are facing right now in the state” (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
    • Kloba said that the existing class C felony was "a pretty intense penalty" for any number of plants. She noted that after I-502 there was data to suggest that while overall cannabis possession arrests “go down markedly…the disproportionality stayed the same in terms of Black and Brown people getting locked up for cannabis crimes at a much higher rate.” Her understanding was that under the bill such disparities could “diminish overall and that would have a beneficial effect.” She further believed the State didn’t need to be “locking people up for something that probably shouldn't be a crime, and is not a crime in many other states.”
  • Ranking Minority Member Kelly Chambers wanted clarification about whether the arrest statistics measured “all cannabis convictions compared to home grow.” Kloba explained that among “the set of people who get arrested for growing at home…I think that would ultimately cause fewer Black and Brown people to get arrested for it. I don't know that it would change the disproportionality.” She encouraged listening to proponents, and suggested, “that's one of the reasons why the social equity task force had come out with the notion of home grow being one of their recommendations” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).

• More than a dozen speakers offered supportive testimony for the legislation, several of whom felt that it was consistent with the spirit of the original initiative, or allowed people to better understand the plant and control what they put in their bodies.
  • John Kingsbury, patient advocate and Cannabis Alliance March for Homegrow Organizer (audio - 2m,  Video - TVW)
    • “It's a complex, fascinating, and sometimes frustrating plant,” Kingsbury testified, yet “as of today 23 states plus Washington, DC trust their citizens enough to allow them to grow a few plants at home.” With a single plant being a felony in Washington State, he said this was “on par with unlawful possession of a firearm. This makes no sense.” Moreover, the law was “at odds with the primary purpose behind initiative 502 which was to limit the social and generational harms caused by cannabis prohibition,” he argued.
    • Annually, Kingsbury stated, “we can assume that another 240 or so people will be arrested for growing six plants or fewer, suffering the multiple lifelong consequences” from an arrest, prosecution, fines, and/or imprisonment. Additionally, “another 50 or so people will have their homes dismantled and lose property, but thankfully not be arrested.” All of this for “a substance that we sell like beer, and this will happen at a rate five to seven times greater for Black citizens compared to their White counterparts, and 2.4 to 3.1 times higher for Hispanics, and that disparity seems to be increasing over time.”
    • Continuing the “senseless damage” of criminalizing personal cultivation made no sense to Kingsbury, who was hopeful committee members were “ready to trust Washington citizens as much as the legislators in 23 other states, and end this prohibition and the unnecessary human damage that comes along with it.”
  • Caitlein Ryan, Cannabis Alliance Executive Director (audio - 2m,  Video - TVW)
    • Ryan commented how Washington was “one of two adult use states that doesn't allow for personal use growing.” She noticed as she was “talking to citizens and trying to gain support for this…I would say nearly 98% of people I talked to had no idea that this was illegal…I even had quite a few people stop the conversation and go, ‘Oh my gosh. I need to go home right now.’”
    • “Speaking to this disparity, I will not be arrested for growing a plant at home,” as a Caucasian person suggested Ryan, “as John pointed out people of color are five times more likely to be arrested for growing a single adult use plant at home.” She then referred to analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which showed minority communities were “eight times more likely to then be convicted of that felony once they've been arrested.” Ryan also mentioned a 2020 economic study by Timothy Nadreau, Research Faculty at Washington State University (WSU), “showing that not unlike craft brewing, people who grow plants at home will most likely buy at a higher price point, higher volume, and more frequently, raising what is possible for State revenue.”
  • Shawn DeNae Wagenseller, Washington Bud Company Co-Owner and Cannabis Alliance Secretary (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Adults growing their own cannabis was "absolutely no threat" to commercial growers,” Wagenseller testified, as most consumers were "really spoiled with good product" and not prepared to grow cannabis, since “it takes a lot of skill, and a lot of money, and a lot of equipment to put out a good product.” Listing off a variety of insects would-be growers would have to contend with, she knew there were also “a variety of molds and mildews. A lot of people give up and they're happy to go to the store and pay for my product that is nicely packaged…and tested.” 
    • Wagenseller believed “home growers just put a better value on commercially grown product…even if they enjoy their hobby garden.” She didn’t support the practice being “a class C felony like armed robbery,” and encouraged legislators to “pass HB 2194 and erase another page of prohibition.”
    • Representative Kristine Reeves inquired about the enforcement approach of the legislation, remarking that “while we're talking about legalization, and it sounds great and you're calling it a social equity initiative” she wanted to hear about “reduction or minimization of harms from police interaction in the first place” (audio - 3m, Video - TVW).
      • Ryan answered that “passing this bill…eliminates a reason for law enforcement to interact with folks for growing plants at home at all.” Reeves observed, “there's a lot of things that are legal but don't minimize Black interaction with law enforcement.” She was wary “when we use that language and we're using language to justify why we should pass a bill as it pertains to Black and Brown people.”
      • Reeves further asked for clarification on how enforcement worked in HB 2194 from Clodfelter, who responded it “doesn't have explicit provisions about who would be enforcing.” He remembered prior legislation on the topic “specifically sa[id] certain agencies do not have enforcement authority,” but HB 2194 didn’t “state one way or the other” outside of defining the allowed activity. He speculated that “city police, county sheriffs, Washington State Patrol….all have authority to enforce” the UCSA. Clodfelter added that the Washington State Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission was “not normally an agency that comes up with the cannabis regulations, but they do have general enforcement authority” under the act as well. “I don't know what that would look like, but it doesn't specifically say…what you're seeking to know more about,” he concluded.
  • Bailey Hirschburg, Washington Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (WA NORML) and I-502 Volunteer Organizer (audio - 2m,  Video - TVW)
    • According to Hirschburg, I-502 represented a “very cautious approach” to cannabis legalization, “and the lack of home growing was one of the most contentious issues that we heard about.” He said there’d been a “clear pattern with now Washington State being an outlier as one of the few states that doesn't allow this.”
    • “I really believe that police enforcement should be focused on larger grows that are criminally connected,” Hirschburg argued, “and I say that realizing that that's a more difficult case to make than our current policy,” where beyond the presence of a plant “you don't really have to prove much.” He doubted that many law enforcement agencies were targeting small grows “because I'm not sure that there are a lot, but it hasn’t impacted the revenue we've seen in other states.”
    • Moreover, he hadn’t heard the personal grows were a “scourge or problem” in other legal states, “and while I'm concerned about the thefts that we've sometimes seen at cannabis businesses, I just don't see a nexus, how a private house with little to no cash is the same as a business that's cash only” carried “the same level of risk.”
    • Hirschburg didn’t understand treating small numbers of cannabis plants “worse, essentially, than we've treated firearms in the home and that's basically what we have right now.” He hoped this could be the “last policy committee I have to talk to” about homegrow.
  • Don Skakie, Homegrow Washington Founder (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Skakie supported the bill and echoed the sentiment that home growing wasn’t proving to be “problematic” in other jurisdictions, and wasn’t associated with “more diversion to the unregulated market. It's not resulting in youth access and/or to the contraband markets that still exist in non-reformed states.” He felt that home growing “would not become the focus of our lives, but simply just one of the many activities we get engaged in,” and shouldn’t be a felony. “We’re considerate of our neighbors and our community, and we'll continue to do that after this bill becomes law,” said Skakie, hopeful for passage and “further consideration and discussion by your fellow legislators.”
    • Regarding HB 2194 as “very clean and streamlined,” Skakie mentioned that legislation heard by a predecessor committee in 2019, HB 1131, went “into much more detail on what possible amendments might want to be included [if there were changes members] might be looking for but not finding in this bill.”
    • Representative Greg Cheney asked what the price per plant could be, “I know that it's gonna depend on quantity, quality, there's a whole bunch of different factors, but just kind of a range so we can get a sense of that” (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
      • “You're putting us in a position of saying what would we sell what we're producing…what would we charge to stand on a street corner,” Skakie responded, “and that's not at all what this bill is about. You'd have to talk to people that are in that business.”
      • Hirschburg speculated someone could “struggle to get a hundred bucks” for a poorly grown plant, “if it was grown professionally, which I think very few people that don't have a green thumb could do, probably be worth thousands of dollars.” But he cautioned that cannabis was “a weed any of us can grow…but [to] grow it in quality, to grow it in any quantity takes time and investment of resources.”
      • Following the hearing, Kingsbury offered Cheney a more substantive explanation of the estimate of plant cost, and indicated, “the simple answer is $164/plant to $238.68/plant” after subtracting the cost of cultivation.
    • Reeves allegedly wanted to know about plant waste since “you brought up guns, so that basically created correlation in my mind of what is the safe and proper disposal of these plants.” She hypothesized that if her grandmother passed away, but “I don't know what a marijuana plant looks like…she's got a whole bunch of other plants plus these marijuana plants and my job is to now dispose of her estate.” She was curious if “this bill cover[ed] disposal and ensuring that I, as the executor of her estate, I'm not liable for disposal of these plants improperly” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
      • Taylor Gardner, Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) Deputy Director noted the bill didn’t speak to that, stating it was “another one of those perhaps corollaries that we could draw. The other states that have enacted home grow have…provisions like that in their state laws,” suggesting lawmakers look at Nevada’s home growing regulations, claiming, “they've got a pretty robust set of laws on this issue.”
      • Skakie and Hirschburg considered cannabis to be typical garden waste, though Reeves commented they weren’t “helping your argument with that, that correlation.”
      • Colorado officials provide home growing safety rules, which include advice for cannabis waste disposal. Find out about personal cultivation standards in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia. 
    • Chambers wanted to know if people could produce other cannabis items at home. Hirschburg observed grinding up cannabis over a sieve was all that was needed to make the concentrate kief, “now if you're talking about extraction and…solvents and the equipment needed to do that. No, I couldn't see anything in this bill allowing that type of behavior.” Skakie noted patients already engaged in “non-volatile extraction,” and guessed it was likely “a home grower would make some edibles” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
    • Waters wondered about the odor of the plants, “and how you mitigate that.” Having grown as a medical patient, Skakie alleged small gardens didn’t produce the strong smell of a commercial operation, and that “burning cannabis actually hangs in the air, but the growing cannabis dissipates after about 30 feet, 35 feet. So it's not very perceptible…certainly not overwhelming.” He wanted to be a considerate neighbor, and said if anyone ever raised the issue “I would probably take steps to address their concerns” (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
    • Reeves conjured another hypothetical about the environmental impact if several people formed a neighborhood homeowners association (HOA) to grow their own cannabis, curious if lawmakers should consider “environmental impacts of growing a multitude of plants in a similar space…in a situation where folks who think alike and…decided that part of that HOA is having the ability to grow marijuana plants.” Should communities be “thinking about water runoff, water quality, environmental quality, things around that as part of this bill” (audio - 3m, Video - TVW).
      • Hirschburg replied that he was the newest member of his HOA board and that activity outside of their community’s units could be covered by the bylaws of the property. He also expected the only reasons landlords would have to address home cultivation would be “either based on the nature of the lease or frankly, if [they’re] doing something squiffy and you're trying to control all these people's grows, which the only time I've heard of small grows being criminally connected was a situation like that in Colorado…something like that would still be very illegal. I would assume as envisioned by this bill a bunch of people who have a like-minded community [could] be handled by the normal HOA process.”
      • Skakie had grown in soil as well as hydroponically, and thought “when I was in that situation, again, we're talking about six plants, so it's not really a large amount.” He remarked that he’d had no problem replacing the “growing medium” that helped plant growth, and felt it was safe enough to “put on my grass or in my garden.”
  • Lukas Hunter, Harmony Farms Director of Compliance and Government Affairs (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
  • Keegan Skeate, Cannlytics Data Scientist (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • Pete Holmes, Former Seattle City Attorney and I-502 Sponsor (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • “When you're the first in the country to confront prohibition, there are lots of unknowns. And as a primary sponsor of I-502 back in 2011, I can tell you that we struggled with home grows,” Holmes told lawmakers. The right was left out of the initiative “in part to understand better the viability of a newly legal, but heavily regulated and taxed, cannabis industry. It has since become clear that Washington consumers deserved the right to grow your own for personal use,” and he argued other states had made this a more viable path.
    • Holmes added that I-502 had intended “to regulate cannabis the same way we regulate alcohol, and alcohol consumers already enjoy the right…to brew their own beer, to ferment their own wine, but most choose to go with commercial products. And we think that the same thing now will happen with the Washington cannabis industry. It is long past time to remove this class C felony.”
  • Vivian McPeak, Seattle Hempfest Founder (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Acknowledging his history of cannabis activism, McPeak agreed people deserved “quality and purity control, and the ability to choose specific strains.” He expected a “vast majority” would “continue to patronize retail stores just like alcohol so there should be negligible tax revenue impacts, but most importantly there are currently multiple models and states that allowed legal home cultivation.” McPeak advised “for their own protection, I believe that sensible growers will utilize common, affordable charcoal filtration systems to mitigate odor.” He agreed with others’ sentiment that “it's unethical to continue criminalizing small private-use cannabis cultivation when sales, possession, consumption, and commercial production have been legalized.”
  • David Heldreth, Ziese Farms CEO  (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Heldreth relayed that a 2022 memo from federal officials showed that because cannabis seeds didn’t contain 0.3% THC, they weren’t prohibited under existing law. “They're legally hemp and unregulated in the United States,” he said, allowing “patients and the public to legally access them.”
    • He pointed out that “very pungent” hemp could be grown near daycare or foster care facilities, and “if you're attempting to say that if it's a THC plant that it should be treated differently than when it's hemp that's a bit facetious of an argument.”
    • Heldreth then claimed “if a large group of people are growing cannabis that will have no more runoff than if they were growing tomatoes.” He said his “hemp crop was sprayed with pesticides by the local government, and so I want to second…this statement that pesticides being sprayed on cannabis is an important issue and so we need to have home grow.”
  • Andrew Otwell (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
    • Otwell didn’t consider HB 2194 to be “an experiment, and will have negligible impact to consumer safety and to the cannabis industry here in Washington.” He felt even “fairly conservative states like Montana and Ohio have included home grow in their adult use laws, and in fact New York and Maryland have in fact updated their laws to allow home grow.” Otwell alleged there was an “embarrassing level of penalty currently associated…with this activity” and a “shameful” degree of punishment. He urged passage of the legislation.
  • Chad Westport  (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • Arthur West  (audio - 2m, Video - TVW)
  • In addition to the 14 people that testified in favor, one hundred individuals signed in to support the bill (Testifying, Not Testifying).

• A law enforcement association representative explained safety concerns around their position as “other” on HB 2194, and a substance prevention stakeholder explained why they didn’t want the bill to move ahead.
  • Taylor Gardner, WASPC Deputy Director (audio - 2m,  Video - TVW)
    • Registering a position of ‘other’ on the proposal, Gardner conveyed the general opinion of their members that they did not support home cultivation, and “would prefer the state maintain its commitment pursuant to I-502 that this industry would remain in a well-regulated commercial setting.”
    • She reported that if lawmakers saw fit to move the bill forward, “we would like to offer some feedback on how to do it more safely.” Gardner invoked the specter of “public safety threats that already plague the commercial cannabis retailers, and we would hate for those kind of threats to follow people home.”
    • Gardner advised modifications to the bill to make it more like HB 1614 from 2023.
      • First, “requirements about safe storage. And rather than building upon that requirement this year, we saw that it was removed. We would urge this committee to require some form of safe storage, and to find exactly how people can meet that requirement
      • “The second thing we would like to note, We…would ask the committee to consider reintegrating 1614's provisions relating to prohibiting home grows where there are family day care providers, foster family homes, and…allowing landlords to retain some kind of right to prohibit homegrowns on their own property in these sensitive places around children.” She aimed to leave “home owners some discretion about how their property is ultimately used.”
      • The “third point…prohibitions on plants being visible from ordinary public view or readily smelled just in consideration of their surrounding environment and neighbors
      • “A fourth point that was in 1614…requirements about marking plants’ containers and products in order to maintain some level of traceability when those plants leave the home grower’s home.”
    • Garder concluded, “safety is ultimately our ultimate focus, and we're happy to contribute to those conversations here.”
  • Scott Waller, Washington Association on Substance Misuse and Violence Prevention (WASAVP) Member  (audio - 2m,  Video - TVW)
    • Waller testified to the “strong opposition” of his organization because they perceived “absolutely no limitations" in HB 2194. Even medical cannabis patients had “limitations about not being able to be seen, you know from the street for instance, or not being readily smelled from a public place or the private property of another housing unit.” He argued the “numerical limits in the law would be almost impossible to enforce” due to a lack of law enforcement personnel, who “would need search warrants to effectively monitor the activities of home grows.”
    • Waller was concerned ”about youth access in homes with cannabis gardens,” and further felt “provisions [were] not strong enough for…prohibiting diversions of home grow products in exchange for money.” Stating he didn’t see a need to “expand beyond what has already authorized with medical cannabis home grows,” he insisted there were “dozens of reasons why expansion should not be allowed.”
  • Later, during the hearing on HB 2320, “Concerning high THC cannabis products,” Cheney asked Beth Ebel, UW Pediatrician and Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Board of Trustees President, “if the goal is to protect young people from the use of marijuana does it make sense to allow home grows where…we won't have the ability to control the level of THC in those homegrown plants?” Ebel answered that most plants “don't reach that 35% cut off,” which was part of HB 2320. “And also the kids and young people getting [cannabis products were] generally getting it from, from in a place that initiated in the legal market.” She believed “regulation matters,” but “it has less to do with a home grow market” (audio - 2m, Video - TVW).
  • In addition to the two people that testified opposed or “other” on the bill, another 30 people signed in against the measure (Testifying, Not Testifying).