USA - Washington

The Board voted to adopt final rules for retail license forfeiture, hosted a public hearing on 2017 cannabis legislation implementation, and heard from several individuals during public comment.

The Board heard positive feedback on changes to cannabis sampling guidelines before discussing volume discounts and cannabis economic forecasting.

An Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Project by Gartner Consulting was presented to the Committee and an executive from MJ Freeway defended the company's software development process.

The Board discussed their representation at a federal law enforcement meeting and Regulators Roundtable, then discussed minority participation in the cannabis industry.

A former Board Member responded to the Board's denial of his petition for rulemaking, licensees spoke on the absence of equity efforts by WSLCB, and the Board hosted a public hearing on the supplemental CR-102 for Marijuana License Forfeiture Rules.

The Board weighed a petition to allow cannabis 'white labeling,' staff discussed cannabis tax collection and enforcement, and equity issues were raised again.

Members heard about data sources used to generate retail sales figures, future plans for sourcing those numbers, and the WSLCB's absence of plans to address data integrity issues.

The advisory council heard and commented on staff updates covering licensing, rulemaking, and legislative activity by the agency.

A legislative discussion was followed by a talk about increased collaboration with law enforcement against the illicit cannabis market before the Board considered speculation on oversupply of legal cannabis.

The Board voted to adopt changes to packaging and labeling rules as well as an interim policy for licensees to expedite implementation of the new rules and public comment drew remarks on WSLCB's lack of consideration for medical cannabis patients and consumer over-reliance on cannabis potency numbers.