USA - Washington

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.

The Policy and Rules Coordinator offered a look ahead at rulemaking actions and a recently received petition, and the Board will hear a presentation on opening up the agency's cannabis research collection.

The Committee learned about aggregate monthly retail sales figures for cannabis followed by a discussion of traceability identifiers and documentation of workarounds for problems with MJ Freeway's software.

Staff presented a Quarterly Cannabis and Vapor Rules Review, an Investigator Unit Team Update, and several interesting updates from Director Rick Garza.

Board members approved an interim rule and CR-101 for Retail Title Certificates and opened rulemaking for vapor products.

Licensing staff briefed on the retail title certificate program before the Board learned about the agency's contracting process and equity programs in other legal cannabis markets.

The Board voted to expand an interim policy on quarantine, adopted two CR-102s on forfeiture and 2017 cannabis legislation rules, and passed a CR-101 to start a rule project on 2018 cannabis legislation rules.

Board members prepared for the next board meeting, heard about possible vapor regulatory and legislative changes, and discussed how to better incorporate research into the agency's rule development process.