USA - Washington

As legislators sought perspectives on contemporary cannabis policy issues and regulators willingly shared, a group of publicly-funded prevention researchers kept their doors closed.

Staff laid out changes in the latest lab accreditation rulemaking draft, including a lower cost of implementation and a waiver process around in-matrix proficiency testing.

Staff went over how cannabis tax revenue had been spent, offered comparisons to other states, and recommended transparency improvements while fielding lawmaker questions.

State legislators would be prepared with details on cannabis revenues, appropriations, and retail theft while Ecology staff delayed accreditation rules to see how the session panned out.

After the cancellation of a planned caucus and board meeting by the WSLCB board members, there were no cannabis-related policymaking events scheduled for the holiday week.

Commerce officials planned to brief consultants interested in administering the social equity and community reinvestment cannabis grant programs for up to 1/10 of the total $9M allocated.

Topics related to social equity applicants, research projects, and the approaching legislative session were brought up by agency leadership.

The board voted to open rulemaking to implement social equity program changes and then heard public remarks related to the grant programs and transparency of the equity process.

Staff shared rulemaking progress including upcoming outreach events, a new petition on cannabis testing results, and a timeline for implementing social equity legislation.

During a busy week for the WSLCB Board, staff continued to make up for cancelled meetings, turnover, and vacancies as they negotiated a significant number of parallel rulemaking efforts.