WSLCB - Board Caucus
(June 3, 2025) - Research Roundtable

While federal barriers to researching “stateside” cannabis remained, the board learned about the first Research Roundtable regarding challenges around studying contemporary cannabis.

Here are some observations from the Tuesday June 3rd Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus.

My top 3 takeaways:

• The inaugural meeting of the Research Roundtable was the result of an effort launched by WSLCB leaders to hear from and provide feedback to certain research groups.
  • The WSLCB Research Program was established in 2023. Once staff were hired, they began to produce research papers on topics for agency leaders and took an active role in events.
  • The Research Roundtable was modeled on the Washington State Health Care Authority Prevention Research Collaborative (WA HCA PRC) and the WSLCB Public Health and Prevention Roundtables, closed focus groups with public health and prevention communities which board members sometimes discussed in open meetings.
    • At the Public Health and Prevention Roundtable on March 24th, attendees received an update from Public Health Education Liaison Kristen Haley, a briefing by Director of Legislative Relations Marc Webster along with a discussion about the 2026 legislative session, and remarks from Board Chair Jim Vollendroff on long-term strategic planning for the agency.
    • WSLCB staff had also planned a separate Public Health Roundtable for cannabis sector participants which was scheduled to have a first meeting on Wednesday June 11th.  Haley hosted focus groups on high-THC cannabis products in 2024 with public health, prevention, and cannabis sector representatives, then coordinated with Vollendroff and Director William Lukela in early 2025 to restructure the roundtables.
      • According to emails seen by Cannabis Observer, Prevention and Public Health events were planned to stay closed to the public, whereas cannabis sector events would likely be open to the public. A meeting combining the groups in some way was planned near the end of the year.
      • Haley sent an invitation to an undisclosed group on May 22nd in which she encouraged recipients to share the information with their “networks.” She noted the participation of Board Member Ollie Garrett, and that organizers would be working “with attendees to generate an agenda at the beginning of the call to tailor the Roundtable based on attendee preference and interest areas within the space of public health and cannabis.”
    • Relatedly during a conversation on April 15th, the board moved towards reforming advisory councils on cannabis and alcohol, but shelved a previously floated idea of converting the Public Health and Prevention Roundtables to an open advisory council format.
  • The first external announcement about the Research Roundtable was sent to prospective members in October 2024. The flyer outlining the event stated, "Attendance will be limited to those who have been invited to encourage open dialogue and discussion" and "What will NOT be included...Unauthorized audio recordings or attendance by individuals who have not been invited."
    • At the time, Cannabis Observer reached out to Research Manager Sarah Okey and Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn to request the opportunity to participate. That request was denied but we learned the plan was to ask invited speakers for permission to record their presentations.
  • By November 2024, Okey had opted out of restarting the Cannabinoid Science Work Group—which last met that April—and was chartered to have open meetings. She expected the Research Roundtable would be closed to the public, but shared her hope that participants would agree to be recorded.

• Research Program Manager Sarah Okey provided an update on the first roundtable, which she framed as focused on opportunities for cannabis research and reference labs at State universities (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Okey told board members how the Roundtable had been convened on May 7th, and described staff intention “to provide a forum for open dialogue, knowledge sharing, and collaboration on topics of common interest and emerging areas of concern” to state agencies and external research partners. Okey framed discussions as closed “problem-solving sessions that do not result in official actions or positions” by WSLCB. She outlined two goals for the group:
    • For WSLCB staff to "listen and learn from scientists and researchers to better understand scientific evidence, and barriers on current topics and issues.”
    • For scientists and researchers to "listen and learn from us about emerging topics of concern, to help them understand what might be good to research.”
  • The central topic of the May 7th meeting had been how the agency and universities could "better operate to improve research and lab testing initiatives on stateside cannabis." She distinguished “stateside” cannabis as those products legally sold within Washington state, “because stateside cannabis has historically been absolutely incredibl[ly]...difficult to get your hands on as a scientist, and that's because it's federally still a schedule one substance.” Given that most universities received federal funding, “putting hands on products that are federally illegal is really, extremely difficult to do as a scientist, and has a lot of red tape to it.” Nonetheless, Okey indicated WSLCB staff would prefer to promote evidence-based policies derived from accurate data.
    • Federal cannabis sourced from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) had relatively low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and therefore didn’t accurately “reflect the products that are sold in our markets today,” she said. Regulators and researchers concluded one “huge barrier, is that the stuff that we can study does not reflect the stuff that people can legally purchase and use,” added Okey.
    • Vollendroff inquired about where researchers obtained cannabis for study, wanting to be “sure everybody understands the challenge” they faced in accessing products reflecting those sold in the State's licensed market (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Okey responded that researchers were required “to go through NIDA to receive cannabis” for federal research, however this cannabis lacked the THC content found in most retail products. “You can't go and get vape pens that have 80%, 90% THC concentration,” she argued, nor cannabis flower with THC levels similar to products she could obtain by going “into a store 10 minutes down my road.” She called this federal limit a “huge barrier” for understanding the State market.
      • Vollendroff said the goal of the board was to assist “our universities to be able to do the research based on the products that are available to consumers here in Washington state.”
        • The deficient quality of NIDA-sourced cannabis had been reported nationally, and was previously mentioned by Nephi Stella, Director of the University of Washington Center for Cannabis Research (UW CCR), during a 2022 webinar as an obstacle to research (audio - 3m, video).
  • According to Okey, WSLCB staff would prefer universities conduct research based on "products that are available to consumers,” and shared how participants heard presentations on the barriers and potential solutions to conducting research on stateside cannabis. She called attention to several researchers’ remarks (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW):
    • Carrie Cutler, Washington State University Department of Psychology Associate Professor and Center for Cannabis Policy, Research, and Outreach (WSU CCPRO) Co-Director, talked about "barriers and solutions to stateside cannabis research," including alternative methods for researchers who "can't touch cannabis…sold in stores." Cutler’s concepts included remote interviews or “ecological momentary assessments, where people are responding to prompts on their phones or wearing devices,” Okey said. Despite their creativity, she said these solutions still had barriers compared to direct observation.
      • Cutler previously advised on cannabis impacts on the brain, notably presenting on “Acute Effects of High Potency Cannabis Flower and Concentrates on Cognition" during a 2022 symposium hosted by the University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI). On March 4th, she was the presenting researcher during a WSU CCPRO webinar, "Memory and Munchies: Acute Effects of Cannabis on Human Memory and Food Consumption.”
    • Will Clegern, the Scientific Lab Manager at Washington State University Health Sciences Spokane, “discussed opportunities for lab standards.” Okey remarked, “this was particularly related to whether or not testing products on a university campus would ever be a possibility in Washington state.”
    • Unnamed “special guests from the University of California, San Diego [UCSD]…currently a reference lab for the Department of Cannabis Control in California,” shared their process, where California law enforcement personnel “deliver products to the campus and UCSD complete random testing and investigations in their campus. They do testing, but they don't do research on their products.”
      • Separate from cannabis product testing for California regulators, UCSD had published studies and offered education through their Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) since 2000.
  • Okey commented that roughly 50 participants joined, having “invited over 70, almost 80 people…We received lots of positive comments, lots of directions for future conversations.” She noted it lasted 90 minutes and added, “we haven't decided on the topic for the next one. It won't always be based on cannabis. The next one will be in August.” Okey concluded by thanking Research Program staff, Research Coordinator Tyler Watson and Research Analyst Nick Glodosky (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• Board Member Pete Holmes provided insights from the roundtable before Board Chair Jim Vollendroff gave his final thoughts on the subject.
  • When Okey invited his feedback on the meeting, Holmes shared his positive assessment of the event, both in terms of quality and attendance. He stated he "got a lot from it," and was "intrigued by the questions raised” (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
    • Holmes agreed that the discussion naturally moved into the complexities surrounding different sources of cannabis for research. He emphasized their focus on the "distinction between what's federally authorized, and then the [2018] Farm Bill quandary with, with so called hemp.”
    • Holmes was also interested in replicating the UCSD reference lab “moniker” used by California officials, curious “if there's something we can't replicate here with one of our State universities." He looked forward to “subsequent installments” of the Research Roundtable.
  • Vollendroff was also encouraged by the update, thanking Okey and Holmes before looking ahead to the August roundtable. While a meeting topic had yet to be selected, he said he looked “forward to continued collaboration with our State universities and other researchers" (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).