WSLCB - Board Meeting
(October 28, 2020) - Summary

The WSLCB moved forward with a CR-102 proposing the establishment of Location Compliance Certificates; heard public comments on youth drug prevention and quality control (QC) testing; and confirmed the agency will only have one board meeting in November.

• Policy and Rules Coordinator Casey Schaufler proposed rules which would enable issuance of Location Compliance Certificates created by SB 6206 (Rulemaking Project, audio - 4m).
  • The CR-102 implemented a change in RCW 69.50.331(8)(e) requiring WSLCB to “issue a certificate of compliance for marijuana business applicants premises, if the premises” met all “buffer zone requirements at the time the application was filed.” Certified businesses could continue operations “notwithstanding a later-occurring, otherwise disqualifying distance factor.”
  • Schaufler said the intent of SB 6206 was to “prevent a competitor opening a business that would disqualify another marijuana entity’s license application.” He told the Board the proposal would modify WAC 314-55-020(6) to allow the agency to issue certificates for applications with premises compliant “as of the date the application was received by the LCB” and applied to “applicants granted licenses prior to the future adoption of this rule to operate their business without being affected by a future disqualifying distance factor.” Schaufler explained that staff found no associated costs, burden to the agency, nor other impacts to the application process.
  • Upon adoption of the CR-102, Board Chair Jane Rushford remarked that she was “eager to see the term marijuana go away.” She expressed her understanding that the definition was embedded in law and rule but hoped agency staff would utilize the term ‘cannabis’ when possible “as we have” (such as the revision of the agency name). Rushford concluded, “I look forward to when that term is no longer with us.”

• Two people joined the call to address board members during the general public comment period, the first asking WSLCB to cancel temporary allowances in relation to youth drug prevention efforts, and another calling to withdraw the cannabis quality control rulemaking project.
  • Megan Moore, Kitsap Public Health District Community Liaison, testified on behalf of a “statewide coalition that’s working for youth prevention.” The unnamed coalition hoped to impede “better access to marijuana, and alcohol, and tobacco products” and avoid a “decreased perception of harm for the community.” She acknowledged temporary allowances due to COVID-19 enabled “better social distancing and other public health measures” and were “probably helpful.” However, Moore believed continuation of unspecified measures “could greatly harm youth and/or decrease that perception of harm in the community” (audio - 3m).
    • Prevention advocates raised similar concerns on August 5th and September 2nd.
  • Shawn DeNae Wagenseller, Washington Bud Company Co-Owner, criticized the supplemental CR-102 for the Quality Control (QC) Testing and Product Requirements rulemaking project. “As someone who knows how to grow clean flower,” Wagenseller felt it was an “expensive rule proposal” likely to cost her business “$30,000 in mandatory testing.” But the unchanged foundation of the testing regime using “self-selected sampling” led her to believe “it’s not going to do anything to ensure safer product in Washington” and test results would “always be suspect.” She contrasted the impacts of the rulemaking on producers of usable marijuana with “growers that grow for bio-mass, that grow for the oil extraction markets, they can transfer product in bulk, in unlimited bulk numbers---untested---that can be extracted and create unlimited batch [weight] that then can be covered with one test.” Noting that the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) had been tasked “to oversee testing on cannabis” Wagenseller asked the agency to cease QC rulemaking until DOE “sets standards for testing” as they’d be more likely to have “efficacy” (audio - 3m).
    • Learn more about DOE’s Cannabis Science Task Force (CSTF).

• Executive Assistant Dustin Dickson communicated that the November 18th Special Board Meeting would be the only such meeting for the month.
  • The regularly scheduled meeting the week prior landed on Veteran’s Day, and “with the other rules timelines in place there’s not a need” to meet on November 25th. Rushford felt that the Board would “be able to accomplish a lot on the 18th” (audio - 1m).
  • A public hearing on the supplemental CR-102 for QC Testing and Product Requirements was scheduled for November 18th.

Information Set