WSLCB - Board Caucus
(November 10, 2020) - In Brief

WSLCB - Media Bias
[ Event Details ]

Board Member Russ Hauge expressed his concern about coverage of the WSLCB’s BIPOC engagements and the Social Equity in Cannabis Task Force which he felt assumed “the LCB engaged in discriminatory if not racist practices during the initial round of licensing.”

  • Board Member Ollie Garrett, the WSLCB’s representative to the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis, was not present at this caucus. Garrett helped pass HB 2870 and represented the Board during the agency’s three BIPOC engagements.
  • Hauge dedicated his weekly update “to express a concern that is not overwhelming but I think it’s something, well, it's caught my attention." While prefacing that he “absolutely” supported social equity efforts undertaken by the WSLCB (“particularly in cannabis”), “I have to express a concern...in the coverage of these efforts, the theme seems to be emerging that it is a given that the LCB engaged in discriminatory if not racist practices during the initial round of licensing.” He continued, “Now I was not here for that---the initial round---I came just after that and I see no evidence of that” and conveyed “I do want to go on record as saying that I'm not prepared to accept the label that we have been purposely discriminatory in our practices” (audio - 3m).
  • Chair Jane Rushford thanked him for his comments and replied that “I believe the effort needs to be universal” across the agency’s licensing processes. She felt “the road ahead calls upon all of us to look differently at the opportunities” and agreed that “there was nothing deliberate in our past” (audio - 3m).
  • Hauge concluded, “I agree with you wholeheartedly that there is a LOT of work to do to address equity issues across the board particularly in our little area. My concern is that we start out under a cloud that we did not create and with a burden that we don't really deserve, at least the staff doesn't here at the LCB, they've been working hard to do the right thing by all my points of information.”

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