The Week Ahead
(March 1, 2021)

Washington Cannabis Traceability Tag

Legislators prepared for a long week of virtual sessions to move bills out of their house of origin while the WSLCB convened the traceability 2.0 work group for the first time since October.

Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.

At the Washington State Legislature, initial policy and fiscal committee work in each chamber had been largely completed prior to the house of origin fiscal committee cutoff on Monday February 22nd. Leadership in rule committees pulled particular bills and packages of legislation onto their chamber’s overall list of bills, or calendar, to consider. Chamber leadership organized those bills into manageable chunks, called orders of consideration, for the entire body to debate, amend, and vote upon - and were also empowered to pull additional bills out of rule committees. This phase of the Legislature’s work, churning through bills dynamically selected by leadership, would continue through the house of origin cutoff on Tuesday March 9th at 5pm PT. So while few cannabis-related events were listed in advance this week, we expect several cannabis-related bills may be selected for consideration by the full membership in their houses of origin throughout the week.

Monday March 1st

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events scheduled.

Tuesday March 2nd

On Tuesday at 12:30pm PT, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Traceability 2.0 Work Group was scheduled to convene.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • Convening for the first time since October at the request of WSLCB, no agenda was provided to the industry representatives on the work group. However, at the last meeting Deputy Director Megan Duffy indicated the group would be reconvened once the agency had time to pull together a draft proposal and timeline for next steps on traceability in Washington state.
  • Separately, the third-party traceability software integrators met this past Thursday February 25th---also for the first time since October---and learned that WSLCB staff were rolling out a minor fix to a licensing data feed which had plagued vendors for more than a year. They also learned that Mary Mueller, the long-time WSLCB Chief Information Officer (CIO) who was a primary agency lead during both the BioTrackTHC and Leaf Data Systems traceability eras, was wrapping things up to move on to a private sector job.

On Tuesday, the weekly WSLCB Board Caucus was cancelled.

Wednesday March 3rd

On Wednesday, the bi-weekly WSLCB Board Meeting was cancelled.

Thursday March 4th

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events scheduled.

Friday March 5th

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events scheduled.

2021 Legislative Session - Cannabis-related Bills - Active (10)

House of Origin Cutoff is Tuesday March 9th at 5pm PT.

  • HB 1105 - “Concerning arrest protections for the medical use of cannabis.”
  • HB 1210 - ‘Replacing the term "marijuana" with the term "cannabis" throughout the Revised Code of Washington.’
    • Sponsors (14): Morgan, Peterson, Kloba, J. Johnson, Ryu, Santos, Ortiz-Self, Ormsby, Simmons, Gregerson, Riccelli, Macri, Frame, Harris-Talley
    • Last Step: executive session in WA House COG on Friday January 29th
    • Next Step: calendaring by WA House RUL or chamber
  • HB 1443 - "Concerning social equity within the cannabis industry."
  • SB 5004 - “Providing a tax exemption for medical marijuana patients.”
    • Sponsors (8): Keiser, Warnick, Conway, Das, King, Kuderer, Saldaña, C. Wilson
    • Last Step: executive session in WA Senate WM on Wednesday February 17th
    • Next Step: calendaring by WA Senate RULE or chamber
  • SB 5035 - “Concerning offender scoring of drug offenses.”
    • Sponsors (18): Dhingra, Nguyen, Billig, Carlyle, Darneille, Das, Hasegawa, Kuderer, Liias, Lovelett, Mullet, Pedersen, Rolfes, Saldaña, Salomon, Stanford, Wellman, C. Wilson
    • Previously: passed by WA Senate on Thursday February 25th
    • Last Step: pro forma first reading and referral to WA House PS on Saturday February 27th
    • Next Step: public hearing in WA House PS
  • SB 5129 - “Concerning the possession of vapor, vapor products, tobacco, and tobacco products by minors.”
    • Sponsors (6): Saldaña, Darneille, Nguyen, Nobles, Stanford, C. Wilson
    • Last Step: executive session in WA Senate HSRR on Friday January 29th
    • Next Step: calendaring by WA Senate RULE or chamber
  • SB 5327 - “Creating a confidential youth safety and well-being tip line.”
    • Sponsors (7): Brown, Frockt, Lovelett, Rivers, Short, Warnick, Wellman
    • Previously: passed by WA Senate on Thursday February 25th
    • Last Step: pro forma first reading and referral to WA House CYF
    • Next Step: public hearing in WA House CYF
  • SB 5361 - “Concerning the resentencing of persons convicted of drug offenses.”
    • Sponsors (3): McCune, Warnick, J. Wilson
    • Last Step: executive session in WA Senate LAW on Monday February 15th
    • Next Step: calendaring by WA Senate RULE or chamber
  • SB 5372 - "Concerning a hemp processor registration process."
    • Sponsors (6): Stanford, Warnick, Conway, Hasegawa, Saldaña, J. Wilson
    • Last Step: executive session in WA Senate AWNP on Thursday February 4th
    • Next Step: calendaring by WA Senate RULE or chamber
  • NEW SB 5468 - “Concerning knowing possession of a controlled substance.”
    • Sponsors (2): Mullet, Hobbs
    • Next Step: pro forma first reading and referral to WA Senate LAW on Monday March 1st
    • This bill was introduced after the Washington State Supreme Court decision in State of Washington v. Shannon B. Blake (No. 96873-0) which invalidated the State’s strict liability drug possession statute in RCW 69.50.4013 as discussed in the Court opinions.

2021 Legislative Session - Cannabis-related Bills - Inactive (9)

  • HB 1019 - “Allowing residential marijuana agriculture.”
  • HB 1260 - “Concerning the development of the marijuana market.”
    • Last Step: pro forma first reading and referral to WA House COG on Monday January 18th
  • HB 1345 - “Concerning the regulation of products sold to adults age 21 and over.”
  • HB 1414 - “Aligning marijuana licensing decisions by the liquor and cannabis board with local zoning ordinances.”
  • HB 1463 - “Addressing serious mental health consequences of high-potency cannabis products by regulating the sale of cannabis concentrates.”
  • HB 1499 - “Providing behavioral health system responses to individuals with substance use disorder.”
  • SB 5266 - “Concerning the regulation of products sold to adults age 21 and over.”
  • SB 5365 - “Establishing a Washington state cannabis commission.”
  • SB 5388 - “Concerning social equity within the cannabis industry.”
    • Companion: HB 1443 (active)
    • Last Step: pro forma first reading and referral to WA Senate LCTA on Friday January 29th