WSLCB - Board Meeting
(April 4, 2018) - HB 2334 Implementation - CR-101

A “real quick” presentation on the implementation of HB 2334 by the Policy and Rules Coordinator included a timeline that would ultimately take months longer than predicted.

Here are some observations from the Wednesday April 4, 2018 Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Meeting.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Before a law allowing import of cannabidiol (CBD) for use as a cannabis product additive had come into effect, WSLCB staff prepared a rulemaking project for its implementation.
  • HB 2334 (“Regulating the use of cannabinoid additives in marijuana products”) was signed into law two weeks earlier, on March 21st, following an unevenly paced route to the governor’s desk - including passage by the Washington State Senate (WA Senate) in less than 24 hours.
    • The last description of the bill’s effects was provided by Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee (WA Senate WM) Revenue Counsel Alia Kennedy on March 7th.
    • The final fiscal note released on March 12th showed revenue for the law due to the addition of an $81 annual fee collected from all producer, processor, and retailer licensees was anticipated to generate $238,707 annually starting in fiscal year 2019.
  • The law would take effect almost three months after the board meeting, on July 1st, as RCW 69.50.326.
    • Section (3) of the statute established that WSLCB officials “may enact rules necessary to implement the requirements of this section” which was intended to “ensure the safety and purity of cannabidiol products used by marijuana producers and processors.”

• Policy and Rules Coordinator Joanna Eide introduced the CR-101 and described her understanding of the new law (audio - 2m, video, transcript).
  • Following a lengthy presentation on 2017 legislation, Eide said her proposal to initiate rulemaking on 2018 legislation would be “a real quick one for ya.” The “2018 Cannabis Legislation Rules” project focused entirely on implementing HB 2334, the only “cannabis legislation that passed this legislative session that requires rulemaking.”
  • There were “real complex” issues in the law, Eide told board members, like creation of “testing requirements for any CBD products that are used as additives in marijuana products within the regulated system, that are not generated from within the regulated system.”
    • CBD products “must be tested and passed testing before they can be used in the creation of marijuana products,” she stated, and the rulemaking project would work on “what those testing requirements will be for those CBD products.”
    • Eide promised to contact “our agency partners, our science partners,” industry stakeholders, as well as “certified labs.” She noted that the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) “does have some rule provisions relative to these products already,” and expected that staff would be “borrowing a lot from that.”
    • She then asked for board approval to file the CR-101, which members unanimously agreed to.

• Following board approval, Eide laid out a “tentative timeline” for the rulemaking project, which would take months longer than anticipated.
  • She described how, upon filing with the Washington State Office of the Code Reviser (WA OCR), “the end of the initial written comment period will be May 23rd.” Eide planned to present a CR-102 with proposed rules “on May 30th” and schedule a public hearing and conclusion of written comments on July 11th. If that happened, she’d ask for adoption of a CR-103 on July 25th, with the rules going into effect on August 25th, 2018.
  • The actual implementation would take longer than Eide’s estimate. A CR-102 was presented to the board on August 22nd.
    • Agency leadership subsequently talked about challenges encountered during the rulemaking effort on June 26th and August 8th.
    • One of the primary challenges turned out to be development of an accommodating workflow within the traceability system, Leaf Data Systems by MJ Freeway. At the June caucus, Eide admitted, “that's one of the complicating factors that's taking this a little bit longer than we anticipated it would, because obviously we've got our priorities with the traceability project and having to balance each of that, and figuring out how to insert these products into the traceability stream kind of at a midstream point, not from immediate like, you know, seed, plant, sort of part” (audio - 2m, transcript).
    • Eide left the WSLCB in late August 2018, prior to the completion of this and several other rulemaking projects.

Information Set