2022 legislative session preparations continue as pre-filing of bills begins on Wednesday, interim actions were wrapped up, and required reports filed.
Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.
Monday November 29th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.
Tuesday November 30th
WSDA - Work Group - Pesticide Penalties
The planned second meeting of the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Pesticide Penalties Work Group was cancelled.
- [ Event Details, Rulemaking Project ]
- The work group first convened on November 23rd and had originally planned to convene again on Tuesday November 30th. Following the initial meeting, participants requested more time to provide substantive feedback. The group planned to convene again on December 14th.
- During the first meeting, participants introduced themselves; heard background on the rulemaking effort; reviewed “other state’s rules and matrices, for a comparison”; and considered a “WSDA proposal for a ‘Base’ penalty concept for human exposure & other violations.”
WSLCB - Board Caucus
On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.
- [ Event Details ]
Wednesday December 1st
WA Legislature - Pre-Filing Begins
On Wednesday December 1st, pre-filing of bills for the 2022 session of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) begins.
- [ Pre-Filed Bills ]
- In Washington state, members of the WA Legislature “can prefile bills for introduction in the month before session begins. Prefiled bills are officially introduced the first day of the session.”
JLARC - Committee Meeting
On Wednesday at 10am PT, the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) was scheduled to convene.
- [ Event Details ]
- Amidst a busy agenda, legislator members would take action on the 2021 tax preference reviews undertaken by JLARC staff and following upon review and comment by the Washington State Citizen Commission for Performance Measurement of Tax Preferences.
- In 2021, the legislative auditors undertook a review of medical cannabis tax preferences, concluding that “The Legislature should continue the preferences because they provide tax relief to medical cannabis patients” and “The Department of Revenue and the Department of Health [DOH] should update guidance to reflect 2019 statutory changes.”
- On October 21st, DOH Office of Health Professions Director Martin Pittioni provided a briefing to Washington State House Commerce and Gaming Committee (WA House COG) members on the agency’s medical cannabis program during which he discussed the DOH response to the JLARC review of tax preferences on compliant products. Department staff encoded this position as a policy statement the following day.
WSLCB - Alcohol Advisory Council
On Wednesday at 1:30pm PT, the WSLCB Alcohol Advisory Council was scheduled to convene.
- [ Event Details ]
- While not cannabis-related, the WSLCB Alcohol Advisory Council was structured and served similar functions as the agency Cannabis Advisory Council, providing an occasional forum for selected representatives from each sector to convene publicly with the board and agency staff. Aside from information sharing, the councils were imbued with no authority nor charter.
- On October 19th, Board Chair David Postman precipitated a conversation about the status of the advisory councils---including the defunct Tribal Advisory Council---and all of the sponsoring board members were interested in revising the purpose of these groups as if from "a clean sheet of paper" (video). The agenda for the December 1st meeting included 15 minutes for “Discussion of Future Meetings.”
- In addition, WSLCB Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jim Morgan would provide an update on the Systems Modernization Project (SMP), presumably touching upon the nearly $18M budget request filed by the agency to continue implementation of the project.
Thursday December 2nd
WA Governor Council on Health Disparities - Public Meeting
On Thursday at 9am PT, the Washington State Governor’s Council on Health Disparities (WA Governor Council on Health Disparities) was scheduled to convene.
- [ Event Details ]
- Convening for the first time since September 2nd, the entity responsible for staffing and hosting the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF) would hear an update from Manager Anzhane Slaughter (presentation).
- Slaughter provided an update to WA House COG members on November 18th (video).
Friday December 3rd
DOH - RFI 26607 - Questions Due
On Friday at 3pm PT, questions for staff at the DOH about efforts to re-procure a medical cannabis patient registration system were due.
- [ RFI 26607 ]
- Shortly after the October 21st presentation by DOH to WA House COG members which featured some information derived from the registered patient database, agency staff published a new request for information (RFI) to begin the process of re-procuring the medical cannabis patient registration system.
- Following receipt and “To the extent possible, answers will be consolidated and answered in an Amendment to this RFI that is published on the Department’s website and on WEBS on or about December 17, 2021.”