WSLCB board members would meet two new Policy and Rules Coordinators before the Social Equity in Cannabis Task Force convened to approve their final recommendations.
Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.
Monday December 5th
WA Legislature - Pre-Filing Begins
On Monday, pre-filing of bills for the 2023 session of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) was scheduled to begin.
- [ Pre-Filed Bills ]
- 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.”
- The 2023 regular session of the WA Legislature was scheduled to begin on Monday January 9th.
Tuesday December 6th
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 ]
- Policy and Rules Manager Kathy Hoffman planned to introduce two new Policy and Rules Coordinators to board members during the Tuesday caucus.
- Policy and Rules Coordinator Audrey Vasek left the agency in late September to accept a position as counsel with the Office of Program Research for the House of Representatives. Policy and Rules Coordinator Robert DeSpain left the agency in early October. On October 11th, Hoffman reported the Advertising rulemaking project would be delayed 6-8 weeks as a result.
- According to the caucus agenda, the new Policy and Rules Coordinators are:
- Cassidy West
- Daniel Jacobs
- At the beginning of his update at the November 9th Executive Management Team meeting, Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn described having made offers to two candidates for the positions, and indicated their start dates had been set for November 16th (audio - 8m, WSLCB video, TVW video).
UW ADAI - Webinar - Screening and Treating CUD in Primary Care
On Tuesday at 12pm PT, the University of Washington Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute (UW ADAI) webinar on “Screening and Treating Cannabis Use Disorder [CUD] in Primary Care” was scheduled to occur.
- [ Event Details ]
- The event website framed the webinar in this way:
- Nearly 44 million people use cannabis in the past year, and of those, 21% use cannabis daily. Frequent cannabis use increases risk of developing a cannabis use disorder (CUD), a problematic pattern of cannabis use leading to clinically significant impairment and distress. Primary care providers are ideally positioned to identify cannabis use and use disorders, provide brief interventions, and guide patients to treatment. However, CUD is under-recognized and undertreated in primary care settings. One key barrier is a lack of validated screening and assessment tools that are feasible and appropriate to use in primary care. This presentation will address the need for validated cannabis measures that perform equally well across sociodemographic subgroups and describe potential bias in current diagnosing and treatment practices.
- UW ADAI Cannabis Education and Research Program Director Bia Carlini presented findings from a draft legislative report on “High THC policy” and fielded quite a few questions during the Friday December 2nd meeting of the Washington State House Commerce and Gaming Committee (WA House COG, video).
- Carlini also organized a high THC cannabis symposium in September where she presented findings from surveys of recruited stakeholders at the event conclusion.
Wednesday December 7th
WSLCB - Board Meeting
On Wednesday at 10am PT, the bi-weekly WSLCB Board Meeting was scheduled to recur.
- [ Event Details ]
WA SECTF - Public Meeting
On Wednesday at 2pm PT, the Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis (WA SECTF) was scheduled to convene.
- [ Event Details ]
- Members planned to hear a briefing on their final legislative report and potentially take action to approve its release to legislators before its due date on Friday December 9th.
- At publication time, a contemporary draft of the report had not been published on the official website.
- During the previous meeting of the task force on October 26th, members debated a draft of the final report.
- On Wednesday November 30th, WA House COG members heard an update from task force leadership and received a handout which listed final recommendations (video).
- Members also planned to host a discussion on the WSLCB social equity bill and social equity program rules before wrapping up with any “Reflections and Closing Remarks.”
- The WA SECTF first met in October 2020. The enacting legislation defining the task force, RCW 69.50.336, was set to expire on June 30, 2023.
Thursday December 8th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.
Friday December 9th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.