Three cannabis bills were passed in their house of origin on Tuesday, while on Wednesday senators could pull up to six cannabis bills out of Rules and potentially take action on interstate.
Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Wednesday March 1st, the 52nd day of the 2023 Regular Session.
My top 3 takeaways:
- On Tuesday February 28th, legislators passed three cannabis bills in their respective chambers.
- SB 5080 - "Expanding and improving the social equity in cannabis program."
- In the late afternoon on Tuesday, senators brought the social equity bill up for its second reading and applied two substantial amendments that had reportedly been worked very hard amongst stakeholders and across the aisle.
- Prime sponsor Senator Rebecca Saldaña offered an amendment which would enshrine local override via written objection “based on a preexisting local ordinance limiting outlet density in a specific geographic area.” The amendment would also delay the issuance of 10 producer licenses until January 2025 and mandated a market study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) due in June 2025.
- Democratic Senator Mark Mullet, who voted against the bill in fiscal committee, offered an amendment which “Requires the Liquor and Cannabis Board to adopt rules establishing a threshold of the number of licenses created in the Social Equity in Cannabis Program that can be located in each county.”
- Both amendments were incorporated into the engrossed bill which was voted out of the chamber 32-15 with 2 excused.
- SB 5405 - "Modifying the liquor and cannabis board's subpoena authority."
- Immediately after the passage of the social equity legislation, senators took up prime sponsor Curtis King’s “much easier” bill granting WSLCB subpoena authority for cannabis investigations. It was unanimously passed with two excused.
- HB 1772 - "Prohibiting products that combine alcohol and tetrahydrocannabinol."
- During a house session which ran very late into the night, representatives passed legislation further prohibiting cannabis infused alcohol products. Representatives Caldier, Morgan, and Rude voted against the legislation.
- All three bills would be introduced into the opposite chambers for consideration by peer legislators.
- SB 5080 - "Expanding and improving the social equity in cannabis program."
- On Wednesday March 1st, the Washington State House of Representatives (WA House) and the Washington State Senate (WA Senate) planned to reconvene to read, debate, amend, and vote on bills.
- After their late night, WA House members decided to reconvene at 10:30am PT instead of 9am as previously planned. At publication time, no cannabis bills had been advanced to the house floor calendar, but representatives had displayed a willingness to relieve the Washington State House Rules Committee (WA House RUL) of further consideration by pulling bills to their calendar directly from the floor.
- WA Senate members planned to convene at 9am PT. At publication time, one cannabis bill had been advanced to the senate floor calendar:
- SB 5069 - “Allowing interstate cannabis agreements.”
- At publication time, there were no published floor amendments on the bill.
- SB 5069 - “Allowing interstate cannabis agreements.”
- Also on Wednesday at 1:15pm PT, the Washington State Senate Rules Committee (WA Senate RULE) planned to meet to pull additional bills to the Senate floor calendar.
- Members would likely accept two packages of bills bundled by leadership and exercise two individual pulls from the 328 bills on the committee White Sheet.
- At publication time, 6 cannabis bills were assigned to WA Senate RULE:
- SB 5340 - “Regarding limits on the sale and possession of retail cannabis products.”
- SB 5363 - “Concerning cannabis retailer advertising.”
- SB 5367 - “Concerning the regulation of products containing THC.”
- SB 5376 - “Allowing the sale of cannabis waste.”
- SB 5377 - “Concerning cannabis license ownership.”
- SB 5546 - “Establishing a Washington state cannabis commission.”