After a busy start of the week, legislators planned to address nearly as many bills on Tuesday including the continuation of two incomplete public hearings left open on Monday.
Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Tuesday March 21st, the 72nd day of the 2023 Regular Session.
My top 3 takeaways:
- On Monday March 20th, members of the Washington State Senate Labor and Commerce Committee (WA Senate LC) hosted public hearings on two cannabis bills and recommended confirmation of all three Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) board members.
- HB 1772 - “Prohibiting products that combine alcohol and tetrahydrocannabinol.”
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- PRO: 0 + 7 - 0 = 7
- CON: 0 + 0 - 0 = 0
- OTHER: 0 + 0 - 0 = 0
- No one signed up to testify on Representative Kevin Waters’ bill intended to more explicitly ban cannabis infused alcohol products, but he offered introductory remarks which indicated he was inspired to take the proactive measure based on his own experience brewing alcohol, as a former corrections officer concerned about the mental health of Washingtonians, and springing from conversation with outgoing WSLCB Director Rick Garza.
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- HB 1563 - “Concerning arrest protections for the medical use of cannabis.”
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- PRO: 6 + 13 - 0 = 19
- CON: 0 + 4 - 0 = 4
- OTHER: 0 + 0 - 0 = 0
- The only opposition to offering all authorized medical patients equal protections from unlawful arrest was registered by “concerned citizens” and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC)---the same quasi-government, state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement advocacy organization that opposed entrusting adults to grow their own cannabis at home—but neither group was willing to testify publicly to their opposition.
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- SGA 9131 - "David Postman, Chair, Liquor and Cannabis Board"
- SGA 9317 - "James R. Vollendroff, Member, Liquor and Cannabis Board"
- SGA 9328 - "Ollie Garrett, Member, Liquor and Cannabis Board"
- Senate confirmation of the gubernatorial appointments of all three WSLCB board members was recommended by committee members, with the exception of Senator Mark Schoesler who opposed the nominations of Jim Vollendroff and Ollie Garrett.
- HB 1772 - “Prohibiting products that combine alcohol and tetrahydrocannabinol.”
- Also on Monday, members of the Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) amended and moved two controversial cannabis bills before hearing testimony on a third - but ran out of time and had to continue the hearings on two more pieces of legislation.
- SB 5080 - "Expanding and improving the social equity in cannabis program."
- Representative Kristine Reeves offered a proposed substitute and technical amendment that shored up the local control provisions in SB 5080 so the legislative authority of a city, municipality, or county would be required to formally object to license applications within their jurisdictions rather than a potential lone "representative." Her amendment would also ensure licenses issued prior to the enactment of local "density" ordinances would not be subject to objection.
- Despite the opposition of several Republican representatives (Chambers, Robertson, Walsh) the measure was recommended out of committee as rewritten.
- SB 5367 - “Concerning the regulation of products containing THC.”
- Reeves also offered substantial changes to the WSLCB request legislation on THC regulation in a proposed substitute published late on Friday March 17th. Representatives spoke frankly about the difficulty of the subject matter and their unwillingness to broker more accommodations for the hemp industry as their priority remained removal of products containing “detectable” amounts of THC from free market venues.
- Joining Jim Walsh in opposing the bill as written, Democratic Representative Melanie Morgan cited the "exclusion" of the hemp industry as justification for her “soft no” on the legislation.
- While the language shift from prohibiting products containing “any amount” of THC to “any detectable amount” was an improvement from a scientific standpoint, the uncertainty and effects introduced by that aspect of the legislation remained largely the same. In the absence of standard methods for quantitative analysis of compounds in cannabis and hemp products, different testing labs with different equipment will produce different results - potentially incentivizing lab shopping for the opposite of “potency.”
- Given our understanding that THC cannot be entirely removed from cannabis products, “detectable” levels of the compounds could presumably be identified by State testing laboratories in any hemp cannabinoid product picked up off the shelf. So the legislation as written still shifts (most? all?) hemp cannabinoid products into the more strictly regulated—and taxed—502 marketplace. In their remarks, the only consolation legislators offered to hemp cannabinoid processors, regardless of their historical business practices, was the opportunity to sell their intellectual property to a 502 processor or continue shipping products out of state.
- Presumably, hemp processors could also purchase and assume a 502 processor license.
- SB 5340 - “Regarding limits on the sale and possession of retail cannabis products.”
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- PRO: 2 + 3 - 0 = 5
- CON: 0 + 1 - 0 = 1
- OTHER: 1 + 0 - 0 = 1
- The Cannabis Alliance registered a position of “other” on the bill which they otherwise supported to suggest an amendment to normalize descriptions of serving and package sizes across product types by milligrams of THC.
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- SB 5069 - “Allowing interstate cannabis agreements.”
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- PRO: 4 + 6 - 0 = 10
- CON: 4 + 7 - 1 = 10
- OTHER: 1 + 0 - 0 = 1
- While the public hearing on the interstate commerce bill was not completed, testimony was heard from several participants. Representatives of Black Excellence in Cannabis (BEC) who had previously opposed the legislation seemed to indicate an interest in learning more about the bill and better distinguishing its implications from the x-filed out-of-state ownership bill.
- A representative from the Washington Association for Substance misuse and Violence Prevention (WASAVP) claimed a United States Department of Justice Memorandum like the Cole Memorandum was a flimsy foundation on which to build interstate commerce as those documents could be rescinded and did not carry the force of law (just the force of law enforcement).
- The hearing was scheduled for continuation at the committee meeting on Tuesday March 21st.
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- SB 5546 - “Establishing a Washington state cannabis commission.”
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- PRO: 6 + 31 - 0 = 37
- CON: 5 + 27 - 4 = 31
- OTHER: 1 + 0 - 0 = 1
- The hearing on the bill to authorize a vote to establish a cannabis commodity commission was also scheduled for continuation at the committee meeting on Tuesday.
- Positions (testifying + not testifying - duplicates = total)
- SB 5080 - "Expanding and improving the social equity in cannabis program."
- On Tuesday March 21st, legislators planned to consider eight cannabis-related bills across three committee meetings.
- On Tuesday morning, senators in WA Senate LC planned executive sessions on two bills they heard on Monday March 20th.
- Also on Tuesday morning, representatives of the Washington State House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee (WA House LAWS) would weigh amending and recommending the bill to proscribe pre-employment screening for state legal cannabis use.
- In the afternoon, the WA House RSG would meet again to continue the hearings on two bills and address three more referred for their consideration.
- Executive Session
- Public Hearing