WSLCB - Board Meeting
(April 12, 2023) - Environmental Pesticide Action

Pausing emergency rulemaking which would lower action levels for some pesticides didn’t preclude public comments critical of the approach taken by agency staff to the overall situation.

Here are some observations from the Wednesday April 12th Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Meeting.

My top 3 takeaways:

• Board members postponed emergency rulemaking for refinement; Director of Enforcement and Education Chandra Wax detailed the investigation, announcement of potential contamination of cannabis products with dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), and the administrative holds placed on 18 cannabis licenses.
  • Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a pesticide once common in Washington agricultural sectors, was banned by the federal government in 1972 over environmental and health concerns including negative impacts on humans. Since then, studies have indicated the compound, along with remnant product DDE, have had a lingering and documented history of contamination of fish, waterways, and soil in the state. Officials continue to warn the public about DDT, as well as regulate it at the state and local levels. Find out more about the impact of, and public policy around, DDT, DDE, and Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (DDD):
    • DDT In Soil: Guidance for the Assessment of Health Risk to Humans (1992)
    • Agricultural Chemicals and Cigarette Additives (1996)
    • The Bioremediation and Phytoremediation of Pesticide-contaminated sites (2000)
    • Guidance for Industry: Action Levels for DDT in Human Food and Animal Feed (2000)
    • DDT and DDE: Sources of Exposure and How to Avoid Them (2004)
    • Model Toxics Control Act Regulation and Statute (2013)
    • Remediation of DDT and Its Metabolites in Contaminated Sediment (2015)
    • Guidance for Evaluating Cases of Detection of DDT on Commodities that are not Covered by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Action (2016)
    • DDT Was Banned Decades Ago. Why Is It Still Detectable in These Women? (2020)
    • Bioremediation of Agricultural Soils Polluted with Pesticides: A Review (2021)
    • Environmental factors influencing DDT–DDE spatial distribution in an agricultural drainage system determined by using machine learning techniques (2023)
  • On April 6th, Director of Enforcement and Education Chandra Wax distributed an announcement to all licensees titled “Notice of Pesticide Contamination in Region of Okanogan County” indicating that random pesticide samples revealed the presence of DDE. Additionally, “18 licensees in the geographical area” within Okanogan County had been placed under an administrative hold while officials tested products to determine whether any had DDE traces above default action levels. The issue was broadly discussed at the prior day’s board caucus and later in the day the agency published planned emergency rules putting DDT, DDE, and DDD action levels at 0.00 parts per million (ppm), less than all action levels in rule. Staff also proposed new definitions and requirements related to “Cannabis production in areas affected by DDT and its breakdown derivatives.”
    • At time of publication, pesticides without specific action levels in rule were limited to 0.1ppm.
  • During the board meeting, Chair David Postman proposed “that we're not ready to adopt” the emergency rules because the concept “needs another look by all of us, as well as key staff.” He had questions over the region they’d identified in their April 6th announcement, and “about the extent of what the emergency rules do. We're still waiting on soil testing; so there's a lot of things in the air.” Postman was increasingly aware of the implications for licensees, and he wanted agency leaders to “take a look at everything before we make this decision.” Board Member Jim Vollendroff indicated that “I have read every single” comment on the matter sent to him and was receptive to taking longer to “think about some of the questions that were brought up and…think about the final decision.” Board Member Ollie Garrett also agreed with the pause, while Postman mentioned meetings he’d have later that week to “hear from [licensees] more directly” (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Wax began by explaining that WSLCB “conducts two types of tests on cannabis: quality control [QC] tests collected by licensees and submitted to state certified labs, and random samples collected by LCB staff and submitted to” Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) labs. QC testing was limited to compounds with explicit pesticide action levels in rule, whereas “WSDA labs’ random test…samples for 243 pesticides,” inclusive of DDT and DDE, she noted  (audio - 8m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
    • “On March 1st, 2023 the LCB received four results for random pesticide test showing levels of DDE in cannabis foliage” above the 0.1ppm limit for pesticides not listed in rules, Wax said, stating the results showed cannabis “above action limits at 0.17 parts per million, 0.19 parts per million, and 0.23 parts per million.” Because staff “recalled previous test results positive for DDE” from January 2023 which she told the board “had been referred to officers for investigation and reflected DDE levels above action limits,” officials began looking for a connection. “Further research into tests conducted in the immediately surrounding area identified two September 2022 samples with DDE results above that action limit and both were at 0.14 parts per million.”
      • “While we were conducting this research and looking into these tests it should also be noted that other test results came back from this area during the same time period containing DDE at less than action limits,” Wax relayed, specifying results of “0.079 parts per million, 0.009 parts per million, 0.036 parts per million 0.066, parts per million and 0.077 parts per million. And one test had no evidence of DDE.”
      • See 26 positive DDE/DDT lab certificates of analysis (COAs) reported by WSDA between 2017 and February 2023.
    • Wax reported that agency officials had reached out to the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) “to review cleanup locations in the region” along with “historic results with DDE detections from the WSDA lab looking at any DDE detections we'd received over the past few years. Eight of the nine additional detections of DDE were traced back to the same area” they’d “defined as a five-mile stretch of land along the south end of the Okanogan River just north of Lake Pateros.” This included nine “cannabis foliage and concentrate“ samples she said officials had “collected between 2019 and 2021,” of which five samples were above action levels. For products testing above DDE action levels, Wax explained that an administrative hold had been placed on the licensee and a “recall was conducted.”
    • Then on April 5th, Wax remarked that staff received a “toxicologist report calculating the risk threshold for DDE, DDD, and DDT at the reported 0.1 [ppm] action limit with a cumulative cancer risk in excess of one excess cancer case in a population of 100,000 individuals.” She said staff began working with DOE, WSDA, “and other advisers to…develop a plan considering public health and safety, communication with our licensees; consistency with rule and past incidents; and the overall well-being of the industry.” This included standard policies to put impacted licensees under administrative holds, “requesting a licensee initiated recall, and requesting product distribution records,” Wax added. “The plan identified steps to notify nearby licensees of the potential pattern…as well as request distribution records and soil, water, and product testing of each licensee in the identified area,” she said, in addition to the “Rules and Policy team’s intent to develop an emergency rule and initiate long-term rulemaking to work with the industry and subject matter experts to address future concerns about DDE, DDD, and DDT and cannabis products.”
    • The same day the announcement was sent out to all licensees, Wax and an Enforcement captain contacted “each of the five licensed locations with 2023 samples revealing DDE levels to inform them of the test results,” the administrative hold, “and request for a licensee initiated recall.” She mentioned 13 licensees without excess levels of DDT in their samples were notified by email that they were also being placed under administrative holds pending water and soil sample testing by DOE staff.
    • Between April 6th and 10th—after all licensees and public officials had received the announcement about the holds—Wax described how agency representatives “located and purchased” cannabis products from all “18 licensees and delivered the product to the WSDA lab for testing.” Results were “expected within 7 to 14 days.”
    • “In addition, LCB staff are setting up four meetings that will happen over the next few days, one with our State certified labs, one with impacted licenses, one with our trade associations, and one with partner agencies,” announced Wax. The previous day, staff “visited each of the license locations in the impacted area to conduct product testing. Samples were collected at seven of the 18 locations; the other 11 locations didn't have any material on site.” She said these test results were also expected to be received by WSLCB leaders within one to two weeks. DOE officials also collected water and soil samples from all licensees placed under an administrative hold: “Test results for water will be returned in 7 to 14 days, and the test for soil will be returned in approximately 30 days.” Wax further noted that four of the five recalls had been undertaken by licensees with product results over action levels and “we will focus our efforts in the coming days on ensuring the contaminated products are properly recalled.”
    • “We recognize the significant impact this has on licensees and the risk this poses to the public,” Wax argued, insisting WSLCB leadership had been “acting responsibly, swiftly, and intentionally. Our goal is to ensure cannabis products are safe, and licensees and stakeholders are informed as updates are available.”
  • Garrett voiced her appreciation for a “very detailed process and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of this once we get results back and meet with the people…that's involved” (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Postman had Wax confirm that they had sufficient authority to conduct testing and place the administrative holds. She replied that the “action we've taken thus far is where we have confirmed DDE” (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
    • He also checked on the timeline for product test results to be received from WSDA, and when they would have confirmation of the fifth licensee’s voluntary recall (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW). In the event the business didn’t voluntarily comply, Wax said she would “bring to the board a request for a board initiated recall” (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Vollendroff praised Wax and staff “for the information and the transparency in what we're doing here” which he called “really important” (audio - <1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

• 29 people offered public comments, the vast majority related to the environmental pesticide action, and most of those comments came from the owners and staff of one of the licenses under administrative hold.
  • Employees, investors, and owners of Walden Cannabis came out in force to object to the short notice and lack of transparency before agency staff disrupted their business operations and livelihoods over the legacy environmental pesticide.
    • Gene Hainey, Sales Manager (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Shayla Pfeiffer (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Corey Bittner, Administrative Manager (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Bittner shared his “profound frustration and disappointment with response by the LCB regarding this potential DDE contamination at our farm,” objecting to an “investigation which has been conducted in secret without…involvement of the producer/processors that are being targeted” which he believed rested “upon a series of scientific misunderstandings the result of which is a proposed strong arm resolution that will ruin lives and close highly taxed businesses.” He argued that the response outlined by agency leaders demonstrated “the invalidity of the entire process” by acknowledging that “potentially contaminated products [sat] on shelves for months, if not years. By their own admission the LCB has known about this potential contamination for at least the six months while the investigation was ongoing, if not much longer by some reports.”
      • Bittner stated that they didn’t give operations like his an opportunity to cooperate “until after the decision to shutter our business was made.” This might have left consumers with dangerous products and was “completely unacceptable for a public service entrusted to regulate cannabis and keep consumers safe,” he said. Additionally, the citation “left our workers and their families in turmoil wondering if they would still have a job to come back to” and he believed the Walden Cannabis reputation was “in tatters due to the LCB treating producer/processors like villains instead of unaware citizens.”
      • Bittner had more questions about their investigation, and pointed out that “despite a delay in a decision [on emergency rules] today, our farms still remain[ed] arbitrarily closed,” and he asked for their staff to be a part of the “processes moving forward to ensure transparency and fairness.” He concluded that the company was “committed to finding a resolution to this issue and to ensure the safety of our community, and the continuation of our business filled with hard working, real people.”
    • Ray March (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • March told the board their company was “trying to feed the ground the best organic practices possible and we're getting penalized for prior practices.” He noted DDT had once been promoted as useful for agriculture, expressing amazement “that the ones who are trying to repair the damages and not use these chemicals are the ones being affected by it today.”
      • March hoped they could work with WSLCB, feeling “they're not even taking into consideration…the lives of the people” working for a business under administrative hold. He also wanted more transparency, worried the way agency leaders had handled potential contamination meant licensees were “going to constantly look at the LCB as an enemy if they're not going to work alongside” businesses.
      • March said their company was “trying to follow the scientific guidelines on what has been used in the past as far as tobacco and all the other crops that are out there” and appreciated the board taking longer to look at the impact of emergency rules. He believed his coworkers were among those “who want to take care of the land, and take care of their people that are around them” by earning a living.
      • One “effect of this untimely decision" was that their employees were filing for unemployment to support their families, March added that he was among those on unemployment, relying on the government rather than working and paying taxes, saying “I can express all day how Walden has helped the community, but that would take more than just four minutes. So, I just want to thank Walden Cannabis for doing what they do.”
    • Benjamin Cottrell (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Opposing the tabled emergency rules, Cottrell stated that the actions taken by the board "lack[ed] a solid foundation" and weren’t in keeping with federal guidance on DDE levels in products. “Moreover, the implementation of this ruling would have severe consequences on employment and the livelihoods of many individuals,” he said, attesting to the “complete compliance and transparency throughout the course of this investigation” by Walden Cannabis staff.
      • Cottrell mentioned that “since the collection of the initial test samples, I have been in communication with the compliance consultants to inquire about the implications of these tests and their subsequent results on our company. At no point during the discussion was it ever apparent to me or told to me that we would possibly potentially be shut down.” He didn’t see it as appropriate for an agency “tasked with setting guidelines in ensuring public safety and health to conduct an investigation in such a discrete manner which not only jeopardizes public health, but also affects the livelihoods of numerous individuals and employees.” Cottrell wanted any rule development to “take into account the potential consequences for both public health and the livelihood of those involved in this industry.”
    • Christina Ackerman (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Brian Sheehan, Farm Manager (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Miles Boyd, Extract Manager (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • With no cannabis industry experience prior to Walden Cannabis, Boyd was proud of the career he’d made and that "everybody here is my friend.” He said they were "given no time to prepare for this change, and even less time to defend ourselves" once they’d been included in the administrative hold by WSLCB.
      • Boyd was skeptical about some research indicating DDE was dangerous at the levels reported by the agency, but was open to “another discussion about how many parts per million.” He felt no detectable amount of the compound was impractical since DDT was a “chemical that’s been in the dirt for the last 50 years, one with a half-life of about 200 days, which is 90 times past its expiration date.”
      • He personally wouldn’t agree to end “thousands” of jobs in the area “unless I was 100% sure there was a reason, and based on what they put forth I don't think the reason is strong enough.” Boyd felt the alleged emergency was over “arbitrary decimal points that in other industries would be passed over or ignored.”
    • Bailey Glass (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Greg Shiels (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Richard Funk (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Elijah Roque (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
    • Bron Taylor (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • “20 years ago I was appointed the Samuel Hill Eminent Chair of Christian Ethics at the University of Florida, more importantly I’m the father of the co-founders of Walden Cannabis,” explained Bron, mentioning how he’d taught about applying ethics in “difficult moral decisions.” This included situations where “facts are not clear, and how to consider risks and benefits in difficult cases,” he commented. Sympathetic to the challenges regulators faced, he knew his children valued “providing the quality and healthy product” and hadn’t used pesticides, as well as growing outdoors “in order to minimize carbon footprints from their business.”
      • Bron further argued they cared about their staff and didn’t want to see people lose their jobs. Should DDE be “found in unhealthy levels in their products,” the licensees would “readily agree” to a product recall, he said, but they processed cannabis “which come from both their and other farms,” and he didn’t want them punished for another producer’s contaminated crop.
      • “Of course, you ought not to take the words of those you are charged to regulate at face value,” but “it is a moral imperative to listen carefully and fairly to them and others in the industry” about the problem before acting. Bron then referred to all the employees enjoying “long-standing, good paying careers with health benefits” thanks to his children’s work, but “if the board does not quickly moderate this administrative hold…this company will quickly be out of business and others also.”
    • Neil Juneja, Gleam Law Managing Partner (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Counsel for Walden Cannabis, Juneja believed agency officials had exercised an "emotional response to a scientific question" and that federal tobacco limits for “safe” amounts of DDE were four times higher than the action level for the chemical in Washington rule. Calling the “farms implicated…effectively the bread basket of cannabis in the state of Washington,” he posited that closing the farms already on administrative hold could impact a “substantial majority of products on every shelf in the entire industry…we're implicating a decimation of the industry as a whole.”
      • In the time since WSLCB staff had not shared any evidence that Walden Cannabis had products with DDE above action levels, Juneja said that he’d heard about the issue while in Germany and was facing questions from national news outlets. He hoped to see scientific evidence from the agency soon instead of further showcasing “what not to do correctly, and that's what we're looking like right now.”
    • Sagar Ghangro, Sales Executive (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Having seven years experience in the cannabis industry, Ghangro echoed others’ gratitude for the delay in rulemaking, but said as someone whose role in the industry depended on building relationships, “the way that this was introduced to the entire industry and the public...it had really damaging effects.” Even if the hold on their operations was lifted, “that doesn't mean we're gonna be able to come back from that and have the exact careers that we have. We're talking about…long-term career damage here.”
      • Additionally, he believed trying to enforce no detectable level of DDE would put even more producers out of business. Ghangro felt an implication of shuttering producers on these grounds was “we risk raising that price” for consumers. He wanted more collaboration between the agency and industry in a way that wasn’t “combative.”
    • Anders Taylor, Co-Founder and CEO (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Taylor hoped the cannabis sector wouldn’t behave “like the tobacco industry” and suggested “using EPA guidance as it relates to the science behind what the standards are for health.” He interpreted agency staff as having previously detected DDE in cannabis products, but “because the board saw a few results that were higher than that consecutively, it led to a decision that I don't think was very well considered.”
      • Taylor indicated that the Enforcement captain notifying his business about the hold had no information “to provide me about how the decision was come to, or what the decision was being based upon. Furthermore, he didn't have any test results to share with me at the time,” nor when Taylor followed up with Wax who told him “we went from one ppms up to two ppms” which justified their regulatory hold on their company. Based on other DDE test results he’d seen, he found the highest results were “back to the middle of 2020.” The notification of the hold arrived “on Thursday evening right before Easter weekend…I was very distraught,” Taylor told the board, and made the call not to plant at any of his facilities.
      • He implored board members to “reconsider this broad administrative hold beyond just the Everett facility and consider swiftly acting to move towards tobacco guidelines so that we can make some decisions about what to do in the spring.”
    • Kelsey Taylor, Chief Operations Officer (audio - 3m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW)
      • Reiterating that the administrative hold was placed on their license before the agency showed any DDE test results above action levels, Taylor acknowledged, “I do appreciate you delaying this unscientific and fear-based emergency rulemaking.” However, she felt that the original announcement by the agency had implicated all affected businesses as having products test above action levels, when that wasn’t the case “and you had to walk that statement back on Monday.”
      • She felt the decisions of agency leaders up to that point had “lacked an understanding of our supply chain and the relevant science, no doubt because there were no conversations ahead of time with us.” Even assuming good intentions, she confirmed the actions taken by WSLCB had been damaging, and “your statement about having done recalls on licensees from previous tests above action limits does not comport with the facts.” 
      • Taylor looked forward to meeting with the board to discuss the situation and testing practices further. “I still have not been able to get the test results, despite calling you incessantly since Friday, despite calling the governor's office, despite calling my legislators; I have not been able to get the COAs, and I don't know why,” she added. 
    • Ben Huff, Co-Founder (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Several other individuals talked about the way leaders had handled the investigations and announcement of DDE contamination; all supported the hold on emergency rules:
    • Jim MacRae, Straight Line Analytics (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Grateful that the board was not pursuing and “not acting in what I really believed to be prematurely” on emergency rules, MacRae encouraged swift release of the toxicology report cited by Wax. He was also curious whether the report was solicited by WSLCB leaders, or had been published independently.
      • “This is very likely the last time I will address the group as a group,” he said, “and thank you as well for reaffirming my faith in this emerging new board.” He’d felt better since Postman had joined the board, and called the situation evidence they wouldn’t “rubber stamp” something on the advice of staff. MacRae wanted to follow up with members individually, regarding “transparency in the sunshine act” and a “strong suggestion of ethnic bias in hiring and positioning practices within your agency…It's like one really stunning case.” He then wanted to speak with Vollendroff regarding “risk benefit balance at the agency between prevention and medicinality,” but overall praised the direction of the board.
    • Burl Bryson, The Cannabis Alliance Executive Director (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Bryson seconded others who were grateful for the pause in emergency rulemaking and was eager to see more COAs for the implicated products and areas: “this information should be made available to the industry.”
      • He then advised the agency to “prioritize testing with the WSDA...I know that there was a piece of equipment that went down last year and resources were diverted towards testing hops versus testing cannabis which resulted in the backlog which is why we're only now being notified about results that were from last year's crop in August and September.” He understood “the equipment's back online” and there was adequate staff to work through the backlog.
      • Bryson asked for available funds to go towards cannabis testing as soon as possible for the benefit of the public and licensees. “I would also like to encourage that funds to be made available for at least the two preeminent…labs, Confidence [Analytics] and Medicine Creek, to be able to spin up a testing program as well…it will take some time, and certainly some dollars for these private labs to get up to speed” which could be supplemented with funding from WSLCB. Bryson encouraged DDE be added to pesticide rules for cannabis QC testing and work with other agencies so that “science dictate[d] the actions that are taken,” inclusive of the fact that “any rules around zero detect[ions] are not laboratorily possible.” He advised adopting the federal DDE standard for tobacco products of 4 ppm.
    • Kinyon Kaye, Stone Age Joints CEO (audio - 5m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Having worked with Walden Cannabis and other Okanogan County farms, Kaye was shocked by the WSLCB announcement because “the Washington state cannabis industry has long relied on products from the Okanogan area just as the United States has long relied on that area for agriculture such as apples and cattle.” He had remarks on DDE, but felt it would be a “regurgitation of facts, which you already know.”
      • He wanted regulators to “provide a clear and equitable plan for these licenses to stay operating in some capacity.” Kaye hoped to see a “somewhat lenient, but periodically decreasing testing limit for DDE…established based on the standards of other industries such as tobacco, and not based on some arbitrary limit.” This arrangement might impact his business, but “it's a mere drop in the bucket compared to the potential loss of livelihood which our Okanogan partners may soon face.”
      • He wasn’t trying to conflate licensee “financial risks to those of public safety, but to ask you to acknowledge this: if this issue is worth shutting licenses down, you are also admitting that the due diligence to grant licenses in this area was not performed” by regulators. Stating that the ban on DDE “predates my parents’ births,” he felt that since there was no way for licensees to test for DDE through accredited cannabis laboratories, that state officials needed to be more proactive since “hundreds of families around the states who have built their lives of these facilities will be out of work” under the proposed actions of the board.
      • Kaye anticipated that WSLCB “will likely receive backlash regardless of the next actions. Tens of thousands of consumers have already ingested the products…Whether it be a branded product for one of these farms, or an end product created by a third-party processor, I estimate that this reach is far greater than just the simple 18 licenses affected.” Despite agency representatives having some test results in August 2022, “licenses were only notified the day that they were being shut down,” and he wanted WSLCB staff to “work through this issue tactfully rather than take a nuclear approach to an issue, which is clearly not an emergency for 50 years.” He concluded that the “general public will continue to consume DDE through other sources” since the state’s “residual pesticide problem is not isolated to DDE, cannabis, or the Okanogan Valley.” 
    • Jeremy Moberg, Washington Sun and Craft Growers Association (WSCA) Board Member and CannaSol Farms Owner​​ (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Moberg stated that the communications approach by WSLCB “cast a wide net" over Okanogan County, which he said “branded itself as a cannabis producer and a lot of people started getting calls associated with this investigation that had nothing to do with it.” He appreciated Wax calling it an “eastern Washington” problem as that seemed more accurate. “Communications are important when it comes to these matters and can have long-lasting effects on companies,” Moberg remarked, promising the WSCA members wanted to work with the agency on the issue.
    • Micah Sherman, WSCA Board Member and Raven Co-Owner (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Sherman was also glad that the emergency rules were delayed, and emphasized how WSCA members weren’t “interested in being like the tobacco industry…We want to make sure that we're approaching this situation with a much more cooperative and collaborative approach than that industry.” He wanted cannabis in the state to avoid the “same sorts of corporate malfeasance that occurred in that industry for decades” and there were better “agricultural standards we can look to that I think are going to inform what to do here.”
    • Gregory Foster, Cannabis Observer Founder (audio - 4m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
      • Foster considered it courageous for the board to “go against what your staff have been telling you, to recognize and to listen to your stakeholders, to listen to consumers and to recognize that we just needed to take the pause on this one.” He’d learned a lot from commenters, and although “it sounds like there's still a lot of work to do on this one,” he felt it “revolves around…the definition of an action level.” Foster saw evidence that the response of staff was “tied up in the THC bill that was put forward by the agency,” specifically “this idea of being able to detect very low levels of these compounds,” or even “zero” amounts of THC.
        • Foster noted 2022 rulemaking requiring pesticide testing was helpful for the cannabis sector.
        • At time of publication, SB 5367 had been approved by the Washington State House of Representatives (WA House) on April 7th and awaited concurrence in the Senate.
      • Because private labs lacked testing protocols and potentially the ability to reliably resolve compounds at the desired levels of quantification, he reasoned that passing emergency rules “that go into effect immediately” would’ve meant “everyone would be out of compliance, right?” Foster said that the addition of DDE “means everybody's expenses are going to go up because now every product would then have to have that test.” He concluded, “we needed to definitely take the pause, you made the right choice today, thank you.”

• Board Chair David Postman and Director Rick Garza promised that meetings with stakeholders and their investigation into the problem would continue, but stood by the agency response to that point and made clear the administrative holds would stay in place.
  • Postman agreed there was more work to be done around the environmental pesticide actions. “While what we did today wasn't what had been planned on the agenda,” he claimed staff were “in agreement with what the board did and there's not tension there.” He looked forward to considering the input of stakeholders in meetings in the coming days and appreciated that some commenters were similarly concerned about the test results the board did have (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Garza reported that impacted licensees had been notified of an opportunity to meet with WSLCB, WSDA, DOE, and DOH representatives on Friday April 14th from 1:30 to 2:30pm (audio - 1m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).
  • Postman asked that people with input on the topic, regardless of their relationship to the industry, “send them to us, send them to the board, send them to Enforcement…or Policy and Rules” staff. He requested people “not to assume ill motive…on the part of the public employees…people here are working for the right reason which is protecting the public health.” Postman asserted “from Rick on down,” agency staff supported the pause in emergency rulemaking, and “we will continue to keep the broader public up to date on what's happening, but we do have some very specific outreach with licensees in the area…which we're working to put together” in order to address their questions (audio - 2m, video - WSLCB, video - TVW).

Information Set