Legislators and agency staff were preparing for the shorter 2024 legislative session where organized retail crime and patient concerns would figure amidst cannabis related policymaking.
Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.
Monday August 14th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.
Tuesday August 15th
WA ORC Task Force - Meeting
On Tuesday at 9am PT, the Washington State Organized Retail Crime Task Force (WA ORC Task Force) was scheduled to convene.
- [ Event Details ]
- The task force was last convened on March 29th in part to host a panel of cannabis retailers who conveyed experiences and policies on reducing robberies, during which local officials and others pushed for more organized and proactive enforcement approaches.
- According to the agenda for the August 15th meeting, Washington State Senator Karen Keiser was scheduled to provide brief introductory remarks to participants.
- During the 2023 legislative session, Keiser was the prime sponsor of SB 5259, “Ensuring commerce and workplaces are safe from product theft.” The bill was advanced to the Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee (WA Senate WM) and received a hearing on March 9th but not an executive session in part because of disagreements between retail ownership and labor representatives.
- Staff from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office (WA OAG) would then describe “Building the Organized Retail Crime Unit.”
- While SB 5259 was not passed, an operating budget proviso was added to SB 5187 which provided the WA OAG with $755K for fiscal year (FY) 2024 and $1,515,000 for FY 2025 for the office “to create a centralized statewide organized retail crime task force to coordinate, investigate, and prosecute multijurisdictional retail crime.”
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 August 16th
WSLCB - Board Meeting
On Wednesday at 10am PT, the bi-weekly WSLCB Board Meeting was scheduled to recur.
- [ Event Details ]
- At the close of the August 9th WSLCB Executive Management Team meeting, there appeared to remain some uncertainty as to whether a board meeting would be hosted on the 16th.
Thursday August 17th
WSLCB - Webinar - Agency Request Legislation Proposals
On Thursday at 10:30am PT, the second of three WSLCB webinars seeking feedback on 2024 agency request legislation proposals was scheduled to occur.
- [ Event Details ]
- On Friday August 4th, WSLCB Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn emailed an undisclosed list of recipients three prospective draft agency request legislation proposals seeking feedback by Friday August 25th. One proposal concerned alcohol licensees and two were specific to the cannabis sector:
- Agency staff planned to host “three question and answer sessions” via webinar to gather feedback and offer an opportunity for discussion.
- The last webinar was scheduled for the early evening on Monday August 21st.
- During the first webinar on Friday August 11th, WSLCB staff reiterated that these were preliminary concepts for potential agency request legislation and it was unclear whether legislation would actually be pursued. However, the provision of feedback was expected to help even in the event they don't proceed as relevant rulemaking projects and policy discussions were underway on both themes.
- re: Contract Growing for Patients, several participants provided patient and licensee perspectives highlighting their interests and concerns. Nordhorn clarified that the proposal as drafted does not envision requiring contracted cannabis to meet DOH compliant product standards - and in fact no testing at all would be formally required. He expected this arrangement could mirror the "know your grower" trust which he believed extra-legal farmers market participants share.
- re: Cannabis Advertising, the details of this proposal included the provision of two additional retail signs for the purpose of advertising the availability of Washington State Department of Health (DOH) medically compliant products. Patient representative John Kingsbury pointed out that WSLCB staff were typically uncertain about the validity of retail medical endorsements and had historically required encouragement to undertake enforcement while sharing his expectation that the proposal would further incentivize bad behavior. Nordhorn suggested that deployment of medical signs would require retailers to be "in good standing" with the board - a potentially tangible requirement that Enforcement and Education staff could explicitly check when following up on frequent complaints about retail advertising practices.
Friday August 18th
At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.