WA House RSG - Committee Meeting
(January 16, 2024) - HB 2182 - Public Hearing

With some calls for additional data or formatting changes, testimony in a hearing on legislation to set up a WSLCB data dashboard was largely supportive.

Here are some observations from the Tuesday January 16th Washington State House Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee (WA House RSG) Committee Meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• Committee Counsel Matt Sterling gave the committee an overview of HB 2182, “Creating a data dashboard to track use of regulated substances” to be hosted by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB).
  • Using the staff bill analysis, Sterling explained the legislation’s impacts (audio - 1m, Video - TVW):
    • Requires the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) to annually publish on its website certain information related to compliance rates, citations issued, information reported to the LCB by other agencies, and the amount of taxes and penalties collected.
    • Agency leaders regularly discuss some of these data points in Enforcement and Education updates during Executive Management Team meetings, most recently on January 10th.
  • Sterling said WSLCB annual reports included “information related to taxes and fees collected, and compliance rates, citations related to the sale or possession of liquor, cannabis, cigarettes, tobacco products, and vapor products.” He also noted WSLCB officials played a role in the bi-annual Healthy Youth Survey (HYS). Sterling reported that under HB 2182, WSLCB staff would have to work with counterparts at the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) and Washington State Health Care Authority (WA HCA).
    • During the November 2023 EMT, staff mentioned that the new Public Health Education Liaison Kristen Haley would take over as the agency designee for HYS from her predecessor, Mary Segawa. Haley also serves as a co-chair of the State Prevention Enhancement (SPE) Policy Consortium.
  • Co-Chair Shelley Kloba asked whether these data sets were already collected by state agencies “and that it's really a matter of putting them in one place in a cohesive way that the public can access.” Sterling responded that the legislation “directs information that the LCB has to be published and then other information that is received from certain agencies. So, I think that's the expectation” (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • In a fiscal note released after the hearing briefing, WSLCB staff acknowledged that the cost to implement HB 2182 was indeterminate, offering the explanation that “Because the requested data has not been shared previously between these agencies and the LCB, the agency does not know the level of complexity that performing these tasks will entail. The scope of the data, as well as its current method of storage, is currently unknown to the LCB, and will require additional time and collaboration with these agencies to understand. With interfaces between systems, complexity and resources needed can vary wildly and require significant investment.”

• The bill sponsor, Representative Kristine Reeves, explained her goal to require development of a data dashboard to further transparency and understanding of industries WSLCB regulated.
  • HB 2182 was “really focused on a recognition that the Liquor and Cannabis Board regulates a variety of different substances in the state and nowhere do we really have the opportunity to see aggregated data around that mission,” said Reeves. The legislation would help increase transparency for the public, consumers, and legislators, she argued, including “what the standards of health are being met in each of these compliance areas.” Reeves recognized some stakeholders wanted the dashboard to be used “to put industry contributions to our community, whether that be in the number of jobs that industry produces, or in the amount of revenue that's being generated by these regulated substances to Washington state.” Better “metrics that we can measure over time that add to the transparency of the work LCB [was] doing” could benefit the public and state officials, she stated (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • Ranking Minority Member Kelly Chambers wondered whether there would be details about specific citations, “so that licensees would be able to say ‘okay, here are some details around that event and how I can learn from that and not make the same mistake.’” Reeves replied her intention was more about "the metrics of citations,” and she was “concerned as a small business owner about publishing specific data that create unintentional harm to a small business.” While open to discussing changes to the bill, “the underlying intent is really just saying how many citations in this particular substance area is LCB issuing. What is the compliance rate of the industry, looking at metrics like that in generality, or in aggregate, not in specific to this particular business at this particular location,” she said (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).

• Three speakers testified to the merits of the bill, finding WSLCB was already collecting lots of data, and the measure would support public and officials’ understanding of the markets for regulated substances.
  • Lukas Hunter, Harmony Farms Director of Compliance and Government Affairs (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Hunter hoped lawmakers would “be really specific in the bill to look at only regulated substances if that's what we're intended to do.” Saying he’d contacted Reeves to clarify “if we're intended to just look at the regulated cannabis industry, the regulated tobacco, vape, and alcohol that we stay on point with that.” Looking at other kinds of data was “great as well, but just to make sure that distinction is there when appropriate.”
    • “Personally, I'm a bit of a data geek,” Hunter acknowledged, promising to speak during public hearings before the committee on Thursday January 18th on “a lot of amazing data that's already collected and organized by the board and the ability to write reports, that are completely automated, that just are a low-cost to keep up to date, but then provide an incredible amount of transparency.” He felt HB 2182 was “a pretty cool idea.”
  • Vicki Christophersen, Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA) Executive Director (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Sharing that WACA members supported the bill, Christophersen offered “a couple suggestions as well.” She remarked that some in the cannabis industry had “been working on this for quite some time, telling the story of how this industry in particular has been stood up, the compliance rates which were very proud of…all good things and also the use of data to better inform the public but also to better inform the work that we do here in Olympia.” Christophersen noted a 2022 economic impact analysis commissioned by WACA which identified “over 10,000 jobs in the state of Washington. I think it's more now, and with family wage[s]...we think those economic impact indicators would be important” to include in a data dashboard.
    • Christophersen then mentioned HB 2255, “Concerning inversion and diversion of cannabis” sponsored by committee member Representative Kevin Waters, which she felt would go “very nicely hand in hand.” Both measures together could help in “maintaining the integrity of our industry, and we'd like to work with you on both of those bills,” she told committee members.
  • Marc Webster, WSLCB Director of Legislative Relations (audio - 1m, Video - TVW)
    • Calling the concept in the bill “a great idea, and a timely one," Webster offered agency support for the dashboard, seconding what others had said. He mentioned how staff at the Washington State Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) published a final report on Appropriations and Expenditures of the Dedicated Cannabis Account “about two weeks ago recommending that we provide more information on revenues and how the state distributes the money from the dedicated cannabis account.” WSLCB staff concurred with that recommendation.
    • Additionally, representatives from “public health and prevention ha[ve] been talking a lot about centralizing already existing information on some of the health outcomes of some of these substances, and we agree with that.” Webster was also supportive of the call by cannabis industry stakeholders to “include some information about some of their economic impact. We think transparency is a good thing, and this is a very good time to work on it.”
    • Find out more about the analysis from the January 4th JLARC meeting, through the report overview, presentation, and video which were released in December 2023.

• Ezra Eickmeyer, Producers Northwest Founder, signaled a position of “other” on the bill, asking for a clarification about the dashboard presentation (audio - 1m, Video - TVW).
  • Generally finding the bill a “fantastic idea,” Eickmeyer framed his position as “other” to request the sponsor “clarify with just a little bit more language that each of the substances being tracked be presented in their own lane…so that we don't have aggregate data saying all these substances together are causing all these problems.” He wanted “to know which substances are causing which problems,” finding the bill wording was specific and “might leave room for them being presented in an aggregate format.”  With amended language on this point, he said his organization would be in “enthusiastic” support of the bill.
  • In addition to the four people testifying, nine people signed in supporting the bill, and five registered their opposition (Testifying, Not Testifying).

Information Set