WSLCB - Executive Management Team
(August 14, 2024) - Summary

Agency leaders covered request legislation and a possible hemp bill; applications advancing in the social equity program; along with research and traceability updates.

Here are some observations from the Wednesday August 14th Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Executive Management Team (EMT) public meeting.

My top 4 takeaways:

• Officials reviewed potential bill topics they expected would come up during the 2025 legislative session and fielded questions from the board.
  • Director of Legislative Relations Marc Webster talked about two draft agency request bills that had been reviewed by the Washington State Office of the Code Reviser. This included a “statutory cleanup bill mostly impacting licensing” for alcohol, and “a trailer bill on the medical cannabis excise tax exemption” established through HB 1453 (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • The cannabis bill would ensure “our audit team has access to the information that they need to do their job” around tracing patient tax exemptions, he explained. Webster indicated that “the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Revenue are allowed to share information statutorily to ensure that the sales tax exemption is kind of working appropriately. We're just trying to get an add on that they can share that same type of information with us.” He also remarked that staff “really want to hear from stakeholders and others on these topics” (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
  • “We could certainly have an additional bill or two more on those as those plans firm up,” Webster said, specifying “a product placement bill,” remained possible, but, “I think the more likely approach is probably going through rulemaking”  (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • Board Chair David Postman wanted to know if they had existing authority on the subject, and Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn answered that they were still reviewing guidance to see if they could address the change through rulemaking, or if dedicated legislation was required (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
  • Nordhorn described “supportive” comments from interested parties on the DOH data sharing concept, and that staffers he’d engaged with outside of WSLCB had been “satisfied so far that this would be acceptable.” He acknowledged that there were concerns raised “mostly around confidentiality for patients,” and that staff would continue working on the concept internally (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • Postman asked where those concerns had come from, to which Nordhorn said the issue had been raised by “an association and someone working with patients” (audio - <1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).

• Director of Licensing Becky Smith gave an update on the social equity program and Director of Policy and External Affairs Justin Nordhorn mentioned assisting her division with “some THC dialogue.”
  • Smith shared that six social equity applicants had secured locations for their retail stores, which she found impressive in light of “some of the concerns that we've heard about in the last few months is how difficult it is to find a location.” She said this included licenses in “Franklin County, Pierce County, Benton County and two in King County,” two of which she expected were “going to be done in the month of August, and then we have three more that will be completed in September” (audio - 2m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • Additionally, Smith identified “14 others that we're going to, we're going back and reminding them that even though they might not have found a location yet, that it's important that they get their paperwork in” so that licensing approval happened as fast as possible if they did.
  • During Nordhorn’s update, he said he’d been “pinged” about “some concepts around hemp.” The “preliminary” ideas were from people interested in getting “hemp based products into some consumables.” There were also people reaching out to him about “research and scheduling” of cannabis, as well as “assisting Licensing with some THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] dialog that they're going to be presenting on” (audio - 2m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • Postman pointed out that “last year, there was a bill introduced that didn't go anywhere, but that would have helped create a path for that,” and he wanted officials to “look at those carefully and be supportive as we can.” He added that with the passage of SB 5367 in 2023, WSLCB had hoped to create “lines” for allowing some hemp consumables in the adult-use market. Postman felt “anything we can do…to help create that path through the legitimate products, not the Farm Bill loophole…but the legitimate stuff, we should do that. I think it helps us then crack down on the other stuff.” Nordhorn responded, “the statute that passed…prohibits any type of synthetics or synthetically-derived so…we have to keep that in mind that they're not talking about…all of these intoxicants coming to market.” He regarded the bill language on this topic as “super preliminary at this point, more conceptual than actual language” (audio - 2m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
      • Industrial Hemp Association of Washington Executive Director Bonny Jo Peterson mentioned a hemp bill being drafted during an August 15th town hall hosted by the Cannabis Alliance: Bridging the Divide Between Cannabis and Hemp.

• Nordhorn also addressed issues around ongoing research and public health concerns related to cannabis.
  • Nordhorn noted that they were finalizing several research briefs to share with the board and public the following week, one on flavored vapor products and another on packaging and labeling (PAL) appeal to youth. He further explained that Research Program staff would share “work on standard operating procedures around survey development and how that's going to be approached” to bring transparency to their process. Nordhorn added, “we're working on a dashboard as well to be able to showcase what we're looking at and where [Research staff were] in the process” (audio - 1m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
  • “So we're pretty pleased with the progress that's being made,” said Nordhorn, pointing to ongoing “collaborative efforts with health and the industry.” He credited the work of Kristen Haley, Public Health Education Liaison, who was “doing a phenomenal job on facilitating and coordinating” dialogue between the different interested parties. Nordhorn described a “really good crossover meeting recently [and how there was a] lot of focus around the high THC products.” Additionally, officials had been planning updates to the Healthy Youth Survey (HYS), he commented, and there was a “meeting coming up on Friday that I believe David and I are participating in” of the Washington Healthy Youth Coalition (WHY Coalition, audio - 2m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • The WHY Coalition is a partnership of Washington State government agencies and organizations with the mission to prevent and reduce underage alcohol and marijuana use.
    • The next focus group on high THC products was scheduled for Thursday August 22nd, following focus groups convened on the matter in June and July. While Cannabis Observer was invited to and published observations from the industry-specific June 26th and July 10th meetings, we weren’t included in subsequent events intended to bring together the cannabis sector, public health, and prevention representatives.

• Deputy Director Toni Hood briefly spoke to a traceability survey and new staff in the Director’s Office who were taking over leadership of the effort from the Enforcement and Education division (audio - 5m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
  • 18 months after launching the Cannabis Central Reporting System (CCRS) for traceability, staff began looking for a third-party traceability vendor in July 2023, releasing a request for information (RFI) from potential vendors the following month.
  • Hood stated that “Dustin Brown, our community engagement specialist, created” two QR Codes, one for an internal survey, and one for an external one. She was “super excited to have see the analysis that he's going to do from that data.”
  • Hood was “also excited to announce that we have hired a new project manager for the director's office,” Krystin Boydstun, “coming to us from ESD [Employment Security Department], and I will have an announcement with more details…at the end of the week.” After Boydstun was on board, “we'll officially transition the cannabis traceability project from [Enforcement and Education] to the Director's Office.”

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