The Week Ahead
(January 6, 2024)

WA Legislature - 2025 Regular Session - Legislative Agendas - WSLCB - WIDAC - SBOH - WA Pharmacy Commission

In the final week before the start of the 2025 regular session, regulators prepared to hear briefings on the legislative agendas of their respective agencies and partner organizations.

Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.

Monday January 6th

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.

Tuesday January 7th

WSLCB - Board Caucus

On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.

Wednesday January 8th

SBOH - Board Meeting

On Wednesday at 9:30am PT, the Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) board meeting was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • The SBOH was established by the state constitution in 1889 to provide leadership and advance public health practices that protect and improve the public’s health. It is a separate entity from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) although the Secretary of Health sits on the Board and the SBOH leverages DOH facilities.
  • During their all-day board meeting on Wednesday, members reserved time to hear about "Governmental Public Health System Partner 2025 Legislative Priorities" from the DOH, the Washington State Association of Local Public Health Officials (WSALPHO), and American Indian Health Commission (AIHC).
  • Members would also be asked to sign their own "2025 Legislative Statement" as prepared by agency staff.
    • An annual exercise expressing the sentiment of the board ahead of each legislative session, the statement traditionally articulated evolving public health concerns about nicotine and flavored vapor products. In 2025, the section on  "Commercial Tobacco Products, With Special Attention to Flavors" read as follows:
    • “The Board supports efforts to prevent the marketing, sale, and use of commercial tobacco products to youth, including restrictions on flavored vapor and tobacco products (also known as commercial tobacco). The Board recognizes that the widespread availability of flavored commercial tobacco products and targeted marketing practices, such as the advertising of menthol products to Black and LGBTQIA+ communities and flavored vapor products to youth, raise significant health equity concerns. The Board supports legislation that would strengthen regulation of Washington’s commercial tobacco product industry, including requiring ingredient disclosure and routine lab testing for vapor products, requiring health risk signage for commercial tobacco products, removing the preemption of vapor product retail licensing, allowing flavored commercial tobacco product bans and recalls, and establishing nicotine limits for products sold in Washington.”
  • The mention of “health risk signage” follows on a related requirement placed on the cannabis sector to prominently post warning signs about asserted risks of High-THC Cannabis Products” at all retail points of sale. The new requirement was established in 2024 legislation HB 2320.
    • While that bill was signed into law on March 29th and became effective on June 6th, the “conspicuous notice” was required to be posted by retailers by December 31st.
    • DOH Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program (DOH YCCTPP) staff were tasked with devising the sign.  They coordinated with WSLCB Prevention and Public Health Education Liaison Kristen Haley as well as WSLCB Research Program staff during the latter half of 2024 to draft language.
      • To Cannabis Observer’s knowledge, no cannabis sector licensees, representatives, patients, nor consumers were consulted on the presentation of the information on the sign, nor the associated website.
    • Despite the generous statutory grant of time and resources to complete the work, WSLCB staff sent the first notice to retail licensees on behalf of DOH YCCTPP staff late on Friday December 27th.  That version of the sign included an unfortunate typo in the second use of the word “psychotic” which Cannabis Observer caught and informed DOH YCCTPP staff about on Monday December 30th.  A revised version of the sign was distributed later that day, effectively granting retailers one day to come into compliance with the new statutory requirement which was presented with little explanation and no provision of time for training retail staff to respond to customer inquiries.
  • Wednesday would also be the last SBOH board meeting of outgoing Secretary of Health Umair Shah whom Governor Jay Inslee appointed to lead the agency in December 2020.

WSLCB - Executive Management Team

On Wednesday at 1:30pm PT, the three-member Board and agency leadership were scheduled to convene their monthly WSLCB Executive Management Team (EMT) meeting.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • The last EMT meeting on December 11th was cancelled, marking the fifth time the monthly public meeting of agency leadership was cancelled in 2024.
  • After the fourth cancellation in October, I offered public comment at a subsequent board meeting pointing out the importance of those unique windows into the operations of the agency for oversight and transparency, suggesting board members at least try to reschedule when conflicts inevitably occurred.
  • On Friday January 2nd, we observed WSLCB staff making changes to the 2025 calendar of public meetings of the board which included rescheduling two EMT meetings to dates later in the month.

Thursday January 9th

WIDAC - Council Meeting

On Thursday at 9:30am PT, the quarterly meeting of the Washington Impaired Driving Advisory Council (WIDAC) was scheduled to occur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) website, the WIDAC, “established in 2010, includes over ninety members from government, private, and non-profit sectors. Supported by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, WIDAC creates partnerships and strategies to combat impaired driving, allocated resources per legislative and strategic priorities, and maintains a dedicated governance team.”
  • Cannabis Observer sought out and was granted access to observe the WIDAC meetings several years ago.  Contact WIDAC Program Manager Edica Esqueda [ eesqueda@wtsc.wa.gov ] for more information.
  • At publication time, an agenda for the meeting was not available.

Friday January 10th

WA Pharmacy Commission - Legislative Review

On Friday at 12pm PT, the weekly Washington State Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission (WA Pharmacy Commission) Legislative Review was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • The 2025 inaugural meeting of the commissioners on January 3rd to hear updates and stake positions on relevant legislation was cancelled.
  • At publication time, Cannabis Observer was not aware of any cannabis-related WA Pharmacy Commission request legislation or bills commissioners would likely take an interest in.