Senators heard an hour of largely supportive testimony on producer direct sales on Monday and representatives planned to host public hearings on three cannabis-related bills on Tuesday.
Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Tuesday January 28th, the 16th day of the 2025 regular session.
My top 3 takeaways:
- On Monday morning, Washington State Senate Labor and Commerce Committee (WA Senate LC) members heard expansive testimony on legislation to allow producer farm gate sales of cannabis flower they grow while educating and building direct relationships with consumers and patients.
- SB 5403 - Cannabis Direct Sales
- Positions: testifying + not testifying = total (duplicates)
- Pro: 17 + 205 = 222 (8)
- Con: 4 + 308 = 312 (10)
- Other: 4 + 0 = 4 (0)
- Position counts derived from committee sign in (CSI) sources are now accessible on the Cannabis Observer website under each public hearing milestone on event and legislation timelines. The CSI sources, duplicates, cleaned position data, and counts are also available in the event information set.
- Introduced on Tuesday January 21st by Senator Rebecca Saldaña, Chair of WA Senate LC, the legislation would authorize cannabis producers to sell their own flower directly to consumers. Eligible products would be constrained to:
- “cannabis flower produced and processed by the licensee at the licensee's licensed location” sold in compliance with the retailer statute RCW 69.50.360
- Or: “cannabis flower produced within the licensed business entity” and likewise complying with retailer requirements.
- A supermajority of the 23 people who testified supported the legislation to allow direct sale of cannabis flower by producers, although questions were raised about market impacts.
- SB 5403 was supported by the Washington Sun and Craft Growers Association (WSCA), The Cannabis Alliance, and many producers, consumers, and patients.
- The legislation was opposed by representatives of the Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA), the Washington Cannabis Licensee Association (WCLA), as well as prevention and public health interests. Among individuals not testifying, a few marked themselves as Washington State Republican Party (WA GOP) district leaders.
- Black Excellence in Cannabis (BEC) leaders signed in “Other” along with an east side producer eager to ensure their west side processing facility would be included, and testimony from Beau Whitney of Whitney Economics prompted several questions from senators.
- At publication time, an executive session on the legislation had not been publicly announced. At the end of the hearing, Saldaña indicated she was “looking forward to working with everyone to see if we can get this and take some amendments…into consideration, but see if we can move this bill forward this session.”
- Positions: testifying + not testifying = total (duplicates)
- SB 5403 - Cannabis Direct Sales
- On Tuesday, a new cannabis-related bill by Senator Keith Wagoner was scheduled for introduction which aimed to redirect 5% of the appropriation of cannabis excise tax revenue from the State general fund to local jurisdictions by 2030.
- SB 5547 - “Increasing cannabis revenue distributions to local governments.”
- Cannabis Excise Tax Local Distributions
- On Tuesday, Republican Whip Wagoner planned to introduce legislation which would stepwise increase both distributions of cannabis excise tax revenue to participating localities encoded in RCW 69.50.540.
- Section (3)(c)(i) appropriates “One and one-half percent to counties, cities, and towns where licensed cannabis retailers are physically located.” Wagoner’s legislation would increase that distribution annually by 0.5% up to “four percent for fiscal year 2030 and thereafter.”
- Section (3)(c)(ii) appropriates “Three and one-half percent to counties, cities, and towns ratably on a per capita basis” to jurisdictions without a complete ban or moratoria. Wagoner’s language would increase that distribution annually by 0.5% up to “six percent for fiscal year 2030 and thereafter.”
- The revenue would be decremented from the appropriation to the State general fund at the current level of 32% down to 27% in 2030.
- According to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Dedicated Cannabis Account revenue dashboard, the agency collected $458M in excise tax revenue and fees in fiscal year 2024 for deposit into the account, 5% of which would be $22.9M.
- According to the introduction report, the bill would be referred to the Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee (WA Senate WM).
- SB 5547 - “Increasing cannabis revenue distributions to local governments.”
- On Tuesday, senators planned to hear testimony on a criminal justice bill regarding pre-trial substance use disorder (SUD) treatment incentives and representatives were scheduled to host public hearings on three cannabis-related bills pertaining to patient data, testing lab certification authority, and home grow.
- 8am: WA Senate LAW - Committee Meeting [ Event Details ]
- Public Hearing
- SB 5290 - Pre-Hearing SUD Treatment
- Senators Manka Dhingra and Jesse Salomon introduced cannabis-adjacent criminal justice and behavioral health legislation on January 15th to create incentives to pursue substance use disorder (SUD) treatment for dismissal of certain drug possession charges. See the bill analysis for more details.
- A partial fiscal note on SB 5290 was published on Monday evening.
- SB 5290 - Pre-Hearing SUD Treatment
- Public Hearing
- 1:30pm: WA House CPB - Committee Meeting [ Event Details ]
- Public Hearing
- HB 1341 - DOH Patient Data Sharing
- On Thursday January 16th, Representative Sharon Wylie introduced WSLCB request legislation to authorize access to Washington State Department of Health (DOH) patient data. See the bill analysis published on Monday January 27th.
- On Thursday January 23rd, a $0 (partial) fiscal note was published in which neither WSLCB nor DOH staff expected any work would be required to authorize access similar or identical to that already granted to Washington State Department of Revenue (WA DOR) staff.
- HB 1347 - WSLCB Lab Certification Authority
- Representative Kristine Reeves’ legislation introduced on Thursday January 16th intended to better distinguish Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) accreditation from WSLCB certification of private cannabis testing labs. See the bill analysis published on Monday January 27th.
- HB 1347 was awarded a $0 fiscal note on Thursday January 23rd.
- HB 1449 - Cannabis Home Grow
- On Tuesday January 21st, Representatives Shelley Kloba and Brandy Donaghy introduced legislation to allow an adult to grow six cannabis plants (combined up to 15 per ‘housing unit’) while establishing parameters and penalties around the practice. By the end of the day, 14 new co-sponsors signed on to support the legislation, in total inclusive of one third of all WA House CPB members. See the bill analysis published on Monday January 27th.
- A partial fiscal note on HB 1449 was published on Monday evening.
- HB 1341 - DOH Patient Data Sharing
- Public Hearing
- Also on Tuesday, the House would convene a pro forma floor session at 9:55am [ TVW ] and the Senate would similarly convene at 12:30pm [ TVW ].
- 8am: WA Senate LAW - Committee Meeting [ Event Details ]