The Week Ahead
(November 16, 2020)

Cannabis Testing Lab - Test Tube

Wednesday’s public hearing for the WSLCB’s protracted Quality Control Testing rulemaking project could help shape a new regime of pesticides and heavy metals testing of adult use cannabis products in Washington state.

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

Monday November 16th

On Monday, staff of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) would be obligated to take an agency-wide furlough day in accordance with a cost-saving directive signed by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee on June 17th.

  • In August through November, the cadence switched from one agency-wide furlough day per week to once per month on third Mondays. The agency’s furlough days are marked on the events calendar and the WSLCB calendar.

On Monday, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) COVID Legal/Policy/Rules Meeting was presumably cancelled.

Tuesday November 17th

On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly WSLCB Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • At publication time, an agenda for this event had not been published but we expect the meeting will occur to enable board members to hear rulemaking updates in preparation for Wednesday’s Special Board Meeting.

Wednesday November 18th

On Wednesday at 10am PT, the WSLCB COVID Legal/Policy/Rules Meeting was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • Agency staff leadership, Board Chair Jane Rushford, and Assistant Attorney General Bruce Turcott convene multiple times per week via webinar to discuss policy-related questions raised in the context of the pandemic.
  • Originally having met daily every work day, the schedule of meetings was shifted to 3x per week (M, W, F) on June 10th.
  • It’s Cannabis Observer’s understanding that the cadence for these internal meetings has been further stepped down, but we have not yet been able to confirm the current schedule.

On Wednesday at 10am PT, a WSLCB Special Board Meeting was scheduled to occur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • After cancelling the November 11th regularly scheduled board meeting in honor of Veteran’s Day as well as the November 25th board meeting adjacent to the State holidays for Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, the WSLCB scheduled this interim Special Board Meeting to keep formal rulemaking moving.
  • At publication time, the agenda for the special board meeting had not been published.  On September 2nd, Policy and Rules Coordinator Kathy Hoffman projected that she would file a supplemental CR-102 for the Quality Control (QC) Testing and Product Requirements rulemaking project on September 30th, and expected to schedule a public hearing on the revised proposed rules on November 18th.
  • The QC Testing rulemaking project had been a protracted effort by the WSLCB beset by unanticipated challenges on top of the fundamental complexity of implementing a new regime of pesticides and heavy metals testing.
    • Former WSLCB Policy and Rules Coordinator Joanna Eide initiated the rulemaking project in August 2018. She left the agency two months later.
    • Hoffman arrived at the WSLCB in late October 2018, picking up a full slate of active rulemaking projects. That included the QC CR-101 which had already had its initial public comment period close on October 24th.
    • In April 2019, Hoffman first introduced the Listen and Learn Forum format at the WSLCB to gather stakeholder perspectives on the QC rulemaking project. A second listen and learn forum on QC in June 2019 was rescheduled for August 2019.
      • At publication time, WSLCB policy and rules staff had hosted 14 listen and learn forums for a variety of rulemaking projects and adapted the format to the purely digital environment necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
    • In January 2020, Hoffman introduced the initial CR-102 which proposed rules for the QC rulemaking project. At that time, the agency projected a public hearing during the March 18th board meeting, but tiny forces would scuttle those plans.
    • As the State’s response to the pandemic began to roll out, the Board met in caucus on March 10th. As it turned out, this was the last in-person meeting of the WSLCB Board before a proclamation issued by the Governor banning all in-person public meetings. Anticipating disruption, the Board issued a continuance of the QC rulemaking and cancelled the March 18th public hearing, tentatively rescheduling for April 1st.
    • The next time the Board convened---virtually---in a Special Board Meeting on March 27th, they withdrew the QC CR-102 to halt the clock on the rulemaking project encoded in the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).
    • On May 27th, the Board approved refiling the QC CR-102 to get the project restarted without substantive changes to the rule text, significant legislative rule analysis, or small business economic impact statement (SBEIS). A virtual public hearing on the initial rule text was hosted on July 8th.
    • Feedback on the proposed rules was sufficient as to require the filing of a supplemental CR-102 with new rule text on September 30th. That document specified a public hearing on November 18th.

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

  • [ Event Details ]
  • The last 8 regularly scheduled EMT meetings have been cancelled. Although still listed as a weekly event, the Board had indicated these meetings would be hosted monthly through the end of the calendar year. At publication time, the EMT last convened on September 16th after a 7-month hiatus, did not meet in October, and had met 4 out of 47 possible occasions in 2020.

Friday November 20th

On Friday at 9am PT, the monthly Department of Ecology (DOE) Cannabis Science Task Force (CSTF) Steering Committee public meeting was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • While not listed on the boilerplate agenda, the CSTF Steering Committee may be an appropriate place for a public discussion about the November 10th announcement by WSLCB Cannabis Examiner Manager Kendra Hodgson that Restek, a supplier of calibrating samples to cannabis testing laboratories, had issued a recall for its D9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid A (THCA-A) Standard.
    • In her emailed announcement, Hodgson stated, “Given current estimates, reported THCA values from the affected laboratories could show a deviation from the true value by approximately 15%. Subsequently, the Total THC value is also affected by a similar deviation.”
    • Hodgson characterized the scope of impacted products as a “relatively low number”, but the names of impacted cannabis testing labs and their clients were not divulged.

On Friday at 10am PT, the WSLCB COVID Legal/Policy/Rules Meeting was scheduled to recur.