Washington State Department of Ecology
(DOE)

Lawmakers looked into how funds had been spent to help producers affected by contaminated soil and heard about a potential “service gap” in lab accreditation expected in July 2024.

An experienced toxicologist and epidemiologist joined the Policy and Rules team, plus updates on a rule petition and already open rulemaking projects.

As legislators sought perspectives on contemporary cannabis policy issues and regulators willingly shared, a group of publicly-funded prevention researchers kept their doors closed.

Staff laid out changes in the latest lab accreditation rulemaking draft, including a lower cost of implementation and a waiver process around in-matrix proficiency testing.

Staff went over how cannabis tax revenue had been spent, offered comparisons to other states, and recommended transparency improvements while fielding lawmaker questions.

State legislators would be prepared with details on cannabis revenues, appropriations, and retail theft while Ecology staff delayed accreditation rules to see how the session panned out.

Updates on two subgroups included a rehashing of why some technologies and testing regimes had been favored by a prior task force as staff looked ahead to finalizing recommendations.

A second workshop to get responses to draft lab accreditation rules dealt with questions about the costs and process behind DOE staff taking over lab authority from WSLCB.

A mostly new team at the DOH Medical Cannabis Program solicited feedback on potential revisions to rules on compliant products, testing, labeling, and logos.

A legislative briefing outlined expected topics in 2024; a policy and rules update touched on work groups, rulemaking, and staffing; the recently-hired director kept his “internal” focus.