Washington State Department of Ecology
(DOE)

The Social Equity in Cannabis Task Force Technical Assistance and Mentorship Work Group was scheduled to discuss legislative proposals during an otherwise typical August week.

Members debated the future of the task force while discussing planned agency request legislation to create an Interagency Coordination Team (ICT) to regulate lab accreditation.

The agencies on the Cannabis Science Task Force were scheduled to describe their potential request legislation packages intended to create a new body for oversight of testing labs.

WSLCB Director Rick Garza shared new details about the background, leadership, and advocacy of CANNRA as he encouraged traffic safety officials to affiliate with the organization.

WSLCB leadership learned about the process and timeline for agency request legislation, and the Chair called for a public presentation of the legislative agenda before the 2022 session.

As a social equity task force work group began considering how to distribute $3.62M in grants, another task force prepared to disband, leaving cannabis science under the care of regulators.

Governor Inslee signed the biennium operating budget which appropriated cannabis excise tax revenue and other general fund tax dollars among more than a dozen agencies.

The cannabis science and equity task forces were scheduled to have pivotal meetings, and a webinar would offer an opportunity to hear from a leading State researcher on I-502.

Only two cannabis-specific bills were passed before the end of the 2021 Washington state legislative session; we speculate about factors in play during a complex and busy interim.

Several cannabis bills portend some controversy on their way through the next cutoff on Friday, where a mysterious work session on “the future of the cannabis industry” awaited.