Washington State Department of Commerce
(WA Commerce)

Lawmaker questions focused on potential risks and negative outcomes during mostly supportive testimony on 2024 cannabis home growing legislation.

A rules update acknowledged more delays in some projects before public comments showed a divide on the fairness of social equity licensing and questioned cannabis research topics.

Updates to a more than five-year-old tribal compact, a rulemaking petition, and general public comments were on the agenda for the final board meeting of 2023.

Agency leaders went over what they anticipated dealing with in 2024, including “high-THC” regulations, lab accreditation authority, medically endorsed stores, and social equity applicants.

Black Excellence in Cannabis (BEC) members made pointed accusations that problems in the social equity licensing program had been intentional, to which the chair forcefully disagreed.

After WSLCB and WA Commerce officials went through their responsibilities for the cannabis social equity program, two applicants aired grievances with how the program had been handled so far.

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

Commerce officials planned to brief consultants interested in administering the social equity and community reinvestment cannabis grant programs for up to 1/10 of the total $9M allocated.

The board voted to open rulemaking to implement social equity program changes and then heard public remarks related to the grant programs and transparency of the equity process.