Washington State Legislative Task Force on Social Equity in Cannabis Community Reinvestment Work Group
(WA SECTF - Work Group - Community Reinvestment)

Staff shared rulemaking progress including upcoming outreach events, a new petition on cannabis testing results, and a timeline for implementing social equity legislation.

A WA SECTF panel provided the committee an explanation of how they reached their final recommendations for social equity in cannabis before describing them and taking questions.

The final licensing and community reinvestment recommendations from the task force were presented, discussed, and voted upon before members scheduled remaining work.

Work group members as well as public participants shared their thoughts on the spending of community reinvestment dollars and workforce training at the group’s final meeting.

Proposed rules for the WSLCB social equity program also included “readability” edits throughout the WAC, and agency staff were scheduled to follow up after the Cannabis Retail Safety Forum.

State leaders planned to publicly engage with selected cannabis retail stakeholders to draw attention to the need for federal banking reform to help mitigate robberies before more people were hurt.

In the final week of a contentious short session, legislators would have to sprint to pass SB 5983, a bill to protect public health but also fundamentally restructure cannabis law.

By Tuesday evening, most bills would need to be voted out of their house of origin to continue, but three important—and contentious—cannabis-related bills remained unmoved.