The Week Ahead
(March 30, 2020)

The WSLCB cancelled 8 out of 11 regularly scheduled public meetings in March as governance in the shadow of COVID-19 shifted to emergency rulemaking and temporary policy adjustments.

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

This release is our 300th summary of cannabis-related policymaking in Washington state, a milestone we anticipated when we marked two years of citizen observation earlier this month. Thank you so much to all of our sponsors and donors without whom this work would not be possible. In these trying times we are traversing together, when public meetings and public records laws are being suspended, the oversight, information, and perspective provided by Cannabis Observer remain essential to an essential industry. Like so many other small businesses, Cannabis Observer has endured the loss of 30% of our funding in the past month. Here are all the ways, large and small, that you can support our work. Thank you for all you are doing to help!

Tuesday March 31st

On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.

Wednesday April 1st

On Wednesday at 10am PT, the bi-weekly WSLCB Board Meeting was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • The last three regularly scheduled board meetings have been cancelled. The Board last convened a board meeting for formal rulemaking on Wednesday February 5th.
  • The agency called an irregularly scheduled Special Board Meeting on Friday March 27th to conduct emergency rulemaking and withdraw the CR-102 for the Quality Control (QC) Testing and Product Requirements rulemaking project.
  • One of the Board’s last actions on March 10th was to postpone the public hearing for the QC Testing rulemaking project until the April 1st board meeting. As the QC Testing rulemaking project was effectively placed on hold this past Friday, one of the primary reasons for the Board to host Wednesday’s meeting is no longer necessary.
  • We may also see this board meeting cancelled as the Governor’s Proclamation 20-28 restricts the kind of rulemaking the WSLCB Board could undertake during the state of emergency:
    • ...agencies are further prohibited from taking “action,” as defined in RCW 42.30.020, unless those matters are necessary and routine matters or are matters necessary to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and the current public health emergency, until such time as regular public participation under the Open Public Meetings Act is possible.

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.