Same Process, Unprecedented Subjectt
Anyone familiar with Washington State Legislative process will confess that this session’s cannabis bills are a handful. The backstory is the pressure, almost threat from the Feds that if we (and Colorado) don’t follow the spirit of the Department of Justice’s dictates and tolerance from last fall’s clarifying statement; well, it won’t be pretty. We have to have a regulatory platform that keeps product inside the state, keeps it away from minors, tracks it seed-to-use, and somehow, someway closes what many think are leaks, heck, gaping holes in the medical marijuana (MMJ) platform.
This session there have been numerous bills introduced to address all of the above, plus municipal prohibition, hemp sales, help growing, incarceration penalties and use, and more. Some of the bills amend the MMJ statute, some the recreational use law, and others go various places in the RCWs. Some require a simple majority, some will require a 2/3s vote if the legislature wants to tweak the I-502 language inside the two year protection provided by the constitution. (It’s unconstitutional to amend a law by reference, the bill must be drafted to include the language or subject being amended. A couple of the bills this session referenced 69.50, recreational use sections, but did not “amend” them.)
The Money Boys
We hope they consider it a complement when Chopp, Hunter and Carlyle are referred to as the “Money Boys”. Without passage of some of the bills the revenue just won’t be there. The anticipated taxes from cannabis sales and production just won’t happen. Either the customers will float off to a cheaper, leaky MMJ platform that Liquor Control Board Director Garza proclaimed as “fraudulent” during a legislative hearing, or the black market will continue to thrive due to access and price. Even minor changes to the MMJ law require a consensus from the MMJ world which we are told is more difficult than a Shiite and Sunni joint convention. Hats off to Senator Kohl-Welles for her multiple session effort on MMJ rewrites.
At the bottom of every sticky issue is the money. Follow the money, right? The Money Boys will have to weigh in to get this session to produce the cleanups, the tweaks, the taxation clarifications and the distributions.
If You Have Walked In Their Shoes
It’s always interesting to listen to agency heads and appointed folks talk about the legislative process and how it is working. It is more telling when those agency folks have actually been legislators, or worked in the legislature. The Liquor Control Board (LCB) is that type of agency. There is more understanding about the process over at the LCB than meets the eye. The Chair, Sharon Foster paid her dues in the “Gulch” and lobbied for many seasons. Not to mention she taught Dean Foster, former Chief Clerk of the House and Legislative Director for Governor Gardner everything he knows. (Sorry Dean) Rick Garza has been around politics and Olympia for decades. And his wingman, LCB board member and Former State Senator Chris Marr certainly has a recent grasp of legislative process and deal making.
During a recent discussion Marr summed up the session this way, “Despite a lot of skepticism on my part about a short session, complex policy and ugly stakeholder dynamics, I am detecting some pretty strong belief that a bill will move.”
Remember, if it even hints of money, the bill is alive until the end of the session. And don’t forget, this legislature has a tendency to like more than just one session at a time. Except that it is an election year and they all want to hurry home so they can…hug their loved ones, these folks have a propensity for draw’in out the legislat’in.
Sit back, unlax, and watch the second half.
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