[yortbogey]

- Officials in Washington are taking their first stab at setting rules for the state's new legal weed industry. Read their full press release below.


Liquor Control Board Issues Initial Draft Recreational Marijuana Rules for Public Comment
Board to accept public input through June 10, 2013
The Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) today issued its initial draft rules for Washington State's emerging recreational marijuana market. Voters approved legal marijuana for recreational use with the passage of Initiative 502 (I-502) in November 2012. The WSLCB is seeking public comment on its initial draft rules before officially initiating the formal draft rule-making process in mid-June. The WSLCB will accept public comment on its initial draft through June 10, 2013.
The initial draft rules, posted today on the WSLCB website and issued to the over 4,700 subscribers on its I-502 email listserv, reflect the agency's initial thinking on what Washington's emerging system of producing, processing, and retailing recreational marijuana may look like.
"These initial rules balance our goal of developing a tightly regulated system with reasonable access for small and large business models to participate within the system," said Board Chair Sharon Foster. "They are based upon hundreds of hours of internal research and deliberation, consultation with multiple industry experts and input from the over 3,000 individuals who attended our forums statewide."
The initial draft rules reflect the Board's stated goal of developing a tightly regulated and controlled recreational marijuana market. Included in the rules are elements that address out-of-state diversion of product, traceability of product from start to sale, youth access and other public and consumer safety concerns.
Below are some key elements proposed in the initial draft rules.

License Requirements

• Application Window -- The application window would open for 30 days for all license types and extended or re-opened at the Board's discretion. This approach was similar to how Colorado opened its medical marijuana system.

• Background Checks -- License applicants and financiers would be required to submit a form attesting to their criminal history, provide fingerprints, and allow criminal background checks.

• Point System --The WSLCB would employ a disqualifying criminal history point system similar to liquor. An exception would be allowed for two misdemeanor convictions of possession within three years.

Public Safety

• Producer Structures --Produceroperations would be allowed in both secure indoor grows or greenhouses.

• Traceability --A robust and comprehensive traceability software system will trace product from start to sale.

• Violation Guidelines --In addition to the $1,000 fine for certain violations established by I-502, the initial draft rules also include a strict tiered system of violation penalties over a three year period (similar to the current standard penalty guidelines for liquor).

• Security --The rules direct strict on-site surveillance systems similar to Colorado's current system.

• Advertising Restrictions -- I-502restricts advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks, transit centers, arcades, and other areas where children are present. The draft rules further restrict advertising as they pertain to children.

Consumer Safety

• Behind the Counter Storage -- No open containers allowed.

• Package and Label Requirements --Consumers will know contents and potency of products they purchase.

• Defined Serving Size -- Serving sizes equal 10 mg of THC. Products are limited to 100 mg.

• Lab Tested --Uniform testing standards by independent accredited labs.

The WSLCB is working with its consultant, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, to identify marijuana consumption levels in each county. The WSLCB will use that data at a later date to identify the number of retail stores in each county. Should the number of applicants exceed the number of retail outlets identified for each county, the WSLCB will hold a lottery to choose entities eligible to apply.

Following the June 10, 2013, deadline for comment, the WSLCB will incorporate appropriate changes to the rules before officially filing draft rules later in June.

Additional information about I-502, including: a timeline for implementation, answers to frequently asked questions, and a fact sheet are available on the WSLCB website here.

[Serioussmoke]

its all so crazy

[Lemon Larry]

?

[yortbogey]

SEATTLE — Washington residents and out-of-staters could buy an ounce of tested, labeled marijuana, seven days a week, up to 20 hours a day, in state-regulated stores under draft rules for a new legal-pot system released Thursday by the Liquor Control Board.

That rule is more permissive than in Colorado, the other state creating an adult recreational-pot market. Colorado lawmakers limited out-of-staters to buying one-quarter ounce in stores in an effort to impede “smurfing,” the practice of making repeated buys and aggregating pot to sell on the black market.

But Washington would not allow the sale of marijuana concentrates, such as hash or hash oil, unless they were infused in edible or liquid products. The high-potency concentrates have become popular to vaporize, particularly with younger users.

Washington’s 46-page raft of rules covers issues from product testing to growing licenses to advertising restrictions to package labeling.

The draft rules would allow sun-grown pot in greenhouses — with rigid walls, roofs and doors — but not open fields. And they would not initially cap the number of growing licenses issued by the state, in an effort to include smaller growers in a seed-to-store system untested on the planet. The rules would not cap processing or retail licenses either, for similar reasons.


Alison Holcomb, primary author of Initiative 502 — approved by voters last November to legalize recreational pot — said she was pleased with the rules’ balancing of public safety and health with the desire to create a workable system.

She noted that many rules seem to beg further clarification. “This is literally just a preview of where they are right now. And they’re intentionally doing this to give the public an opportunity to provide meaningful input,” said Holcomb, drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington.

The state’s new system allows adults to possess one ounce of dried marijuana, one pound of pot-infused edibles and 72 ounces of pot-laced liquid.

Under proposed rules, the state would not track a person’s pot purchases, or know how many stores they visit in a day. But the state would require that marijuana be traceable as it is grown, processed and moved to stores.

Trying to stop smurfing makes more sense in Colorado than Washington, according to some. Colorado is more centrally located and states on three sides have strict laws against marijuana, said Christian Sederberg, a member of Colorado’s Amendment 64 Task Force. A law-enforcement group reported evidence that Colorado’s medical marijuana was diverted to 23 states.

Washington is different, with abundant weed in British Columbia to the north and Oregon to the south. “I don’t think someone will go to 15 stores and drive (the pot) somewhere,” said Randy Simmons, the state’s marijuana project director.

The requirement that greenhouses have rigid walls did not sit well with Jeremy Moberg, an Okanogan County activist pushing for sun-grown pot because of its environmental advantages.

Moberg said security should be focused on the perimeter of a sun-grown operation, not the greenhouse itself. Fully enclosed greenhouses become too hot in summer and should have fabric walls that can be peeled back for cooling, he said.

Growing pot indoors requires intense use of electricity that rivals that of data centers, according to a study published last year in the journal Energy Policy.

“I’d like to see more conversation around what security requirements are actually necessary, and whether or not we can’t have adequate security of outdoor fields,” Holcomb said. “Eastern Washington has fabulous territory for growing this crop.”

Liquor Control Board spokesman Brian Smith said the board would consider changing that rule if Moberg and others could show that greenhouses could be secured with a different approach.

Other proposed rules include:

• Uniform testing standards by independent accredited labs. Testing might measure moisture, potency and residues of pesticides and other chemicals.

• Consumers would know the contents and potency of products they buy from labels that would come with a stamp of the state’s silhouette decorated with a seven-point marijuana leaf.

• Advertising for retail stores would be restricted to one sign visible to the public, limited in size. Ads couldn’t be false or misleading, promote overconsumption or depict toys or characters especially appealing to minors.

• Backgrounds will be checked for license applicants and financiers. Certain criminal convictions, such as a non-marijuana felony in the last 10 years, would exclude applicants.

• Strict security and surveillance, as well as tracking systems for products, would be required.

The board also laid out a schedule of fines for violating rules, which could lead to a canceled license.

Pot entrepreneurs gathered at a West Seattle meeting of the Coalition for Cannabis Standards & Ethics to pore over the rules.

“Some of this added more questions, but that’s good, that’s what process is for,” said John Davis, the coalition’s director and a medical marijuana dispensary owner.

Davis was not bothered by the ban on selling stand-alone concentrates, which he called “trendy with kids” and likened to beer bongs.

“I can understand them having that restriction because concentrates can be potent,” he said, adding that 95 percent of his dispensary sales involve dried pot and an older consumer demographic.

The board proposed prohibiting concentrate sales, Smith said, because they didn’t think it was allowed under I-502, which said usable marijuana amounted to flowers and infused products. The board is inclined to allow the sale of stand-alone hash, hash oils and concentrates, Smith said, “but it’s not going to break the law to do it.”

Holcomb said that may be an area ripe for further discussion and may need to be resolved by changing the law next year. Under state law, stores have to be 1,000 feet from the perimeter of schools, libraries, parks and other places frequented by youth. The draft rules do not specify the number of stores nor how they would be geographically dispersed. The rules only say the board will determine the number of stores in each county.

If there are more applicants than the permitted licensed locations, the state would conduct a lottery to determine who gets licensed.

The initial draft rules are not to be confused with the official draft rules, to be filed in mid-June.

The board issued draft rules now because it wants to vet the groundbreaking regulations before releasing formal draft rules, which can be more difficult to revise, Smith said.

Gov. Jay Inslee praised the board’s work and said it couldn’t do much more to allay concerns of the federal government, which considers all marijuana an illegal, dangerous drug.

“I don’t think you could design a system with much more integrity as far as tracking the product from the producer to the consumer,” Inslee said. “I think this plan has a robust system of control and checks in a variety of ways.”

[Cannabusdriver]

There is a part of me that wants to be excited that some kind of progress is being made as far as educating people about herb, but this shit just smells funny. The crazy part is 4 years ago I would have been all for this shit. Thanks to my new woman (a grower) and sites like ICmag, and fullmeltbubble, I have learned a lot. I feel like Morphius unplugged me and showed me the matrix.

[Enchantre]

It does almost seem that they are designing the system to fail...

[xmobotx]

yeah it seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for 75 cents a gram

[trichrider]

Cash only for marijuana businesses after credit union backs away


Verity Credit Union has backed away from helping marijuana businesses open checking accounts. The move is a major setback for pot businesses as the Seattle credit union had been the only financial institution in the state openly providing banking to those shops.

Medical marijuana businesses have struggled to find a place to keep their cash. They also need checking accounts to pay vendors, workers, and state business taxes. Banks have been refusing to let them open accounts, but Verity was different.

That changed a few weeks ago after banking regulators in Olympia "invited" Verity executives to come have a chat.

"They drove down here and met with the division director," says Scott Jarvis, director of Washington’s Department of Financial Institutions, the top local regulator for banks and credit unions. He says the conversations were purely educational; they just wanted to talk to Verity about how they were interpreting federal banking laws.

"My general counsel listed various federal laws … the Bank Secrecy Act, the need to file SARS [suspicious activity] reports, money laundering issues," says Jarvis.

Since the federal government still classifies marijuana as an illegal drug, Jarvis says anyone who handles the money could be seen as laundering drug money. Verity had been operating under its own interpretation of federal rules.

Soon after that meeting, Verity apparently notified all of its medical marijuana clients (approximately 15 businesses) that it was closing their accounts. Credit union executives declined to comment.

One of those closed accounts belonged to Cale Burkhart of Seattle, who is hoping to win a state marijuana license for his business making cannabis lotions and edibles.

"We have to order lot of packaging materials, a lot of labels, and most of those things are all purchased online," he says, so he needs a check-card or credit card. "And also being able to do payroll and pay our taxes, moving forward," is a lot simpler if you have a checking account.

For now, Burkhart says most marijuana businesses have to use their personal bank accounts, or else try operating under a name that might slip under the radar.

Banking is one of the lingering challenges for the marijuana industry. State lawmakers, regulators, bankers, and marijuana businesses have been meeting to look for other ways meet the banking needs, as they attempt to implement Initiative 502, which establishes a growing and retailing system for marijuana.

https://kplu.org/post/cash-only-marij...n-backs-away-0

is this their remedy? punk feds. fuqem. draggin' their damned feet while people suffer...cash out the door getting a new paintjob.

[xmobotx]

i sent them some "public input"

For the board,

As an interested party in the implementation of initiative 502, I have intentions of applying for the producer license. However, my plan has been based on an outdoor operation. The board's representation of a preliminary set of rules which excludes outdoor operations ignites smoldering concerns that the rules are being structured to eliminate small-scale operations.

Mostly, the expense of establishing a compliant facility are far greater than can reasonably be recouped by a small-scale operation. I get the definitive impression that "the will of the people" as regards this issue is that small-scale farms could be implemented by individuals who would benefit financially in a way which is meaningful -as opposed to large corporations might report larger numbers on their financials. With the recent issues relevant to national and local economy, many may have viewed this as an opportunity to pull themselves up "by the bootstraps."

My interest has been in applying a "ley rotation" strategy. With this application, sections of the field would have diverse crops rotated through from season to season. For the "cash crop" season of rotation, a hoop house greenhouse could be employed for optimizing the environment, light deprivation for flower cycle and, for visual security purposes. However w/ this strategy, the greenhouse needs to be mobile. The advantages are that diverse crops can be capitalized on for nutrient inputs, soil development and possibly, diverse cash crops. This is just one of many effective options which are excluded by the preliminary wording of the rule set.

I also observed that the requirements for retaining recorded data from the camera/surveillance system are strangely disproportionate to that requirement as it pertains to financial institutions including casinos. My concern is that a system which has the capability of storing that volume of information would once again be prohibitive to the small-scale grower.

Something which has been alluded to is the possibility the state run stores would be dealing in "homogenized, granular" product. I am also concerned that the state's stores would not be competitive with the black market if offering a form unfamiliar to cannabis advocates. It is noteworthy that many of these people are wary of processed goods in general.

Again, my concerns are specifically that this model is being generated in such a fashion that the small-scale grower will be excluded and/or so that corporate interests may be served rather than the "will of the people."

[Chunkypigs]

I can't see how they plan on keeping hash and wax illegal...