A recent Herald editorial is obviously influenced by the Washington CannaBusiness Associaton, a for-profit trade group that represents a small but powerfully funded sliver of hemp and cannabis interests (“Legislature, Congress must update cannabis rules,” The Herald, March 1).
I sit on the board of the WA Sun & Craft Growers Association. I am a founding member of The Cannabis Alliance. Both are grass-roots, non-profit cannabis trade organizations that are often at odds with WACA’s goals for the industry.
The bills to control THC that the editorial mentions (HB 2123 and SB 5981) are backed by WACA and have not garnered general support by the rest of the industry. The bills that truly are backed by general industry, agencies and bipartisan support on the topic are HB 2122 and SB 5983. The differences between the two approaches are subtle yet powerfully different.
Language in both sets of bills give the state Liquor and Cannabis Board the authority to enforce halting THC products from being sold without regulation in convenience stores and the like. HB 2122 and SB 5983 are agency-requested bills that give rule-making authority over the creation of synthetically derived intoxicants from the hemp plant. Current law gives authority to the state over only Delta 9 THC, the intoxicating cannabinoid molecule that occurs naturally in cannabis. The law also currently places synthetics under the Uniform Control Act of Washington State as banned substances.
HB 2122 and SB 5983 would give authority over these man-made intoxicants to the Liquor and Cannabis Board. These are the bills the state needs passed to ensure state consumers are not made into guinea pigs for synthetically made intoxicants.
Shawn DeNae
Arlington
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