After three years of legal retail cannabis I expected a lot of interesting bills in the legislature this year. Apparently, folk in Washington are satisfied with their system as there are not any game changers in the works.
The State itself seems most interested in maximizing tax revenues from it’s primary cannabis tax collection agency, the retail stores. There are 486 retail licenses issued in WA, but only about 300 are actually in operation sending taxes to Olympia. This has been a characteristic of the WA system since inception. Bills are floating through to address the causes of this problem, and will likely pass.
The reasons for retail store licensees not getting off the ground quickly are poor business acumen, under capitalization, poor due diligence, maddening changes at the local government level, and local uprisings. While bills are going through to address these issues, this error in Washington’s implementation has been recognized and has been built into subsequent state measures. Much to California’s chagrin, but that is something for later.
The biggest complaint about Washington’s system is that it doesn’t allow for home grow. That was by intent, and is being examined closely by the legislature right now.
When I think of home-grown marijuana I think of three or four plants in the kitchen garden or maybe in the garage under lights. If that was my neighbor, I’d gladly accept a gift of his home-grown with the same enthusiasm as he had given me a bagful of his zucchini.
Colorado allows 99 plants for a home-grow. Roughly, figure each plant is good for 1 ounce of usable product. Since it can’t be sold in the legal market, it goes east into the black market there. Colorado is seriously considering fixing this right now.
So Washington is considering a law that allows home-grows, but limits the number of plants to about 6. At what point does your neighbor cross from home gardener to black market producer? Seven plants? 98?