Like I did last year, I’ll be watching what the legislature does with cannabis. They did quite poorly last year in doing anything, though some could see it as an advantage. At any rate, here they go again.
Washington does not allow any personal, or home, production of the cannabis plant, making it unique amongst the legal states. There is a bill, and I’m sure there will be far too much discussion over this simple thing, slowing down the work on the other topics.
The state unwisely found itself in a dispute with the vendor of the tracking system they used. Unable to switch vendors, they are doing without for now. This “seed to sale” system was regarded as the backbone of the regulators, and we have yet to see the impact from it’s loss. I can see the lawmakers questioning the veracity of the regulators and their requests for improvements.
Meanwhile, it’s a bumper crop in Washington, with dropping wholesale prices and production far exceeding demand. Washington has no limits on the number of growers, relying on the market to find it’s level. Overproduction in Washington is not on the scale of Oregon and California, but there are a lot of growers that have to get something to pay the bills, and without a tracking system. They don’t have an incentive to hang out in Olympia and make noise.
Then, there’s California, as in, “How about we wait a bit and see how California does?” That one can be used for almost everything cannabis-related the lawmakers see.
I’m not expecting much.