The Liquor Control Board is reviewing applications for grower, producer, and retail licenses in Washington right now. Their rules set limits on the total amount of the grow in the state. Ostensibly, that guess matches the retail consumption so that there wouldn’t be any exports from the state.
But no one knows what the demand will be, hence what the supply should be, nor the costs and prices involved.
So, without any hard data the LCB found it had far too many applications for growers than the limit allowed. To issue as many licenses as possible, they cut the allowance for each grower dramatically. More smaller operations rather than just a few big operations.
Whether this good or not is a complete unknown. Those applying as growers were required to have a lease for the size of the operation they were applying for; now they are stuck with the costs of a lease they can’t use.
Another problem the applicants face is once the state grants them a license to grow, the local jurisdiction may not permit such operations. Many local governments have adopted a wait-and-see approach to giving permits. Seattle, as one would expect, is completely in full gear on this. But applicants elsewhere have put a lot of money in getting a license that they might not be able to use.
Washington has been down this road before, with the Liquor Control Board. When liquor licenses became scarce, the price for them rose a lot, sometimes exceeding the value of the holder’s bar. And when you hold a valuable license, there have been troubles getting local permits to operate, usually involving bribes and public corruption.
Issue more licenses, and the conservative religionists buy more politicians to stop them. And so it goes.
The idea here is to keep the price of product low to wipe out the black market, even while levying taxes that at least cover the cost of regulation; not making the value of holding a license so high that bribery and corruption of public officials becomes common, AND not violating any of the federal guidelines for legal pot.
That’s asking a lot of any of our governments.