The Liquor Control Board published it’s list of enforcement actions against retail marijuana establishments. Three fines were issued for not following the rules, a bunch of warnings were issued for not paying taxes on time.
I have to hand it to the LCB in WA in putting out a lot of information about what they are doing. The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division doesn’t come close to what LCB is doing.
In this Grand Experiment, no one in WA or CO or any other state considering de-prohibition does not want a screw-up to mess up the entire industry. Sober actors are extremely careful to toe the line, knowing they’ll have the chance later to make changes. CO and WA are wedded in this respect, if one screws up the other suffers.
The bulk of the violations were paying taxes late, and were verbal only. These businesses are being run on a cash only basis, so when the decision comes to buying product to sell or pay taxes, it comes from your stash of twenty-dollar bills. No bank account that can float a check for a few days, no credit card to stick it on, no line of credit to cover shortages. Pay the state, and go out of business, or buy product to sell and deal with state later.
The state knows this, hence just the verbals. Both the state and the industry are on the same side on this issue, banks can’t deal with marijuana dealers. Between WA and CO we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars. In twenty-dollar bills. It’s insane.