The following is a request I submitted earlier today to Governor Jay Inslee that requests that he veto SB-5318 “Reforming the compliance and enforcement provisions for marijuana licensees.” that recently arrived on his desk after passing through the Legislature this session. I understand the bill is scheduled for his signature today.
I would like to request that Governor Inslee veto SB-5318, which I understand to possibly be scheduled for a signing ceremony later today.
While placing limits on the admittedly inconsistent and occasionally heavy-handed enforcement by the WSLCB, SB-5318 effectively forgives the very bad and public-harming behavior of a handful of large licensees within the industry that have a long and consistent track record of breaking rules and putting Washingtonians at risk.
Some of these big “bad” licensees appear to be using SB-5318 as one
of the tools in their aggressive attempts this session to execute regulatory
capture over the WSLCB. I am familiar
with the use of positive incentives aimed at regulators in attempts to steer
their efforts to favor a subset of those they regulate. This year, Washington has seen an overtly
aggressive negative effort on the part of some of the big “bad” licensees and
their trade organization to directly attack the WSCLB and one of it’s Board
members. The attacks on Russ Hauge and,
more generally, on the alleged culture within the WSLCB were aggressive and at
least partially unfounded.
I am disappointed with my Senator (Palumbo) for being a sponsor of
SB-5318. His rationale seems to be to
defend the jobs that will be lost if the big “bad” licensee that
operates in his district that is currently facing license cancellation has that
cancellation stand. In taking this position,
Sen. Palumbo appears to have ignored the substance and grievous nature of the
history of violations demonstrated by this licensee (and their
affiliates). The licensee(s) in question
has/have a history of over 20 warnings and/or infractions from the WSLCB. The petitioners and supporters of this Bill
have attempted to frame these violations as “de minimus” in
nature. I assure you, Governor Inslee,
that many of their violations were anything but minimal in their impact on
public health and safety.
One member of this affiliated group of businesses was just found to be selling
pesticide-laden product and doing so in such a way that tracing the product
through the regulated system would be next to impossible. They appear to be selling product to
Washingtonians that is labeled falsely.
They appear to be selling product that is not fit for human
consumption. They are responsible for a
non-trivial fraction of the product on the shelves of retail stores across the
state.
Two of the top 10 wholesalers in the industry are currently facing license
cancellations for their egregious patterns of rule-breaking. While a few hundred jobs would be lost upon
cancellation of these licenses, the volume of business that these cheats
currently conduct would be spread out over potentially hundreds of other
licensees — many of whom are struggling today in part because these big
players have, effectively, been allowed to cheat their way to the top over the
past few years. Some lost jobs could
well mean the survival of dozens of businesses that would otherwise fail.
The WSLCB enforcement effort is dysfunctional, Governor. It is the lack of meaningful enforcement in a
number of areas of significant relevance to public safety and health that has
enabled a competitive advantage for businesses that choose not to follow the
rules. However, the dysfunction of the
WSLCB enforcement arm is no reason to sign into law a bill that allows big
“bad” businesses that have gotten that way in part through their
callous disregard for the rules to continue operating in a way that puts Washingtonians
in harm’s way.
Additional constraint on how the WSLCB executes it’s enforcement of the
cannabis industry Is necessary. However,
this bill appears to allow some of the worst offenders within the industry to
continue operations, in spite of the clear negative impact that their approach
to doing business has on the safety and health of Washingtonians.
Please do not sign SB-5318 into law, Governor Inslee. This would be a good situation in which to
use your veto power.
If I can be of any assistance to your office in better understanding the facts
related to this issue, please feel free to have your staff reach out to me.
Thank-you
Dr. James MacRae