We’ve been anticipating this one for over a year. This bill is the direct result of the UW Addictions, Drug, & Alcohol Institute (ADAI) workgroup on high THC cannabis policies which PURP members participated in last year. They've incorporated our suggestion to target young adults through an educational social marketing campaign, but unfortunately the main purpose of the bill is to impose a tiered sin tax system on concentrates and, you know, drive us all back to the black market:
This bill proposes to increase the tax rate to 50% for concentrates & cartridges (and flower lol) with 36-60% THC
Proposes to increase the tax rate to 65% for concentrates & cartridges (and flower lol) with more than 60% THC
Proposes to ban the sale of concentrates to people aged 21-24
Proposes to ban the advertising of concentrates, including on social media
How to Take Action
Go to https://app.leg.wa.gov/csi/House. Select "Regulated Substances & Gaming" from the Committee dropdown menu, then "02/02/2023 8:00am" from the Meetings dropdown menu.
Click on "HB 1641 High-potency cannabis," then click the link that says, "I would like my position noted for the legislative record."
On the next page, make sure you select "CON" as your position. Complete the form with your information, and feel free to put "Patients and Users for Reasonable Policy" as your Organization.
Official Testimony
PURP will be giving the following remote testimony, provided here in writing for any regulators who wish to review it:
I was very thankful to have been invited to participate in ADAI's high potency cannabis workgroup last year, especially considering I'm one of the most vocal opponents of recent efforts to limit the potency of concentrates. During this experience, many of the proposed solutions from workgroup participants were to address this public health issue by imposing higher taxes on concentrates, which are already taxed at 47.25% including Seattle sales tax. Other than tobacco, which is taxed at 95% in Washington, I can't think of a product that's taxed more heavily. Ultimately, the people who stand to benefit from more taxes on cannabis products are research organizations such as ADAI, but they'll only get that extra dough if the consumers are willing to pay a 65% tax rate for the same products. And we won't.
Please bear in mind that many mature cannabis users had, and continue to have established black market connections for cannabis products, including concentrates, and raising the prices as this bill proposes will only harm the state's bottom line in terms of cannabis tax revenue. The consumers want safe & convenient access to well regulated products, but with the current economic conditions consumers have to be especially price conscious and will be quick to abandon retail concentrates for homemade rosin.
It should be noted that the premise of limiting the THC potency of concentrates makes no sense from a physical standpoint. If the average potency of cannabis flower is around 20% THC, and we concentrate that by removing most of the plant matter and leaving just cannabinoids and residual lipids, we can expect the resulting product to be at least 40 to 60% THC.
Hashish— an ancient cannabis concentrate that predates Abrahamic religions— typically clocks in at 40% THC, and today's solventless extractions made by applying heat and pressure to hashish typically yield concentrates with 60 to 70% THC. The 35% threshold in this bill is inherently unreasonable.
With regards to limiting sales of these non-lethal cannabis products to persons 25 and older, I would suggest that we stay consistent and raise the drinking age to 25 as well. Nobody here can deny that alcohol is empirically more dangerous, destructive, and deadly than cannabis and yet none of us here are trying to further limit the potency of liquor or eliminate sales to these exact same young people whose “brains haven't fully developed yet.” I'd be interested to hear why the bill sponsors and the academics are less concerned with young adults drinking than using cannabis, though I suspect the reason is because cannabis is a hot topic that can garner more research grants and publicity.
One thing I do appreciate about this bill is that it would allocate funds for a targeted social marketing campaign to educate young people about the risks of using high potency cannabis products, including cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. It's vital that we fully educate people about all the risks of ingesting any substance, but equally important that we respect the sanctity of bodily autonomy in all contexts.
I can easily go on for another hour, but I'll conclude by saying that the consumers who financially support the cannabis industry are opposed to any additional taxes on cannabis products, and I oppose this bill in the strongest of terms. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.