The Liquor Control Board released a bunch of proposed rule changes for I-502 businesses yesterday, including one that could lead to increasing the marijuana plant canopy size for growers.

The maximum amount of space for marijuana production was initially limited to 2 million square feet statewide. It could grow to 8.5 million square feet with board approval.

The board’s ability to make that change has been there since the launch of I-502, from what I understand, but the wording change seems to indicate the board may be more seriously considering it.

The canopy is “to be increased based on marketplace demand, but not to exceed eight and one-half million square feet without board approval” according to the changed wording.

Mike McElveny, operations manager at Agrijuana, a Tier 3 grower in Battle Ground, said that a larger canopy would be welcome news for many growers in the state.

“We’d like that, although what we also need are more stores,” McElveny said.

The limited number of stores (there are about 100 statewide now and 5 open in Clark County, with at least two more on the way) has created a bottleneck for growers making it hard to get their products to market, he added.

The proposal also formalizes the ban of bundling items like pipes or lighters with pot sales.

It also includes a bunch of alterations to the edibles market.

Some of those changes include this section:

Marijuana-infused edible products in solid form must meet the following requirements:
(a) If there is more than one serving in the package, each serving must be packaged individually in childproof packaging (see WAC 314-55-105(7)) and placed in the outer package.
(b) The label must prominently display the number of servings in the package.
(c) Marijuana-infused solid edible products must be homogenized to ensure uniform disbursement of cannabinoids throughout the product.
(d) All marijuana-infused solid edibles must prominently display on the label “This product contains marijuana.”

Marijuana-infused edible products in liquid form must meet the following requirements:
(a) If there is more than one serving in the package, a measuring device must be included in the package with the product.
(b) The label must prominently display the number of servings in the package and the amount of product per serving.
(c) Marijuana-infused liquid edibles must be homogenized to ensure uniform disbursement of cannabinoids throughout the product.
(d) All marijuana-infused liquid edibles must prominently display on the label “This product contains marijuana.”

The single serving edibles issue has caused problems for Fairwinds Manufacturing’s Catapult Coffee – making it more expensive to produce.

Rather than having a single bag of coffee with a measuring cup for individual servings, the company has to individually bag each serving and then put them into a larger bag of coffee. That takes a lot more time to process and also costs more and wastes packaging, James Hull, the owner, tells me.

There are a lot of other things in there worth looking at. The board will take public comments about the changes until May 6 (their information is below).

What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments section!

Cheers,
-SueVo (sue.vorenberg@columbian.com)

Rule Changes: Chapter 314-55 WAC Marijuana licenses, application process, requirements, and reporting

To comment to the board:

Public Comment
Please forward your initial comments to the Liquor Control Board by mail, e-mail, or fax by May 6, 2015.

By mail: Rules Coordinator
Liquor Control Board
P.O. Box 43080
Olympia, WA 98504-3080

By e-mail: rules@lcb.wa.gov

By fax: (360) 664-9689

Public Hearing
May 6, 2015
10:00 a.m.
Washington State Liquor Control Board – Board Room
3000 Pacific Ave. S.E, Olympia, WA