Cannabis Farmers Council Petition

There's one point missing, I believe, from your argument for more retail stores. It has to do with the original language and process used in selecting applicants to move forward, the nature of the free market system and monopolies/oligopolies. When the LCB chose to use the word "lottery" it made a drastic error. Those selected to move forward started to feel like they actually won the lottery. Then they realized they had no competition in the area and producers were sitting on hundreds-of-thousands to millions of dollars worth of product that had to be moved in order to pay the high price of said production and the only outlet for that product is through those retailers (Talk about beholden!). Knowing producers have extreme costs, a lot of product, and nowhere else to distribute the product but through those Limited retailers, they began to offer to purchase that product at a steep discount. Producers could either not sell it and go bankrupt or sell it cheap and pay their bills. Retailers then place a 300%, 400%, or higher markup on the product and sit back raking in the profits. These retailers have ZERO risk and nearly all the reward. By the time they receive the product, there are no bugs, there is no mold, test results are done, and six-figure per month bills are paid. This is business at its worst! It is upside down and backwards.  The long-term impact of this business model will be to drive quality through the floor in  pursuit of running a viable business. If the idea here is to reduce cost and improve quality then let  producers open their own store and sell their own product. That's when you'll see innovation in technique and output coupled by lowered prices and the disappearance of the black market. 

As a stakeholder in the i502 system we need a voice to address the many problems we face to grow and deliver a safe affordable product to market. A market that's goal is to keep the costs down so as the patient consumer can afford the medicine they need. One of the areas I see that could help is to cut out the excessive packaging cost by increasing the test lots size from 5# to 30# and allow us to sell 3# sub lots and allow the retail to weight and package as the medical store do now in medicines containers as they have been doing from the beginning. This would justify the cost of necessary pesticide testing need to insure a safe product.

#1: -  

 Definitely a must sign! I Thank You for taking the time to speak for us! I would definitely like to touch on education points for surveillance, battery back ups etc. We were totally uneducated in this area and we have power blips from time to time. Also a set starting price for outdoor, indoor etc. the prices are dropping tremendously with all the farms trying to pay their bills. It's getting very cut throat ! If we stand united the retailers will have to pay for a quality product in these areas. The decrease in tax implementation  would do as well! The Quarantine periods as well! Again Thank You!

#8: -  

 This is not a new industry! The only thing new is that the state has made it legal, moved in, taking the whole pie and leaving us their crums to gather and try to live off!

As a Producer/Processor survivor since 2014.....like the rest of us, I've worked 7 days a week 10-16 hrs daily & have not made $1 personally.  The business is still severely upside down, yet we're so busy that we can't keep up with our sales.  There are so many industry imbalances as to be untenable...retailers to whom we sell are buying new 6 figure cars & new homes for cash, & we can't pay our basic bills.

Now the investigators are going through the police academy, aren't the bullet proof vests & lock & loaded weapons enough intimidation?

Isn't it obvious that if only the multi millin dollar start ups survive, the wholesale prices will skyrocket?  It is not normal new business attrition when a thousand, or more, producer/processors have already closed their doors...without the farmer, there is no industry.

Total excise tax collected to date is $175,483,048 (502data.com) To date, four states (Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska) and their citizens are reaping tremendous economic benefits, including a decrease in both crime and arrest rates. The value of Washington’s Cannabis consumption is larger than the state’s entire wheat industry, and already about half that of our world famous apple industry, surpassing all other crops ranking it currently in 2nd position. To maximize this explosive growth it is critical that the current 37% tax rate be reduced and vital to the survival of the entire industry is that all bans and moratoriums be immediately removed. I502 is a state law and as such should be enforced, not circumvented.

I agree. Almost every farmer I talk to is struggling to get by month to month, most barely making enough to keep their doors open let alone get any paycheck at all. The imbalance between retail and farmer has already shut down many farms and threatens many more. Without the farmer, there will be no industry.

In addition to the above, I would like the LCB to consider having the retail stores provide a safe (with cameras) area for delivery. As farmers we are required to record every minute of the plants life, including strict vehicle regulations (which I'm not complaining about), but at the most vunerable time, we are often left to walk blocks or unsafe alley ways to get the product to the retail door. We use every safety measure we can, including heavy duty locked delivery boxes, but if the farmer is required to have the transport of the product on camera from their facility to their vehicle (within the safety of their own complex), why is that same safety measure not required on the retail end when we are most vunerable for theft? There are some stores in Seattle that don't have available parking for blocks, and week after week I have sketchy observers of my comings and goings for deliveries. This is unsafe, and its only a matter of time before someone is robbed, or even worse hurt, during this vunerable time. Retail stores should be required to provide a safe, with cameras, area for delivery.

As a representative of The Cannabis Alliance I want to officially show our endorsement for the statements and requests made in this document. Thank you Cannabis Farmers Council for putting together this clear and comprehensive work on behalf of cannabis farmers. 

If the WSLCB actually understands what a burden their incredibly stringent and difficult rules and regulations put on the legal cannabis farmer then what they have done is abhorrent. If in fact they did not understand how difficult the over regulation would make the jobs of growers then they have an opportunity to affect that. No grower spends all their savings and every single second of their time to do this in a criminal fashion and yet the rules and regulations are put into place as though it is expected that we most definitely will engage in something against the law. That could not be further from the truth or the actual fact. We are all trying our very best to make our businesses successful and it is really just about impossible with the level of compliance that this system mandates. This process has taken away our time.....every bit of it.....just to function with the reporting, worthless quarantines and the atrocity called Biotrack as the system we must report it all in! There are not enough retail shops to bring in any sort of competition between retailers so they still inflate the price of our products 200-600% and if there were more shops the prices would definitely go down for the consumer because of the added competion factor. Many growers cannot sell any of their product and it is not because they don't grow good cannabis, it is because there are not enough access points for all the growers in comparison. 

There are many other critical issues affecting the farmers in negative ways but this petition deals with many things that are crucial to the growers to change. I urge the WSLCB to really look at what they are doing in the way of over regulation and incredibly restrictive compliance expectations to the legal cannabis farmer. They have the power to change some of these ridiculous practices that only elevate the price of production and create unnecessary hardship on the producers who are the foundation of this industry!

To help neutralize the Hypocrisy and Greed agendas that are continually revealing itself in this State's concern for fairness and responsibility to the citizens that voted MMJ into acceptance. What was not supposed to loose it's standing in the wake of the 502 paradigm's expansion is now being excommunicated.... not grandfathered in or assimilated. Only the "for profiteers" 502 shops are being expanded with multiple retail licenses, instead of hundreds of medical dispensaries serving thousands of patients being given consideration for services and education rendered.

Respectfully Submitted,
The Institute of Medical Horticulture LLC.
360-420-6868