What We Do
We are a membership comprised of all aspects of the Cannabis Industry from patients to producers, farmers and retailers we have a unique perspective and background that helps guide our passion and advocacy for the sustainable and ethical future of our industry. In 2016 when the Alliance was created we were seeing a need for a cohesive voice that was not being met. We wanted to make sure all voices were being heard, not just a few. In the years since then we have taken this vision and crafted into a robust member body that advocates, educates and promotes good practices and helps steer the conversation across a multitude of legislative bodies and industry leaders alike. We have been an essential voice in crafting legislation to ensure Washington’s Cannabis industry is one that can both assure safe access and reasonable regulation for our businesses to thrive. With the support of our membership we hope to continue our mission and achieve our goal of creating an industry that is ethical, sustainable, and profitable for all players.
Current Initiatives:
Waste Reduction
Measuring Devices
Additional research we’ve conducted since the filing of the petition shows that 1,297,000 dosing caps were sold in the last year and that beverages are growing 20%+ per year. If this rule change is accepted we will prevent 1.5 million dosing caps from going in the landfill in just the next year alone.
We strongly believe that this rule change is imperative and should be considered important enough to be implemented immediately in order to significantly reduce the overwhelming amount of waste generated from our industry; waste that is a direct result of trying to comply with state regulations. Additionally, if the goal is consumer safety, then hash marks on the bottle itself combined with clear directions on the label will be more effective.
Package Thickness from 4ml to 2ml
The Cannabis Alliance is dedicated to a sustainable industry in all its forms and we are constantly looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact. We brought this solution to the LCBs attention and advocated for a 2mil standard in order to reduce our poly bag waste by 50%. A 2 mil thick bag meets all FDA & USDA requirements for food safety and provides adequate barrier protection.
Utilizing our partnership with Headset, along with some packaging sales data from a few of our packaging members, we were able to quantify the following waste reduction impacts.
| Annual Sales | Weight reduced in grams | Weight reduced in lbs | Weight reduced in tons | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gram bags | 4,780,221 | 7,170,331 | 15,794 | 7.9 |
| 1/8th bags | 9,064,673 | 18,129,346 | 39,932 | 20.0 |
| 1/4oz bags | 1,173,857 | 3,521,571 | 7,757 | 3.9 |
| 1/2oz bags | 485,025 | 2,425,127 | 5,342 | 2.7 |
| Oz bags | 733,267 | 4,399,602 | 9,691 | 4.8 |
| Totals | 16,237,043 bags | 35,645,977 grams | 78,516 lbs | 39.3 tons |
Patient Advocacy
The highest level priority we are currently focusing on as an organization is advocating and utilizing our advising power to remove the 37% excise tax for patients, assuring that they have affordable access to life saving medication We also have a robust patient advocacy committee that is dedicated to using their voice to shape the conversation within the alliance, and the industry as a whole. If you would like to be a part of that voice consider joining our patient committee today.
At the Cannabis Alliance we believe the more voices at the table fosters a more ethical and sustainable community, and industry as a whole. To that effect we have been using our voice and professional connections to advocate on behalf of patients and are actively working to get a patient advocate on the Cannabis Advisory Council to the LCB so patients have a better avenue to help shape the future of cannabis in Washington State to suit their unique needs.
Accomplishments
We advocated for our member businesses with regulatory agencies and the legislature. Resulting in changes such as removing quarantine, removing harvest date, and receiving a full year to implement rule changes.
We consistently have a voice and a seat at the table with the WSLCB, WSDA, DOE, DOH and the Governor’s office.
We’ve insisted industry stakeholder voices be heard during legislatively mandated agency reports such as DOE’s Lab Accreditation Report and the WSLCB’s Home Delivery report.
We participated in WSDA’s workgroup on the establishment of an organic-like program for cannabis.
We are at the forefront of the conversation as it pertains to testing and lab standardization, edible regulations, state traceability fixes, medical access, and small business protections.
We participated in a UV exposure research grant in partnership with the UW.
We are currently participating in impairment research in partnership with WSU.
We are leading the effort to establish the first agricultural commodity commission for cannabis in the United States.
We have created successful events for our membership and the broader community such as:
- The WA State Cannabis Summit, now in its 5th year
- Lobby Days
- Kickball Tournaments
- Member hosted mixers and parties
We have hosted educational events and seminars such as:
- Trivia Night
- The first Purchasing Managers Seminar in the state of Washington
- Budtender Education
- The Terpestival in partnership with CASP
- A seminar on cannabis for WA State Court Reporters
We hired an additional employee as well as retained a contract lobbyist
Our membership numbers have doubled
We now provide Health Insurance for our members
We established a PAC and endorsed and supported candidates running for the State legislature.
We are a member of AWB and participated in a panel for their membership on workplace safety.
We have member committees such as our Science & Standards committee, Patient committee and Packaging Waste committee which are actively working to find solutions to important challenges.
We’ve established the longest running open meeting format for information and networking (since 2011)
We are the largest dues paying Cannabis Trade Association in Washington State.
Social Equity
Black Lives Matter. The Cannabis Alliance is dedicated to the advancement of a vital, ethical, equitable, and sustainable cannabis industry. This mission is a call to action in all the work that we do. The cannabis community is no stranger to the ways law enforcement can act in devastating ways to deliver a person into an even more devastating prison industrial complex. Due to legalization, Washington is better than most of the United States where 83% of cannabis arrests are for possession, a number that has increased every year since 2010. Washington, however, falls squarely in the ACLU statistic from 2019 that a black person is 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person. Indeed, in some states and Washington DC black people are 8 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana charges. Upon arrest, “African Americans are incarcerated at more than 5 times the rate of whites” and after incarceration the “negative impact of a criminal record is twice as large for African American applicants” for job consideration (NAACP). Beyond meeting our mission, The Cannabis Alliance is committed to affecting meaningful change in this shameful reality.
At the beginning of 2019, Governor Inslee came to The Cannabis Alliance Summit to announce the culmination of our collaborative efforts to vacate non-violent marijuana misdemeanors. While it was an exciting win at the time, even in our own work we recognize how this success benefits white people first. As debates about how to address social equity filled the legislative session at the beginning of the year, we have been learning and growing as an organization how to best bake-in principles of social justice in every aspect of our work. We have committed to doing better by recruiting people of color for positions of leadership, opening committees dedicated to Latinx and women issues, while standing behind in support of organizations with strong voices for communities of color. As a result, multiple targeted initiatives are underway to address funding for minority business development, arrest protocol, new I502 license categories for social equity, patient access and education for communities of color, and collaborative support for initiatives from partner organizations. We can still do better. It is our goal to demonstrate what an intersectional, powerful industry organization can look like.