Health committee  I was just going to say that it's very similar to the experience in Colorado. Typically, what we're most concerned about around branding or advertising is whether it's appealing to children or not, or to our youth. I would say it's closer to what's allowed in the spirits industry

Health committee  We have to take them in and have a blood test done. They're trying to work on some kind of technology that would allow a swab, for example, to be able to do it at the scene. However, at this point they're taking them in to draw blood.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  I'm sure it is.

Health committee  Without getting into too much detail, until 2011 we were the monopoly for spirits in Washington State but then Costco through an initiative of privatized spirit sales.... But that was typically the model: less access and no advertising. State employees ran the liquor stores with

Health committee  Similar to Colorado, if you're a medical patient with an authorization, you can acquire medical marijuana if you're 18, 19, or 20 years of age, and with a provider if you're younger. It's a felony in Washington, which is a lot more egregious than the other states I just heard f

Health committee  It's the same experience in Washington state. Early on we had discussions with the Washington Poison Center because they were seeing an uptick in calls and visits to hospitals with respect to panic attacks, normal things that, honestly, I wasn't even aware of at the time, but I t

Health committee  I would like it to be stronger for the producer-processor, just to be candid. Much of the effort initially was focused on the whole issue of youth access and making sure the compliance checks were being done often in order to make sure that youth did not have access through the m

Health committee  I think there was so much cynicism in our state with law enforcement because medical marijuana was unregulated that there were real concerns about whether this could be regulated and enforced. Again, I think the merging of medical and recreational that occurred last year has chan

Health committee  It's similar in Washington.

Health committee  What's interesting is that the excise tax applies to both medical and recreational cannabis, so we don't have the issue in Colorado, where people are sticking with the medical program, where they can easily get an authorization to use medical cannabis. It's of real concern when t

Health committee  There are those who are reporting some of that information, but we have not looked at that. We had assumed, after the first year, that we would be somewhere between 5% and 13% of the marketplace. Right now, at $1.3 billion in the third fiscal year, that's much larger than we an

Health committee  Mr. Chairman, if I may, I wanted to add that we do have a point system in Washington with respect to someone's criminal background. We're looking for an egregious pattern of illegal activity or criminal activity. We have that same point system for licensees for alcohol. I think,

Health committee  It's interesting that it really hasn't changed a lot over the last three years since the first retail stores opened. About 68% of what's consumed today is bud and flower. It was about 72% for the first year, and then about 12% edibles and infused products, and also the concentrat

Health committee  We didn't. As the regulator, it was done by initiative. The authors, I think, did exactly what we heard was done in Colorado, which was to use the same age as the drinking age.