The idea is the brainchild of the 70-member Washington CannaBusiness Association (WACA), which hopes to have the fund up and running by spring 2017, according to the News Tribune. The fund is intended to expand patient access to MMJ."
"Patients facing a wide array of medical conditions can sometimes get assistance for prescription drugs from pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and charities. That same support system doesn’t exist for medical marijuana. 'Hopefully we can help fill that void until the federal government changes the status of marijuana nationally,' [WACA Executive Director] Christophersen said."
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"WACA also announced a new Code of Conduct on Tuesday that its members are signing on to. After WACA was formed following the passage of Initiative 502 the organization realized it needed to represent the will of the people, Christophersen said. 'The voter will was a safe, fully regulated market that keeps product out of the hands of kids, generates revenues for the state to deal with things like substance abuse and others,' she said. 'Our members feel very strongly about that responsibility and they take it very seriously.'"
"Vicki Christophersen, the executive director and registered lobbyist for the Washington Cannabusiness Association, said she was happy to see the state trying to improve their regulations. 'I do know that our companies feel very strongly that it is our role as an industry to prove it,' Christophersen says. 'We are in the prove it phase: proving that we can produce a safe product, proving that we will work hard to keep it out of children. We are sort of on the point of the sword.'"
"More than two years since legal recreational marijuana sales started, Washington pot businesses have seen more than $1.48 billion in total sales, raising more than $350 million in excise taxes, according to the state.
But while sales have almost only increased, questions about the future of the market linger.
Beyond the industry-unique issues of regulation and the fact that marijuana is still illegal federally, it’s not yet clear when the market, which saw volatile prices and supply issues during its early days, will start to balance out in terms of supply and demand.
'We’re two years into a very fledgling industry, so to some extent, the sort of unpredictable nature of this industry is to be expected,' Washington CannaBusiness Association Executive Director Vicki Christophersen said."
"'Vicki Christophersen, a lobbyist for the marijuana industry who heads the Washington CannaBusiness Association, said the increasing revenues for marijuana shops show the regulated marketplace is effectively competing against the black market.
'We wouldn’t be selling to that level if we weren’t,' Christophersen said. The price of products on store shelves now, despite the tax, 'are competitive with what we thought the black market was at one point.'"
"Californians contemplating a future of legal marijuana after election day may want to gaze north, to places like this hip pot spot south of downtown Seattle, to see how radically the landscape has changed in the four years since Washington voters decriminalized recreational weed and the two years since retail sales launched. A thriving, slick-marketed cannabis economy is fronted by boutique ganja shops where green-thumbed bud tenders wander like sommeliers, pontificating on their feel-good goods."
You can read the whole story here, including insights from WACA board member Susie Gress of Vashon Velvet.
WACA member Jody Hall of The Goodship Company and board member Susie Gress of Vashon Velvet are featured in the latest episode of VICE's Munchies. Check out this fun look into how our members are leading the way to supporting a thriving, safe and quality-controlled marijuana marketplace in Washington.
The Tacoma News-Tribune today published a guest editorial by Washington CannaBusiness Association Executive Director Vicki Christophersen:
"On July 1 our state took a big step forward in supporting a safe, quality-controlled and fully regulated cannabis industry by expanding the system created by voters to include the totally unmonitored medical marijuana marketplace."