This bill creates a new section in chapter 69.50 RCW and amends many existing sections to move the state licensing and regulation of production, processing, and testing of cannabis concentrates, usable cannabis, and cannabis‑infused products from the Washington state liquor and cannabis board to the Department of Agriculture. It directs that references to the board in statute regarding those transferred functions be read to mean the director or the Department of Agriculture, requires transfer of records, property, and related appropriations (with appropriations for the transferred functions to be transferred and credited to the Department of Agriculture on July 1, 2026), and directs OFM to certify allocations and apportionments as needed. The bill revises and adds licensing and regulatory rules across the chapter: it defines producer, processor, retailer, and research licenses and many related terms; sets application and annual fees (example figures in the text include $250 application and roughly $1,381 annual fees for producers/processors/retailers and a $250 application/$1,300 annual fee for research licenses); requires licenses to specify in‑state locations and prohibits use by others; caps retail ownership in aggregate at five licenses; establishes forfeiture timelines for unoperational retail licenses; authorizes a social equity licensing program with specified allocations, selection and scoring procedures, and temporary fee waivers through July 1, 2032; allows specified increases in license numbers at set dates; authorizes testing laboratory accreditation and product safety standards to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture and authorizes that department to collect annual accreditation fees; and creates a dedicated cannabis account with detailed appropriation and allocation rules, including certain CPI adjustments and percentage distributions. The bill also makes procedural and enforcement changes rather than creating new criminal offenses. It authorizes criminal history record checks (including submission to the Washington State Patrol and the FBI with fingerprinting when submitted to the FBI), expands administrative processes for suspension, summary suspension and extension of summary suspension, delegation to administrative law judges, and rules on advertising, promotional items, and IP agreements (including a cap on royalties at 10 percent of gross sales). It revises collection authority for unpaid trust fund taxes to permit pursuit of responsible individuals (with strict liability for chief executive officers and chief financial officers and a different standard for others), requires public posting of license application signs and allows local notice ordinances, and provides procedures for settlement conferences and administrative enforcement of branded promotional item complaints. The act is stated to take effect July 1, 2025, while the statutory transfer of certain appropriations and the nonretroactivity of acts performed before July 1, 2026 are specifically referenced. Several statutory amendments and some detailed provisions are incomplete or truncated in the provided text, so some definitions, the full retailer subsection, and certain rulemaking and procedural specifics are uncertain from these extracts.

If enacted, the bill shifts responsibility for licensing and regulating the production, processing, and testing of cannabis products from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board to the Department of Agriculture, with the law taking effect July 1, 2025 and the formal transfer of the board’s functions, records, equipment, and appropriations scheduled for July 1, 2026. Practically, growers, processors, retailers, and research licensees will face a defined fee structure (for example $250 application and about $1,381 annual fees for producers/processors/retailers, $250/$1,300 for research licenses), mandatory testing by DOA‑accredited labs, ingredient disclosure and product safety rules, signage and local notice requirements, criminal history/fingerprint checks when submitted to the FBI, limits on ownership and outlets, and new social equity licensing opportunities (fee waivers through 2032 and set-aside licenses) plus expanded license issuance caps for processors and producers. Those most affected are the Liquor and Cannabis Board (losing functions, staff, records and related appropriations) and the Department of Agriculture (taking on new regulatory, lab accreditation, and fee‑collection duties and receiving transferred funding and property), and cannabis businesses that must absorb compliance costs, testing and accreditation fees, fingerprinting and possible third‑party review costs, and new operational risks like license forfeiture if not open within prescribed timeframes and potential personal liability for unpaid trust fund taxes for CEOs/CFOs. The bill also creates a dedicated cannabis account funding health, enforcement, research, and local distributions under fixed allocations. Some implementation details remain unclear from the provided text—most notably the precise office referred to as “director” in all sections and the full set of amended definitions and rules that will govern enforcement and transitions.