Discussing High-THC Cannabis

By Kristen Haley, LCB Public Health Education Liaison

In the wake of the 2024 legislative session, many public health partners showed interest in having discussions related to high-THC products. The LCB has structured these conversations to evolve over time. We kicked them off with a series of listening sessions with the public health and prevention community, then had a series of sessions with the cannabis community, and later this summer we will host a smaller workgroup of participants representing each type of group.

The initial goal is to identify ways we can all work together to mitigate potential harms posed by high-THC products.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in these sessions! I have found them engaging, thought provoking, and productive, and I hope you have too. For those who have not had the opportunity to attend, these are some of my key takeaways across all the sessions:

1. How we frame the issue matters — it is key to contextualize issues and rely on strong science.

2. More education is needed and wanted!

3. Between all the partner groups, we’ve generated seemingly endless research ideas - I’m already coordinating with Sarah Okey, our Research Program Manager at LCB to track these ideas and identify ways we can elevate them for the broader research community.

4. Insights on ways each partner group can improve dialogue with each other in the future, for the purpose of more productive and collaborative discussions.

5. There is widespread interest from all partners in more opportunities to gather more informally with LCB, gather between partner groups, and to find ways we can collaborate to keep people in Washington healthy and safe.

If you “missed the memo” and want to participate in one of these sessions in the future, please reach out to me via email at Kristen.Haley@lcb.wa.gov and I’ll be sure you receive any future communication.