Marijuana retailers, producers fear public records requirement compromises privacy, safety

By LaVendrick Smith
WNPA Olympia News Bureau

When he entered the marijuana industry a little more than a year ago, Jim Mullen said he wanted to help dismantle stigmas surrounding pot.

The co-owner of The Herbery – two marijuana shops in Vancouver – Mullen is one of many licensed business owners in the state who have entered the market since 2012 when voters approved Initiative 502 to legalize the recreational use and sale of marijuana to adults.

“I see a huge opportunity for growth in this industry,” Mullen said. “We want to position ourselves to be someone whose name is recognized with a company that’s doing it right.”

But marijuana producers, wholesalers and retailers say that certain information they are required to provide the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board should not be subject to public records requests because it is too personal and violates their security.

Any criminal background history and store location, for example, is understandable, they say. But bank statements, floor layout of their businesses and the location of security cameras in their stores are problematic.

“That type of information, in the wrong hands, can definitely be detrimental,” Mullen said. “It’s like having the blueprints to a bank.”

Legislation by Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Rep. Brandon Vick, R-Felida, would provide exemptions for information regulators could disclose in a public records request.

“It has become apparent that some of the license holders have been put in a situation where their safety is jeopardized, because we do allow the release of a lot of information,” Rivers said last week at a hearing on her bill, Senate Bill 6207.

Vicki Christophersen, director of the Washington CannaBusiness Association, which represents business owners in the marijuana industry, said not only is information such as bank statements made available in public records requests, but the routes producers take to transfer their products are available, and is a major safety concern.

“We really believe that these types of information are not valuable to the public interest,” she said.

The legislation proposals would exempt business owners’ financial information and records of the movement of their products from public-records requests.

Harming business

Critics say they fear the exemptions would undermine oversight of the businesses.

Arthur West, an Olympia citizen, said the legislative proposals aren’t specific enough, and wants them to detail specific information that won’t be available so proper citizen oversight of the industry can continue. He says he supports the intention of the proposals, but fears they demonize people who request public records for legitimate concerns.

“Most criminals do not use the public records act to plan their crimes because it creates a record of their request,” West said at the hearing. “People seeking public records are usually trying to find out about their government.”

The LCB, which supports the bill, said safety concerns and public records is unique to the state’s marijuana industry, and isn’t a problem in the liquor industry because marijuana is still illegal federally. Regulation of pot–specifically its traceability–doesn’t apply in alcohol.

Bob Schroester, who manages public records requests at the LCB, said the agency would maintain a commitment to transparency, even with added exemptions.

“There’s certain information that doesn’t appear to have a direct public need, and does implicate concerns both in terms of privacy and in terms of security,” Schroester said.

Mullen said he understands the public’s need for transparency, and supports access to public records, but wants personal information to remain private.

“The information that should be released should be contained to our abilities to manage a business,” Mullen said. “When you get beyond that into my personal financial information, nobody has a right to know that.”