State announces marijuana surveys

OLYMPIA – Attention marijuana users and growers: The state would like a few minutes of your time to answer a few questions.

Confidentially, of course.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board, which is working on rules and regulations for the state’s new legalized marijuana production and consumption law, announced a couple of surveys to help with research the cannabis consultants at BOTEC Analysis Corp. are putting together.

One by the Rand Corp. is trying to gauge marijuana consumption throughout the state, with questions such as how much a user uses, what products and how much spent. “The survey will be the most detailed yet on cannabis use habits,” the board said on its group email list. It’s described as confidential and short – no more than 15 minutes for heavy users, less for others.

It’s not immediately clear if it will take heavy users longer because they have more questions to answer or because their response time is somewhat slowed from all that marijuana. BOTEC is remaining mum on the surveys to avoid doing or saying anything that would shape the responses.

BOTEC also has contracted with a Pepperdine University public policy professor to study the economics of marijuana production. She is compiling information for the consultants from growers – especially those with the business sense and awareness of their books to provide substantive answers – with a survey about their operating costs. It’s confidential, too, which is a good thing, considering that kind of information could get someone in legal trouble, with the feds if not the locals.