By December 1, the Washington State Liquor Control Board is required to create rules to license marijuana producers, processors, and retailers. The agency started the rulemaking process for producers—pot growers—last December.

This week the board announced emergency rulemaking to ban pot from private smoking clubs, which may be licensed as such by the board or simply attached to a public bar with no liquor license of their own. This came after party-crashing Governor Jay Inslee got hot and bothered over the weekend by Gene Johnson's AP wire story on two such clubs.

It was while researching the proposed pot bar ban that I noticed on the board's web site that three weeks back the state opened the rulemaking process for marijuana retailers and processors very quietly, without announcing that fact to the more than 2,500 stakeholders on the I-502 email list they maintain. Instead, the board put the documents on a tucked-away web page, which they didn't even link from their I-502 Implementation site.

Why no love for pot retailer rules? Has the agency received all the input it needs from the producer rulemaking process, or the public forums it held?

Liquor board spokesman Brian Smith was uncertain about where the agency had sent the rulemaking announcement. He was certain they had sent it to their "regular stakeholder list," which is apparently different than the I-502 stakeholder list they maintain. "It's posted on our web site," he says.

Then why not link it from the pot rules site or announce it to the pot rules email list?

"We held eight public forums around the state, Ben, and thousands of people came to them," Smith says. "It was widely reported in the press."

To think I was so stoned I totally missed that! But seriously, did anyone report that the liquor board had officially opened the retail license rulemaking process? This is a distinct process from the producer rulemaking—a totally different set of rules. How big can pot shops be? How much pot can they sell? Do they need certain security features? How many of them can exist in each county? These are unique, interesting questions many public forum commentators might not have thoroughly considered.

Smith essentially says the three distinct rulemaking processes have blended into one overall comment period, and that people have been submitting comments about all three tiers of the cannabis licensing system all the time.

"Communication hasn't been lacking about this. People know they can provide comment to us."

Stakeholders have until May 20, 2013 to submit comments to the board about marijuana retailer and processor rules. Best way is to email rules@liq.wa.gov. What do you want to see in your local cannabis retailer?