Last week, the Washington State House passed a bill to reconcile the medical and recreational marijuana markets. Rachel La Corte reports on the new bill here. The House Bill modifies Senate Bill 5052, which I discussed in a prior article.
The amendments to Senate Bill 5052 include making the medical marijuana patient registry voluntary rather than mandatory as set forth in the original Senate bill. Unregistered patients, however, would be limited in the amount of marijuana that they could possess and would not receive the same tax benefits as registered patients.
Curbs on collective gardens would also be set in place to allow the recreational market to better compete. Collective gardens would be restricted to 60 plants and would not be able locate within one mile of an I502 retail store.
A new bill was also passed by the house separately addressing changes to the recreational marijuana industry. This bill calls for eliminating the current three tiered tax structure in favor of a single tax of 30% levied at the retail level. The bill would also divert a portion of tax revenues to cities and counties.
Stay tuned for more information on legislation affecting recreational and medical marijuana as well as expansion of the I502 marijuana licensing system.
For more information on the regulation of marijuana businesses in Washington State, please contact Heather Wolf.