Washington State Wants to Eliminate Medical Marijuana Co-Ops, Bring Patients Under Tighter Control

Two bills in the Washington state legislature aim
to “reconcile”
the state’s medical and recreational marijuana
markets, The Associated Press reports. An
attempt to cut back on bureaucracy or make a patchwork of competing
regulations easier to follow? Not so much. The measures would put
tighter restrictions on medical marijuana patients and
dispensaries, which currently operate as cooperatives. Small
business owners like Loaded Soda’s Dave Kois think the moves amount
to little more than a money grab by the state. 

“They see medical as a threat to their tax money on the
recreational side,” said Kois, who grows marijuana high in the

antioxidant and anti-inflammatory cannabis compound cannabidiol
and low in THC (the compound that gets you stoned). He told
AP that medical and recreational marijuana are “two
separate systems and they should stay that way.”

Staying that way would mean operating under a bifurcated
regulatory scheme that considers medical marijuana dispensaries
“collective gardens,” wherein patients pool resources to grow and
distribute medical weed. These medical pot collectives are freer
from state regulation than folks dealing in recreational marijuana,
who must be licensed by the state. 

The measures (House Bill 2149 and Senate Bill 5887) under
consideration by Washington legislators would eliminate these
collective gardens, naturally. To stay in existence, current
medical marijuana co-ops and dispensaries would have to get
licensed by the state or shut down. The bills—one of which has
passed the House and is awaiting a Senate hearing; the other
awaiting a vote in the state Senate Ways & Means
Committee—would also place further restrictions on medical
marijuana. 

Both bills look to reduce the amount of marijuana and number of
plants patients can possess, and would do away with collective
gardens by the middle of next year. They would also establish a
patient registry that would provide medical marijuana patients with
an authorization card that would grant them a sales tax break on
medical marijuana purchased at authorized stores. Both allow stores
to have a medical endorsement to sell medical along with
recreational marijuana and also allow an option for endorsed retail
stores to solely serve medical marijuana patients. Rivers’ bill
requires the Liquor Control Board, which is overseeing
implementation of I-502, to consider the needs of patients in
determining the number of retail licenses issued. Currently, the
board has limited recreational retail licenses to 334 across the
state, for which there are currently more than 2,000
applications.

Medical marijuana patients have, quite understandably, been
decrying the potential changes. Some fear that buying in the
recreational weed market will be more expensive and lead to a low
supply of low-THC strains of marijuana. The bills would also
severely curtail the amount of marijuana patients can possess, from
24 ounces to 3 ounces, and the number of plants they can grow, from
15 to six (though both would allow health care professionals to
authorize more if deemed necessary). Washington lawmakers claim
these measures are necessary in order to keep the federal
government from stepping in.