Washington State legislators are trying again to allow adults to grow marijuana at home. A new bill has been introduced that allows up to six plants to be grown.
Washington voters approved marijuana in a 2012 ballot measure, but it is still illegal for anyone other than medical patients to cultivate the plant. Although several bills to allow home cultivation have been introduced over the years, dating back to 2015, each one has so far failed to gain traction.
HB 2194 is an updated version of a proposal for home-grown plants that was introduced last year. The original bill passed through one House committee, but was removed from consideration by a second. The bill would also limit the number of plants that can be grown in a household to 15.
Adults would be allowed to keep their cannabis plants, despite the one-ounce limit on marijuana flowers that the state has set.
Shelley Kloba, the lead sponsor of the bill (D), told Marijuana Moment: “I find it illogical that we are doing this.” “We have made it illegal to grow a product that you can buy in a store.”
She pointed out that both beer and wine were legal. “And those things are legal for hobbyists to produce at home.” It’s absurd that you can’t grow cannabis at home.
According to Kloba’s proposal, growing between six and fifteen plants would constitute a civil offense, while growing sixteen or more plants would constitute a class C crime–the penalty currently imposed for home-grown any cannabis. The maximum penalty for a felony is five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Kloba said that she was looking forward to a new start. She also introduced the homegrow bill last year, HB 1614.
She said, “The goal remains the same.” The context and mechanism are different.
In 2015, the first push in Washington for homegrow legislation came just a few months after Washington legalized commercial sales. Then-Sen. Jeanne KohlWelles (D) sponsored SB 6083. Other homegrow bills have been introduced in 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2023.
During the shorter legislative sessions of the even-numbered years, some bills were revived in the year after their introduction. However, the rest stagnated or expired during the longer, odd-numbered sessions. Kloba says that many lawmakers were reluctant to allow home cultivation in the beginning. She said that if you were growing pot plants, the assumption was that you were manufacturing them with the intent to sell.
Kloba added that, more recently, legislators have been busy with COVID and economic development, as well as -in terms drug policy -responding , a ruling by the state Supreme Court which temporarily decriminalized all drugs in the state.
She said that the state’s reaction to the court decision took time, care and effort. They had to resolve some difficult issues. “Our decision was to reduce the criminality of some things. These are illegal drugs, like meth, heroin, coke, etc. “And poor little marijuana, it’s right here. It is legal to purchase in a shop, it is legal to consume at home, but it is illegal to own it as a plant.”
She said, “It is just a different context.”
Washington has one of the highest tax rates in the country on legal cannabis at 37 percent. Some have suggested that the state or licensed cannabis industry is blocking home cultivation to maximize state revenue or profit. She said that if it was a revenue issue, the cannabis industry would be very vocal. “They don’t. “They support it.”
Washington State University researchers also concluded that home beer brewing was a boon for the commercial beer industry. Kloba said that this dispelled fears that marijuana home-growing would harm the market.
Kloba sees homegrows as a matter of social equity, noting that, while marijuana arrests in Washington have decreased since legalization, the arrests for cannabis continue to be disproportionately made by people of color.
She noted that this was one of the main reasons why last year’s legislation became controversial: It created a whole host of new laws meant to control homegrow, and progressive legislators worry that law enforcement will again target people of color disproportionately.
Kloba explained that “we removed a lot of these things”, such as the requirement to treat exhaust air so that marijuana could not be smelled on the street. It basically says that it’s now legal to grow six plants.
Four Democrats are also co-sponsors of the bill, in addition to Kloba. They are: Sharon Wylie and Beth Doglio. The four Democrats, except for Macri, also sponsored the bill from last year.
Most cannabis advocates in Washington support home cultivation over for-profit sales. However, lawmakers have not shown much interest in implementing the policy change even though they had multiple chances. Washington’s home-grow bills have been a recurring failure for years, despite the fact that more states are passing legalization laws that include cultivation provisions.
Don Skakie, of Homegrow Washington, sneered on social media after last year’s decision to remove the final from consideration.
Skakie estimated previously that just qualifying the measure to be on the ballot would cost approximately $350,000. He told Marijuana Moment 2021 that he believed Washington State residents would sign an initiative if they were given the chance. However, he did not think this issue would receive such unpaid support.
Kloba said that she is still hopeful about the chances of passing this bill.
She said that she is an optimist and persistent. “I hope that I am wearing them down!” she said.
A new cannabis bill recently introduced in Washington would undo the protections recently implemented for job applicants using marijuana. This would also remove the anti-discrimination provisions for those seeking employment in the drug treatment sector.
Legislators have also introduced legislation that would create a legal framework to allow vets and first responders access to psychedelic assisted therapy. The measure would build upon a pilot program that was signed into law in last year.
The psychedelics bill comes at a time when grassroots efforts are underway in Washington to decriminalize the use of entheogens by deprioritizing the enforcement of state laws. Organizers from six Washington cities have been working on reform. They also believe that this is a good way to gain support for a state-level policy change.
The state Department of Commerce released recommendations late last year on how $200 million could be spent in order to address the racial and economic disparities that were created by the War on Drugs. The state also approved 10 million dollars in refunds for drug convictions that were vacated.
NORML report shows that over 2.3 million marijuana records have been expunged by states since 2018.
The post After Failed Efforts Washington Lawmakers Introduce New Law To Legalize Home Marijuana Cultivation first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
