Laws to finally enable Washington State marijuana firms to have interaction in interstate commerce handed out of a Home committee on Tuesday. A companion invoice on the Senate aspect cleared its personal committee hurdle final month.
If the laws is enacted, interstate marijuana commerce would depend upon a coverage change on the federal stage: both a regulation “to permit the interstate switch of hashish” between authorized companies or an opinion from the U.S. Division of Justice “permitting or tolerating” marijuana commerce throughout state strains, the invoice says.
California and Oregon have already adopted modifications much like the Washington proposal. On the East Coast, New Jersey’s Senate president filed an interstate hashish commerce invoice final yr.
“This invoice makes an attempt to reflect the efforts which can be happening in different leisure authorized hashish states by getting ready for interlocal agreements and interstate commerce ought to the federal authorities change the foundations,” the invoice’s lead sponsor within the Home, Rep. Sharon Wylie (D), stated earlier than Tuesday’s vote within the Home Regulated Substances and Gaming Committee.
The panel accredited the measure, HB 1159, on a 6–5 vote alongside occasion strains.
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The panel’s rating Republican member, Rep. Kelly Chambers, called the venture “a giant endeavor” and stated there have been nonetheless unanswered questions round methods to coordinate interstate commerce with Washington’s licensing system.
Earlier than the vote, lawmakers adopted an modification to the invoice from sponsor Wylie requiring that the state’s eventual guidelines for interstate commerce be according to current “insurance policies and packages to redress inequities that exist from previous hashish prohibition and drug enforcement legal guidelines.” It additionally requires regulators to supply discover of the efficient date of the change to all marijuana companies and license candidates as soon as federal insurance policies enable cross-border commerce.
The panel rejected an modification from Chambers that will have eliminated state limits on cultivators’ marijuana manufacturing as soon as the change takes impact.
“This will very nicely be a good suggestion down the street, and it could be one thing that we add within the strategy of working it by means of the system,” stated Wylie, who nonetheless voted towards the modification.
Wylie stated the invoice as it’s lays the groundwork for state companies to be aggressive in a nationwide marijuana market, although she acknowledged it could require additional refinement each this session and sooner or later. “What we need to do is shield people who comply with the foundations,” she stated, “and for our wholesome companies, we would like them to remain aggressive.”
Additionally at Tuesday’s listening to, the panel accredited a invoice, HB 1772, that will outlaw on the state stage merchandise that mix alcohol and THC. Federal alcohol regulators already disallow merchandise that include federally managed substances.
The panel heard public testimony on one other measure, HB 1822, to permit operators of short-term leases similar to AirBnbs to supply grownup friends with small quantities of complimentary hashish and alcohol merchandise, though it didn’t take motion on that invoice.
Later this week the identical panel is scheduled to vote on a separate invoice that will enable adults within the state to develop marijuana for private use at dwelling. Washington is one among just a few states with authorized marijuana the place dwelling cultivation stays prohibited, and it’s the one jurisdiction the place the observe is a felony. However to this point lawmakers have did not go quite a few homegrow payments going way back to 2015.
Washington’s legislative session is gearing as much as be a busy one with regards to drug coverage. Earlier this yr, lawmakers filed a revised invoice to legalize psilocybin companies for adults. A model of the proposal was launched final yr with far fewer cosponsors, and whereas that invoice acquired a committee listening to, it didn’t finally advance.
Payments to advertise social fairness within the hashish business and supply employment protections for adults who use marijuana have additionally superior by means of preliminary committee votes this session.
Individually, state lawmakers are reconsidering drug possession penalties and associated points this session.
Following a state Supreme Court docket resolution in February 2021 that invalidated the state’s felony regulation towards drug possession, lawmakers enacted a short lived criminalization coverage that’s set to run out on July 1. Whereas possession is at the moment labeled as a gross misdemeanor, some progressive lawmakers need the state to make use of the chance formally decriminalize.
Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has stated he thinks lawmakers will decide on a invoice that will increase entry to remedy and restoration whereas additionally sustaining legal penalties for possession. “I’m towards the legalization of exhausting medication,” he stated. “We’ve acquired to have an enough incentive for folks to get into remedy.”
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