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Washington State Medical Marijuana Law Is Safe This Session[/h] Posted by
Johnny Green at 6:49 AM on March 14, 2014
Washington’s Legislature has failed to pass a proposal altering the state’s medical cannabis law before the end of the session (March 13th).
Medical cannabis advocates have been ferociously fighting two proposals -
House Bill 2149 and
Senate Bill 5887 - which would significantly alter the state’s medical cannabis law by shutting down collective gardens, reducing the amount of cannabis patients’ can possess and cultivate, and by bringing forth a mandatory patient registry.
Despite
House Bill 2149 passing the House of Representatives with a 67 to 29 vote, and despite
Senate Bill 5887 passing the Senate with a 34 to 15 vote, both bills failed to advance further, and are now officially dead.
The nonprofit organization
Sensible Washington called the death of these measures a “major victory” for patients in the state, and has vowed to continue working towards the passage of legislation aimed at strengthening the state’s medical cannabis law by adding defined arrest protection for patients, and for safe access points that obtain a business license from the state. They introduced
House Bill 2233 this session (written in conjunction with
Americans for Safe Access), which stalled in committee; a similar proposal will be filed in 2015, according to the group