WA Legislature - Update
(April 18, 2025)

Two cannabis-related bills amended in the House were positioned for concurrence or dispute votes in the Senate as legislators continued floor sessions.

Here are some observations of the Washington State Legislature (WA Legislature) for Friday April 18th, the 96th day of the 2025 regular session.

My top 2 takeaways:

• There were no introductions of cannabis-related legislation on Thursday, and none staged for Friday.
  • The draft introduction reports in the House and the Senate for Friday April 18th did not appear to include any cannabis-related legislation.

• On Friday, legislators planned to convene floor sessions in advance of adjournment sine die on Sunday April 27th, and senators could conclude or dispute passage of two bills regarding cannabis retail operations.
  • 10:30am: WA House - Session
    • [ TVW - Morning, TVW - Afternoon, TVW - Evening ]
    • At publication time, there were 42 bills on the House floor calendar but no cannabis-related legislation.
  • 1pm: WA Senate - Session
    • [ TVW - Afternoon, TVW - Evening ]
    • At publication time, there were 11 bills on the Senate floor calendar including one cannabis-related item.
      • HB 1551 - Social Equity Program Evaluation
        • See the bill text, bill report, and fiscal note for more details.
        • Presumably ineligible for consideration after the Opposite House Cutoff on Wednesday, the legislation remained calendared at publication time along with nine other House bills which were not acted upon.
    • At publication time, there were 73 bills on the Senate concurrence calendar including two cannabis-related items.
      • SB 5206 - Cannabis Retailer Advertising
        • See the bill text, bill report, and previous fiscal note for more details.
        • On Wednesday April 16th, the Washington State House of Representatives (WA House) pulled the cannabis retail advertising bill out of the rules committee, rejected an unwelcome amendment from a Democrat, and passed the legislation in the span of eight minutes.
      • SB 5403 - Cannabis Retail Financial Interest
        • See the bill text, bill report, and previous fiscal note for more details.
        • On Friday April 11th, the WA House amended and passed SB 5403 to clarify the scope of allowable management agreements and returned the legislation to the Senate for a concurrence, dispute, or conference vote.