Washington State House Finance Committee
(WA House FIN)

The medical cannabis patient excise tax exemption bill made it through the fiscal committee gateway whereas home grow legislation was getting a late start, but was positioned to proceed.

After fiscal committee work and announcement of schedules for the remainder of the week before cutoff, only two of 22 active cannabis bills appeared at risk of being left behind.

With 22 of 34 cannabis-related bills through the initial house of origin policy committee gateway, the fiscal committees took over - and four bills appeared to have uncertain futures.

The WRAP Act was further unwrapped, fiscal committee schedules for the following week were announced, and the House cannabis policy committee had a full agenda ahead of the Friday cutoff.

Testimony on a bill to exempt registered medical cannabis patients from the excise tax on DOH compliant products was supportive and elicited several questions from lawmakers.

As the timeline for legislation became more compressed, committees crammed bills for action - while the WSLCB cannabinoid regulation bill was granted a second chance to NTIB.

24 cannabis-related bills were active and 11 were scheduled for committee activity in the week ahead, including social equity, craft endorsements, and WSLCB request legislation.

Washington State House and Senate policy committees had full schedules for the second week of the short session as 21 cannabis-related bills vied for legislator attention - including four newly introduced.

Legislation to exempt registered medical cannabis patients from the State excise tax on compliant products received a near unanimous policy committee recommendation, but was not taken up by its fiscal committee.

Testimony on legislation establishing a limited excise tax exemption for medical cannabis patients registered with the State painted an encouraging picture of potential impacts for patients and the regulated industry.