New Washington Bill Would Legalize Home Cultivation Of Marijuana

Washington State lawmakers are again considering legislation to expand the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law by allowing recreational consumers to grow their own cannabis plants.

Under the new bill from Sens. Rebecca Saldaña (D), Noel Frame (D) and T’wina Nobles (D), adults over 21 years of age would be allowed to cultivate up to six marijuana plants at home.

Under SB 6204, no more than 15 cannabis plants could be produced at any one time in a single housing unit, regardless of how many adults live there.

People could lawfully keep the marijuana produced by those plants despite the state’s existing one-ounce limit on possession.

Property owners would be allowed to prohibit tenants from growing cannabis in rental units, and probation and parole officers would be able to bar people from cultivating marijuana as a condition of their supervised release.

Home cultivators would be required to keep plants from public view and grown in such a way that they could not be smelled from public places or private properties of other housing units. Violating those rules would be a class 3 civil infraction.

It would be a class 1 civil infraction for a person to grow more than six but fewer than 16 cannabis plants, while it would be a class C felony to produce more than 16 plants.

No cannabis plants could be grown in housing units that are used to provide early childhood education and early learning services by a family day care provider.

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The bill has been referred to the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee.

Washington was one of the first U.S. states to legalize adult-use marijuana when voters approved a ballot initiative in 2012. Growing marijuana for personal use without a state medical card, however, has remained a Class C felony, carrying up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

Legislative efforts to allow personal cultivation stretch back to at least 2015, but so far each has failed.

Last year, the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee approved a similar marijuana home cultivation bill but it later stalled before the House Appropriations Committee.