House to address disparities in pot laws

OLYMPIA – A House panel rolled 18 different proposals to change Washington’s marijuana laws into a single wide-ranging bill Monday, hoping to address at least some problems with the state’s medical and recreational pot systems.

As currently written, the bill includes some contradictory provisions. Several sections restrict the ability of cities or counties to ban recreational marijuana businesses in some sections; another bans all recreational pot and any medical form of the drug that doesn’t come in a pill.

“We will be making major changes to the marijuana laws here in Washington state,” Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Pierce County, said at the start of two days of hearings on the omnibus bill. “I am convinced that before the session is over there will be licenses for medical marijuana.”

Hurst, chairman of the House Commerce and Gambling Committee, said the many different proposals were joined into a single bill to avoid 18 separate hearings on the topic. Some ideas will be discarded and others will be changed, he predicted.

Medical marijuana, which currently is unlicensed and untaxed, would come under some form of state scrutiny, either from the Liquor Control Board, which oversees recreational marijuana, the Department of Health because of its medicinal properties, or the Department of Agriculture because it’s a new commodity.