June 6, 2024 marked the start of a new era for WA state Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) patients. As of this date medically compliant products sold through state endorsed Medical Marijuana stores can be sold to patients without the 37% excise tax! Patients previously paid the excise taxes but were exempt from local sales taxes (varies, but approximately 10%). I’m very pleased at this change to our system and interested to see what the long-term results will be. As written, this change will remain in place until June 2029, and will be re-evaluated at that time.
What’s a medically compliant product?
A medically compliant product is a cannabis product has more stringent standards than recreational cannabis products, and is sold to a registered patient by a store that holds a medical endorsement. Compliant products may be high THC, low THC or “general use”- in other words, they may have any amount of THC up to 50mg per individual serving. Compliant products are tested for prohibited pesticides, heavy metals and mycotoxins. You can read more about these guidelines and find a link to the WA state RCW describing the details here.
Compliant products can have 5x the THC found in an individual serving for recreational use.
Patients can have up to 50mg THC per individual dose of a cannabis infused products, or 500mg THC per package. What you’ll find in most stores is 10mg THC max per dose with 100mg THC per package.
Have you seen medically compliant products on the market?
Possibly. There aren’t many compliant products on the market because there wasn’t a good reason for producers and processors to go through the extra testing required to get the DOH seal on their product before. I believe this is because many people who qualify as WA state Medical Marijuana Patients do not hold an authorization currently, even if they did so in the past. Many have explained to me that the time and expense of holding the authorization wasn’t worth it to them “just” for the sales tax exemption. It is likely that many qualified patients may choose to become Medical Marijuana patients now that they will qualify as tax-exempt on compliant products. By some estimates, only 5% of qualified Medical Marijuana patients are currently registered as such. With tax exemptions, more patients will want to register, and there will be more compliant products available for purchase.
Beyond products, prospective and current Medical Marijuana patients have faced other problems.
How to find a doctor who will be able and willing to write a Medical Marijuana authorization is a challenge for many patients.
If you search the internet for such doctors you’ll find many shady operations where you might meet with a doctor online who spends less than 5 minutes with you and isn’t available for follow-up care. You won’t find that at Qwibil: our doctors have over 30 years of combined experience with Medical Marijuana and are members of the Society for Cannabis Clinicians. We take pride in our expertise, attention to detail and professionalism. We enjoy working with your other healthcare providers if they have concerns or questions about medical marijuana. Patients often tell us they look forward to our appointment every year, with the ultimate compliment of referring their loved ones to us. We are the only clinic that I know of that writes authorizations and accepts patients medical insurance. We have a unique high potency CBD dispensary on-site, the Nature Pharmacy. We currently serve patients located all around WA state, so if you can’t find a local doctor who is a cannabis expert, you may still be able to become our patient.
Registration in the Medical Marijuana system is also a challenge for some patients. WA state offers optional registration in the Medical Marijuana database. Some patients choose not to join this optional system. In this situation, the authorized but not registered patient may shop in stores as any recreational consumer would and grow up to 4 cannabis plants for their personal medical use. They do not qualify for the sales tax or excise tax exemptions. Patients who join and obtain a “card” will qualify for all taxes exempt plus the ability to grow 6-15 plants, as appropriate for the patient’s needs. It can sometimes be difficult to find medically endorsed stores able to register patients, as detailed expertly by Jim McRae in this blog post. Our Department of Health is here to help, you can search for endorsed stores, and see who has issued a “card” in the past quarter. You can peruse the system here. I recommend contacting the store you plan to register at in advance so you will arrive when the Cannabis Consultant trained to assist you is working.