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Washington Lawmakers Take Up Bill To Legalize Marijuana Home Grow Amid Police Opposition

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3 weeks ago

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“I’m a veteran and I see no reason why I can’t grow some plants in my home for my own personal use.”

By Aspen Ford, Washington State Standard

After more than a decade of failed attempts, supporters Changing Washington State law to allow domestic marijuana they are getting discouraged, but not giving up.

This year they are back in Parliament, encouraging MPs to make a change. They argue that homegrown cannabis would not put much of a dent in the regulated retail sale of marijuana, and that the penalties for home growing fall disproportionately on people of color.

Law enforcement groups and cities are among those opposed to it, because it exposes children to the drug and adds to the burden on local police.

Senate Bill 6204 It would allow adults over the age of 21 to grow up to six cannabis plants at home. Two adults living together can grow up to 12 plants and in households with three or more adults can grow up to 15. The Senate Labor and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the bill on Monday.

The proposal is the 11th year lawmakers have introduced legislation to allow home cultivation since Washington legalized recreational cannabis in 2012.

Washington is one of only three states to legalize medical and recreational cannabis, but bans domestic marijuana. When Colorado legalized recreational cannabis the same year Washington did, it also allowed home cultivation.

“I’m a veteran and I don’t see any reason why I can’t grow some plants in my house for my own personal use,” Tumwater resident Erik Johansen told the Senate committee. “There are no children there.”

Some critics of the bill say the state would lose millions of dollars a year in tax revenue if consumers chose to grow marijuana at home instead of paying a 37 percent excise tax on cannabis when they buy the products.

Advocates say that’s difficult because growing cannabis is particularly difficult.

“We’re not your competition. We’re your neighbors and your customers,” John Kingsbury, chair of the Cannabis Alliance’s patient committee, said at this week’s hearing.

“If you’re willing to commit crimes against your neighbors to protect half a percent of your sales, then the promise of I-502 has gone terribly wrong,” added Kingsbury, referring to the ballot initiative that voters approved in 2012 to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana.

On average, between 2013 and 2019 in Washington, blacks were five times more likely to be arrested for home cultivation than whites and Hispanics were 2.4 times more likely, according to a 2022 report by the state’s Social Equity in Cannabis Task Force.

Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, the bill’s lead sponsor, said that even if the smell bothers the neighbors of home growers, the law could be enforced and managed.

As written, people who do not control the smell of marijuana plants or who have them in places visible to the public can face a third-degree civil infraction. Law enforcement can seize and destroy plants from a home that grow beyond the legal limit.

The Liquor and Cannabis Council would not be involved in home grow regulation.

James McMahan, policy director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, said law enforcement would need a search warrant and probable cause to make a seizure.

The association is against the bill. “We are concerned about the continued normalization of marijuana for our youth,” McMahan said.

The Association of Washington Cities also opposes it. “It creates a huge burden on local law enforcement,” said Derrick Nunnally, the group’s government relations advocate.

The bill prohibits the cultivation of cannabis in foster homes and family day care homes. There are no restrictions for households with children.

In places where marijuana businesses are banned, residents would still be able to grow it at home.

House Bill 2614It was a companion bill scheduled for a hearing in the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Business on Friday, but was pulled from the agenda for consideration. His primary sponsor is Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Bothell.

“The legalization of home brew in Washington state is inevitable,” Kingsbury said. “My only hope is that I live long enough to see it happen.”

“It would be disappointing if legalization turned into corporate weed,” he added.

This story was first published by the Washington State Standard.

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Hoogendoorn gets Bronze EcoVadis Medal in first assessment

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17 hours ago

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February 24, 2026

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Hoogendoorn has received the Bronze Medal in the first evaluation by EcoVadis. This recognition places the company in the top 35% of all organizations worldwide assessed for sustainability. Among companies evaluated in the last 12 months, Hoogendoorn ranks in the top 18%.

EcoVadis is globally recognized for its sustainability assessments, evaluating organizations on four main themes: environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable purchasing. The Bronze rating confirms that Hoogendoorn has a strong and well-structured sustainability management system that focuses on transparency and responsible business practices throughout the value chain.

© Hoogendoorn Growth Management

The scorecard provides valuable information to guide further improvement and outlines the next steps to achieving a Silver rating. This helps Hoogendoorn to continue to strengthen and advance its sustainability ambitions.

Discover Hoogendoorn at Horticontact stand C24

For more information:
Hoogendoorn Growth Management
(email protected)
www.hoogendoorn.com


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Florida Lawmakers Vote To Slash Medical Marijuana Fees For Military Veterans

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17 hours ago

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February 24, 2026

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A Florida bill to significantly reduce the fee for military veterans to obtain medical marijuana registry identification cards has cleared another legislative committee.

The House Health and Human Services Committee approved the measure by Reps. Susan Valdés (R) and Michelle Salzman (R) on a 22-0 vote Tuesday. This comes after the legislation cleared two other House panels and Senate legislation to reduce the cost of cannabis for veterans is also advancing.

If enacted into law, HB 887 would require honorably discharged veterans to pay $15 to obtain a medical cannabis card, down from the current $75 rate for most eligible patients.

The $15 charge will also apply to replacement cards as well as annual renewals.

To receive the reduced fee, veterans must provide the state Department of Health (DOH) with a copy of the discharge form, a US Veterans Affairs (VA) identification card, or a Florida driver’s license with a “veteran designation.”

The law will come into effect on July 1 of this year.

“Medical cannabis has shown promise in alleviating symptoms commonly experienced by our military veterans, such as managing chronic pain, easing the effects of PTSD, improving sleep, and most importantly reducing opioid addiction,” Valdés said before the final committee vote. “This bill will go a long way in reducing the financial barriers veterans face when getting a card.”

According to A invoice study, the reform “would have an unspecified negative fiscal impact on the DOH.” While there are currently 931,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Florida, “the number of veterans with an active medical marijuana use registry identification card is unknown” and thus “the amount of revenue reduction is unknown.”

That said, the analysis says the policy change “would have a positive fiscal impact on veterans who will see a $60 reduction in the cost of ID cards under the bill.”

Earlier this month, the Senate Health Policy Committee advanced a bill by Sen. Alexis Calatayud that would reduce medical cannabis registration fees for veterans to $15 and implement other reforms to expand access to medical marijuana.

Under that amended proposal, a physician would recommend a 70-day supply limit for cannabis, or a 35-day supply limit for marijuana smoking products for 10 supply limits. Under current law, they can recommend up to three 70-day supply limits for non-smoking cannabis and six 35-day supply limits for smoking marijuana.

The SB 1032 bill would also require doctors to evaluate patients to qualify for medical marijuana every 52 weeks, rather than the legal requirement of evaluations every 30 weeks.

Here’s an overview of some of the pending Florida marijuana bills:

—
It’s Marijuana Time tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelic and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters by pledging at least $25/month, you’ll get access to our interactive maps, charts, and audio calendars so you never miss a development.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracking and become a Patreon supporter to gain access
—

Meanwhile, a The Florida campaign seeking to put marijuana legalization on the ballot has another complication As the status of the 2026 signature drive remains in dispute. According to a new electoral law, the hundreds of thousands of activist signatures already collected this year will not be carried over to the 2028 cycle.

Smart & Safe Florida recently shipped An appeal of the annulment of about 71,000 signatures to the state Supreme Court For the 2026 order, for example.

The courts again agreed to close a separate case involving legal review of the ballot measure From Smart & Safe Florida, he has now been given another case challenging the cancellation of the earlier mass signature.

In December, advocates filed a lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court alleging that Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) illegally ordered county election officials to invalidate about 42,000 signatures from so-called “inactive” voters and about 29,000 signatures collected by out-of-state petitioners.

That lawsuit came after another court upheld an earlier decision to strike with about 200,000 signatures, which the state said were invalid because the petition did not include the full text of the proposed initiative. The campaign challenged the legal interpretation, but declined to appeal the decision, confident it had collected enough signatures to settle the dispute.

Smart & Safe Florida has generally disputed the secretary of state’s signature count, confirming that the campaign has submitted more than 1.4 million petitions, hundreds of thousands more than the 880,062 valid signatures needed before voters.

In return for the signature, Florida’s attorney general and several businesses and anti-marijuana groups has asked the state Supreme Court to block the cannabis initiativecalling it a “fatal flaw” and unconstitutional.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Legal Foundation and Judge Frank Shepherd filed another joint document, stating that the parties “remain particularly vigilant about the abuse of the citizen initiative process by out-of-state interests who believe that Florida is another market and that the citizen initiative process is another means of exploiting that market.”

The Florida Chamber of Commerce has consistently opposed attempts to move forward with adult-use legalization, as well his polls have shown a majority in favor of reform.

The campaign fought several legal battles this cycle to get its initiative on the ballot.

Last month, the state attorney general’s office opened dozens of criminal investigations and subpoenaed Smart & Safe Florida and its contractors and subcontractors for records over alleged fraud related to the application effort.

Activists said in November they had collected more than a million signatures to put the cannabis measure on the ballot, but still He has sued state Supreme Court officials for delaying the certification processarguing that the review of ballot content and summary should have gone ahead several months ago when the initial signature threshold was reached. The state then he agreed to proceed with the processing.

The governor campaigned hard against an earlier version of the legalization proposal, which received a majority of voters in 2024, but was not enough to meet the 60 percent threshold needed to pass a constitutional amendment. Former Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) unsuccessfully challenged the earlier initiative in court.

Last March, however, two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida asked the federal government to investigate What they described as an “illegal diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds Through a group with ties to DeSantis. The money was used to fight a popular ballot initiative the governor vehemently opposed that would have legalized adult marijuana.

The lawmakers’ letter alleges that a $10 million donation from a state legislative settlement was misappropriated to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, and sent $8.5 million to the anti-Amendment 3 campaign.

The governor said last February The latest measure to legalize marijuana is in “big trouble” with the state Supreme Courthe announced that it would be blocked from going before the voters this year.

the last the initiative It was introduced to the secretary of state just months after initial versions failed in the November 2024 election, despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

Smart & Safe Florida expressed optimism that the revised version would be successful in 2026. The campaign — which received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry players in the last election cycle, notably from multi-state operator Trulieve — introduced some changes in the new version that address criticisms of the 2024 push by opponents.

For example, it now specifically states that “smoking and vaping marijuana in any public place is prohibited.” Another section states that the legislature should adopt rules governing the “time, place and public manner of consuming marijuana.”

In 2023, the governor accurately predicted this The campaign’s 2024 cannabis measure would survive a legal challenge From the state attorney general. It’s not entirely clear why he thinks this version will face a different outcome.

Although there is uncertainty about how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released last February It showed the overwhelming support of a bipartisan voter for reform— 67% of Florida voters support legalization, including 82% of Democrats, 66% of independents and 55% of Republicans.

Max Jackson’s photo.

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Licensed 20-acre cannabis farm near Upper Lake for sale

Published

2 days ago

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February 23, 2026

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A 20-acre cannabis farm near Upper Lake went up for sale last week for $599,000, according to a recent Zillow listing. The property has a 10-year occupancy permit and 43,560 square feet of permitted cultivation, for a total of 78,550 square feet of approved growing area, according to the listing. The infrastructure described in the publication includes a well, a security gate, water storage tanks, parking and a 30 x 75 meter barn.

The photos show growing houses and outdoor plants. Lux Places real estate agent Forest Nikola Elie promoted the listing on social media.

“Grow Big. Live Close. Win Fast!”, he wrote in a post on a local Facebook group. “Whether you are expanding your operation or looking for an income producing private home, this property is move in ready.”

Read more at The Mendocino Voice










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