Washington State lawmakers are again trying to allow adults in the state to grow their own marijuana, having introduced a new bill that would allow the cultivation of up to six plants at home.
Washington voters legalized marijuana through a ballot measure in 2012, but the law still makes it a felony for anyone but medical patients to grow the plant. And though several bills have been introduced to allow home cultivation over the years—stretching back to 2015—so far each has failed to find traction.
The latest bill, HB 2194, is an update to a homegrow proposal introduced last year, which passed out of one House committee before being pulled from consideration in a second committee. In addition to the six-plant-per-adult limit, it would cap the total number of plants grown by any one household at 15.
Notwithstanding the state’s personal possession limit of one ounce of marijuana flower, adults would also be able to keep the cannabis produced by their legal plants.
“I just see it as a fundamentally illogical thing that we’re doing,” lead sponsor Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) told Marijuana Moment. “We’ve made it criminal to grow a plant whose products you can walk into a retail store and purchase.”
She noted that beer and wine are also both legal, “and those things are legal to produce in your home as a hobbyist. It doesn’t make sense that you can’t do that with cannabis.”
Under Kloba’s plan, it would be a civil infraction for an individual to grow between six and 15 plants, while growing 16 or more plants would be a class C felony—the current penalty for growing any marijuana at home. The felony charge carries a maximum five years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine.
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