Tag: washington

Washington State Law Exempting Some Medical Marijuana Purchases From Steep 37% Tax Takes Effect

Some purchases of medical marijuana in Washington State will no longer be subject to the state’s 37 percent cannabis tax under a new law taking effect on Thursday. The exemption, signed into law in March by Gov. Jay Inslee (D), applies specifically to products that have been certified to higher testing standards than typical state-legal products.

Medical marijuana cardholders were already eligible for exemptions from Washington’s sales and use taxes on cannabis, but they were not exempt from the state’s excise tax, one of the highest in the country.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Sharon Wylie (D) and two other Democrats allows state-registered patients and caregivers to avoid the tax when purchasing products that are compliant with Department of Health (DOH) testing standards, which are more rigorous than typical state cannabis standards. Manufacturers in the state are required to submit all medical and adult-use products to labs for testing, but producers can voluntarily have additional testing done—to screen for heavy metals, for example—that isn’t otherwise required.

Marijuana that passes the additional testing can be labeled with a DOH-developed logo, which now also serves as an indication that the product is tax-free for patients and caretakers.

Many states with both adult-use and medical marijuana already exempt patients from taxes.

Washington’s tax break is only temporary. As written, the new law is set to expire on June 30, 2029. A report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee on the revenue impacts of the change is due in 2028.

One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) also sponsored a cannabis homegrow bill this session—the latest in a series of such measures introduced over the past several years—but the proposal ultimately died in committee. If passed, HB 2194 would have allowed adults 21 and older to grow up to four plants per person, with no more than 10 allowed per household. Home cultivation of marijuana without a medical marijuana card remains a felony in the state.

Kloba told Marijuana Momentthat she’s co mmitted to continued advocacy for the policy change and plans to introduce yet another homegrow measure next year.

Keep reading

NO COINCIDENCE: Excess deaths due to cardiac arrest skyrocketed during intense vaccine campaign in Washington

In King County, Washington, excess deaths increased by more than 13 times after COVID-19 vaccines rolled out, and there was a shockingly high correlation between the percentage of people vaccinated and the rise in excess deaths.

This is according to Dr. Peter McCullough, a renowned cardiologist who took a deep dive into the link between excess cardiopulmonary arrest and mortality during an intense vaccine campaign in the area with a team of investigators from the McCullough Foundation, led by Nicolas Hulscher.

Dr. McCullough explained that when he did his internal medicine residency at the University of Washington in Seattle in the 1980s, when the school was at the top of its game, he worked with the MEDIC ONE paramedic units in King County. They are known as trailblazers in out-of-hospital resuscitation research, and he noted that their cardiac arrest statistics are considered some of the most accurate in the nation.

He chose to explore these statistics given the strong link between COVID-19 vaccines and a type of heart inflammation known as myocarditis, which is asymptomatic in roughly half of its sufferers. Many do not even realize that they have it until they experience cardiac arrest – an effect that may not even occur until years after they get the jab. Sadly, many autopsies that are being performed on people that had received the vaccine who died suddenly confirm that myocarditis was the cause of death.

By 2023, roughly 98% of people in King County had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 jab. An analysis found that there was a 25.7% rise in total cardiopulmonary arrest, while cardiopulmonary arrest mortality rose by 25.4% from 2020 to 2023.

Keep reading

Fifth-grader, 11, speaks out after school banned her from starting interfaith prayer club due to ‘lack of funding’ just weeks after approving LGBTQ Pride group

A fifth grader from Washington State who wanted to start an interfaith prayer club at school because ‘she felt alone’ is speaking out after her request was denied.

Laura Toney, who is 11 and attends Creekside Elementary School in Sammamish, east of Seattle, had hoped to start the on-campus club to bring together students of different faith backgrounds to ‘serve their community’.

But her pitch to start such a club was rejected despite a Pride Club being approved only weeks earlier.

‘I wanted to start it because I felt kind of alone in the classroom and at school and so I realized I had some friends and I knew some other people that felt the same way and so I talked to them and I was just like you know what it would be a great idea to make a club where people could come together and do good in the community,’ Laura told Fox News.

 The school is now being accused of violating the young student’s First Amendment’s religious freedom protections by denying her request.

Keep reading

Teen Marijuana Use Has Declined In Washington Since Legalization, New State Research Shows

Newly released data from a Washington State survey of adolescent and teenage students show declines in both lifetime and past-30-day marijuana use in recent years, with striking drops that held steady through 2023. The results also indicate that perceived ease of access to cannabis among underage students has generally fallen since the state enacted legalization for adults in 2012—contrary to fears repeatedly expressed by opponents of the policy change.

About 8.4 percent of Washington 10th graders said in 2023 that they had used marijuana within the past 30 days, according to the new data, up slightly from 7.2 percent in 2021. But both of those numbers were sharply lower than pre-legalization numbers. In 2010, for example, 20.0 percent of 10th graders in the state said they’d used cannabis in the past month.

In King County, by far the state’s most populous, just 5.5 percent of 10th grade respondents reported cannabis use within the past month in 2023. That’s down from 7.3 percent in 2021 and 18.1 percent in 2010.

Similar drops were seen in lifetime marijuana use, as well as among other surveyed grade levels, including 6th, 8th and 12th grades.

The data come from the Healthy Youth Survey, which asks students statewide about a variety of topics around health behaviors, mental health and other areas of well-being.

Keep reading

The bar exam will no longer be required to become a licensed attorney in Washington

The Washington Supreme Court approved multiple new avenues to become a licensed attorney in the state Friday, none of which require taking the bar exam. 

The court approved new ways for law students to become licensed attorneys in the Evergreen State. One method is an apprenticeship program for law school graduates who work under an attorney for six months, then submit a portfolio for review. The other option is to complete 12 credits of skills coursework, 500 hours of hands-on legal work prior to graduation, and submit a portfolio for the Washington State Bar to review.

“These recommendations come from a diverse body of lawyers in private and public practice, academics, and researchers who contributed immense insight, counterpoints and research to get us where we are today,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis said in a statement. “With these alternative pathways, we recognize that there are multiple ways to ensure a competent, licensed body of new attorneys who are so desperately needed around the state.”

Law clerks can also become lawyers without going to law school by completing standardized education courses under the guidance of an attorney and 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern. 

In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court created the Bar Licensure Task Force to examine alternative paths to becoming a licensed attorney in the state. The task force looked at the “efficacy of the Washington state bar exam” and assessed “disproportionate impacts on examinees of color and first generation examinees.”

While Washington’s alternative licensing program has a DEI element, states with similar programs have implemented their programs for other reasons.

California is considering DEI as a barometer for expanding its licensing program that would help students “avoid the heavy expense of preparing for the traditional bar exam — a burden that falls disproportionately on historically disadvantaged groups, including first-generation graduates, women, and candidates of color,” according to Reuters.

The new avenues to becoming licensed address the “serious legal deserts problem” in Washington and “help remedy the fairness and bias concerns with the traditional licensure,” according to Seattle University School of Law Dean Anthony Varona, co-chair of the task force. 

Keep reading

There Is A War On Free Speech, And They Won’t Ever Be Satisfied Until It Is Completely Eradicated

The freedom to say whatever we want is one of the most fundamental rights in a free society.  If we are not free to speak up, it is is just a matter of time before all of our other rights are taken away as well.  So it should deeply alarm all of us that free speech is under attack like never before.  Much of the population has become convinced that “hate speech” is a special class of speech that does not deserve protection.  Of course in practice “hate speech” ends up being whatever forms of expression that the leftist elite hate.  That is why “hate speech” laws are always written so vaguely.  That way they can be used to go after whoever the leftist elite feel like going after at the time.

It is not always easy to have a society where people are allowed to say whatever they want.  People say things all the time that deeply, deeply offend me.  And there are some that have said things about me that are tremendously hateful and untrue.

But if we are going to have a free society, people have got to be free to say whatever they want.  So we should never support freedom of speech being taken away from anyone, because once we start going down that slippery slope it is just a matter of time before they come after our freedom to say what we want.

That is why what is happening in the state of Washington is so alarming.  A new law would allow private individuals to collect up to $2,000 every time they report someone to the new “hate crimes and bias incidents hotline”…

Keep reading

There Is A War On Free Speech, And They Won’t Ever Be Satisfied Until It Is Completely Eradicated

The freedom to say whatever we want is one of the most fundamental rights in a free society.  If we are not free to speak up, it is is just a matter of time before all of our other rights are taken away as well.  So it should deeply alarm all of us that free speech is under attack like never before.  Much of the population has become convinced that “hate speech” is a special class of speech that does not deserve protection.  Of course in practice “hate speech” ends up being whatever forms of expression that the leftist elite hate.  That is why “hate speech” laws are always written so vaguely.  That way they can be used to go after whoever the leftist elite feel like going after at the time.

It is not always easy to have a society where people are allowed to say whatever they want.  People say things all the time that deeply, deeply offend me.  And there are some that have said things about me that are tremendously hateful and untrue.

But if we are going to have a free society, people have got to be free to say whatever they want.  So we should never support freedom of speech being taken away from anyone, because once we start going down that slippery slope it is just a matter of time before they come after our freedom to say what we want.

That is why what is happening in the state of Washington is so alarming.  A new law would allow private individuals to collect up to $2,000 every time they report someone to the new “hate crimes and bias incidents hotline”…

Senate Bill 5427, after it is signed into law, would allow private individuals (note: this is not limited to American citizens) to report “bias incidents*” (see definition below) to the State Attorney General’s Office, with the possibility of receiving up to $2,000 of taxpayers money for this noncriminal incident. The bill was very clear: this is a non-crime which they will then forward to local law enforcement to investigate. What’s to investigate? No crime, no investigation.

The Progressives & Marxists who sponsored this bill say it is intended to help “victims of hate crimes” before a crime even happens. Say what? In reality, SB 5427 would create a “tattletale hotline,” undermine legitimate criminal investigations, and freeze, not just chill, speech & the press in Washington State. People will stop talking to others and writing to others except very close friends & relatives, for fear a greedy “Karen” will report them to Washington’s version of the Gestapo.

This is crazy.

Do we live in East Germany now?

Keep reading

Washington lawmakers pass bill tightening restrictions on gun shops

Washington State lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday tightening restrictions on gun dealers’ business operations.

The bill,approved by both the state’s House and Senate, would require vendors to secure and monitor their stores at all times. Businesses would need to have bars, grates and security screens on all windows and commercial grade metal doors for each point of entry.

“The point really is about commonsense business regulation that will keep our communities more safe,” State Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, a sponsor of the bill, noted. “Those who buy and sell firearms have a responsibility to keep their firearms secure, to keep them safe, and there’s reasonable surveillance requirements within the bill.”

Vendors would also have to install a security alarm system monitored by a remote base capable of contacting law enforcement and observing all firearms, windows and doors. Detectors noticing entry, motion and sound are required elements of the systems.

“We need to give law enforcement the tools they need to keep us more safe,” State Rep. Walen argued. “This is a special area of vulnerability, and I think that requires special responsibilities.”

The legislation also requires businesses to mount surveillance systems able to record prospective purchasers and remain active for 24 hours. A visible sign would accompany the cameras and alert customers they, along with their conversations, may be recorded.

Keep reading

Ex-school officer accused of raping 2 teens in West Richland. One was a former student

A former Yakima school resource officer is now facing charges for a sexual relationship with a teen girl and for raping her drunk friend. Prosecutors filed charges on Thursday against Elias Huizar, 39, of West Richland, for second-degree rape, third-degree child rape, as well as two counts of providing alcohol to minors. Huizar is out of the Benton County jail after posting a $200,000 bond. He is expected to back in court Feb. 15 to enter a plea to the charges. Police began investigating the claims when Huizar’s 17-year-old girlfriend, their 9-month-old son and her teenage friend approached Benton County sheriff’s deputies in Benton City on Feb. 3, according to court documents.

They claimed that Huizar sexually assaulted the younger teen while she was unconscious after drinking at his home. When West Richland police went to his home on Highlands Boulevard, he refused to open the door and triggering a two-hour standoff until the Tri-Cities Regional SWAT team forced their way into the house. His girlfriend’s age raised questions from prosecutors, who felt it was likely that they had a sexual relationship before she could legally consent. But according to court documents, this wasn’t the first time rumors about a sexual relationship between the couple had surfaced. When he was a school resource officer at her school, he got a protection order against the then 13-year-old girl after she allegedly told others they had a sexual relationship.

Keep reading

Washington State Marijuana Homegrow Proposal Dies In House Committee Without Getting A Vote

Adults in Washington State who grow marijuana at home will continue to face the threat of felony charges for at least another year following a House committee’s failure to advance a cannabis homegrow bill ahead of a legislative deadline this week.

HB 2194 was not called for a vote in the House Appropriations Committee before the February 5 deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal panels, meaning it’s no longer eligible to move forward. The marijuana home cultivation measure passed out of a separate House committee last month, though lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they were wary of the change.

Washington was one of the first U.S. states to legalize adult-use marijuana, passing a ballot initiative in 2012. Growing marijuana for personal use without a state medical card, however, remains 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.

Lead sponsor Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This bill is actually a long time coming,” Kloba told colleagues at last month’s committee hearing. “This is something that many other states have done, and it is time for us to do it, as well.”

If passed, HB 2194 would have allowed adults 21 and older to grow up to four plants per person, with no more than 10 allowed per household.

Keep reading