Is weed legal in Washington?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is legal in Washington. (RCW 69.50.360 Cannabis retailers, employees of retail outlets—Certain acts not criminal or civil offenses)

Enacted by Initiative Measure No. 502 (2012). This section makes retail sale and delivery of cannabis to a person 21 or older, by a validly licensed retailer, lawful; it does not extend to general home cultivation by an adult who is not a qualifying medical patient, which remains a separate question (see home_cultivation).

What Washington's initiative made lawful is a sale by a validly licensed retailer to a person 21 or older. A shop's license therefore does as much work as your age in settling whether a purchase was lawful.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Washington, serving patients the program registers. (RCW 69.51A.005 Purpose and intent)

The chapter protects a qualifying patient's medical use of cannabis for a range of terminal or debilitating conditions found by the legislature to potentially benefit from cannabis, on a health care professional's judgment, rather than limiting the program to low-THC or CBD-only preparations; RCW 69.51A.210 authorizes access to useable cannabis (flower) and concentrates, not only low-THC forms.

With a store already open to anyone 21 or over, a card here is about what it adds: a place in the state's medical cannabis authorization database, larger amounts at the counter, and plants at home. A health care professional writes the authorization that starts all of it.

Hemp-derived products

Washington permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (RCW 69.50.101 Definitions (Effective until June 30, 2027))

RCW 69.50.101(4) excludes hemp and industrial hemp, as defined in RCW 15.140.020, from the definition of 'cannabis' by drawing the line at 0.3 percent THC concentration on a dry weight basis; hemp is excluded from 'controlled substance' on the same basis. Separately, RCW 69.50.575 exempts a 'cannabis health and beauty aid' from this chapter's cannabis regulations and penalties only if it is a topical product not intended for ingestion, does not cross the blood-brain barrier, and contains no more than 0.3 percent THC.

Washington draws its hemp line at 0.3 percent THC by dry weight, then adds one narrow carve-out on top of it for a topical health and beauty aid that is not meant to be swallowed. Anything made to be eaten or inhaled falls outside that carve-out.

Home cultivation

Washington allows a registered patient to grow up to 6 plants at home, and nobody else. (RCW 69.51A.210 Qualifying patients or designated providers—Authorization—Health care professional may include recommendations on amount of cannabis)

RCW 69.50.401(3) excepts only cannabis activity compliant with the licensed-business provisions of RCW 69.50.360, .363, or .366 from the general controlled-substance prohibition; it does not except home cultivation by an adult-use consumer, so only a qualifying patient or designated provider may grow at home. Six plants is the default a health care professional's authorization allows once entered in the medical cannabis authorization database; a patient not entered in that database may grow up to four plants, and a patient whose health care professional certifies a greater medical need may grow up to fifteen. RCW 69.51A.260 caps a single housing unit at fifteen plants regardless of how many qualifying patients live there, and requires that growing or processing not be visible or smellable from a public place or a neighboring property.

Being old enough to shop here does not come with a plant. The only route to a lawful one runs through a health care professional's authorization, and the number of plants that comes with it turns on what the authorization says and whether the state has you in its database.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Washington states it: A person 21 years of age or older may possess up to one ounce of useable cannabis, 16 ounces of cannabis-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of cannabis-infused product in liquid form (or 200 milligrams of THC if packaged in units of no more than four milligrams each), or seven grams of cannabis concentrate, in any combination. (RCW 69.50.360 Cannabis retailers, employees of retail outlets—Certain acts not criminal or civil offenses)

RCW 69.50.4013(3)(a) is what makes simple possession of these amounts lawful, by cross-referencing 'those set forth in RCW 69.50.360(3)' rather than restating its own figures. A qualifying patient or designated provider may possess more under RCW 69.51A.210: up to eight ounces of useable cannabis produced from their own plants under the standard medical authorization, up to sixteen ounces if a health care professional certifies greater need, or up to six ounces if not entered in the medical cannabis authorization database.

On buying, Washington states: In a single retail transaction, a person 21 years of age or older may buy, in any combination, one ounce of useable cannabis, 16 ounces of cannabis-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of cannabis-infused product in liquid form (or 200 milligrams of THC if packaged in units of no more than four milligrams each), or seven grams of cannabis concentrate. (RCW 69.50.360 Cannabis retailers, employees of retail outlets—Certain acts not criminal or civil offenses)

A qualifying patient or designated provider entered in the medical cannabis authorization database may instead buy, at a retail outlet with a medical cannabis endorsement, up to a combination of 48 ounces of cannabis-infused product in solid form, three ounces of useable cannabis, 216 ounces of cannabis-infused product in liquid form, or 21 grams of cannabis concentrate, per RCW 69.51A.210; one not entered in that database may buy only the amounts in RCW 69.50.360.

Washington counts flower, solid edibles, liquid edibles and concentrate against one allowance in combination rather than giving each its own. A patient entered in the authorization database is measured against a different set of figures, and only a retailer holding the medical endorsement may sell at those amounts.

Minimum age

You must be 21 or over to buy without a medical card. (RCW 69.50.360 Cannabis retailers, employees of retail outlets—Certain acts not criminal or civil offenses)

You must be 18 or over to hold a card and buy for yourself. (RCW 69.51A.220 Health care professionals may authorize medical use of cannabis—Qualifying patients under age eighteen)

A qualifying patient under 18 may be authorized only if a parent or guardian participates in treatment, agrees to the medical use, and becomes the minor's designated provider with sole control over the minor's cannabis; both must be entered in the medical cannabis authorization database and hold a recognition card. The minor may not grow plants or purchase cannabis products from a retailer with a medical cannabis endorsement.

The two ages sit three years apart, so a patient of 18 has a counter open to them that a person of 18 without a card does not. Below 18, Washington runs the purchase through a parent or guardian who becomes the designated provider, not through the young patient.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed recreational dispensary, a licensed medical dispensary and a retailer of hemp-derived or CBD products. (RCW 69.50.360 Cannabis retailers, employees of retail outlets—Certain acts not criminal or civil offenses)

RCW 69.51A.210 separately authorizes sale to a qualifying patient or designated provider at 'a retail outlet holding a medical cannabis endorsement,' the medical channel. RCW 69.50.575 exempts a qualifying 'cannabis health and beauty aid' (a topical product, at most 0.3 percent THC, not for ingestion) from this chapter's cannabis regulation entirely, which is recorded as the hemp-cbd-retailer channel. No registered source describes a licensed home-delivery channel; RCW 69.50.4013(4)'s noncommercial delivery provision is a person-to-person gift allowance, not a retailer service, and is not registered for this question.

Washington runs its medical counter inside the recreational system, so what you look for is a retail outlet holding a medical endorsement rather than a separate kind of store. The third channel is narrower than it sounds, covering topical health and beauty aids that the statute lifts out of cannabis regulation entirely.

The Washington store list names every licensed location this site holds a record for.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.