Washington State lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
The House Health Care & Wellness Committee advanced the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Shelley Kloba (D), in a 17-1 vote.
“This bill here builds on what we have as a decades-long experience with medical cannabis, in very controlled kind of environment,” Kloba said at a hearing before the panel last week. “I believe that with this bill we have struck a balance between a process that works for hospitals and gives them the kind of safeguards that they want and meets the needs of terminal patients who would like to try something maybe a little different than the standard care for a palliative situation.”
If enacted into law, HB 2152 would mandate that hospitals and other specified healthcare facilities allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana on the premises beginning on January 1, 2027, subject to certain rules and restrictions.
“The medical use of cannabis may support improved quality of life for a qualifying patient…with a terminal condition,” the bill’s text says. “It is the intent of the legislature to promote
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