Regulation is coming! Regulation is coming! If Washington State medical marijuana patients have anything to protest, it is the Cannabis Patient Protection Act. The details of this bill are simply that the medical sale of marijuana is going to be taxed a lot more, and facilities will be required to adhere to all state regulations.

Remember that medical and recreational facilities in Washington are entirely separate. This makes sense because why would a cancer patient visit a recreational drug store in order to obtain their medicine? Unfortunately not 100 percent of the medical community actually needs to use cannabis. Anyone can get their medical certification because they have claims of back pain. The result is that there many patients who do not have serious problems and just want to get high.

So why is the Cannabis Patient Protection Act a bad piece of legislation? If you ask Seattle city planners, it is long overdue. Some medical facilities have been avoiding taxes while others have not been subject to normal farming regulations such as pesticide control. All that business owners want is an even playing field so that people actually start to frequent recreational stores. Currently everyone is asking ‘why would I spend twice the amount of money just so the government can cash in on the profits?’

So far this bill looks like it will do a great deal for government because increased taxation will give them an increased budget in the coming years. In fact, a lot of lawmakers are probably looking at this bill with eager approval. Hidden within the legislation though are some pretty significant structural changes. For example, medical patients will no longer be able to participate in group grows greater than four people. This will deeply hinder the production timelines of a lot of medical suppliers. Also the new licensing rules will force quite a few stores to shut down.

While this bill looks great from a lawmaker’s perspective, there is going to be a strong backlash from the medical community. Already there are people who are championing signs and pushing for a separate-but-equal approach. It’s too bad that lawmakers have the exact same intent. In their view, the best way to keep both types of facilities equal is to force the medical community to play by the same rules as the recreational. Still I doubt we will see Washington stores follow Colorado’s lead by combining medical and recreational stores into one entity.

There are a lot of people who use marijuana for medical purposes and they deserve a system that is fair. Hopefully this act will allow patients to get the medicine that they need at an affordable cost while forcing fakers into the recreational business. It’s unfortunate that they will probably flock to the black market.