The bill creates new statutory sections requiring hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice care centers to permit the medical use of cannabis by a qualifying patient with a terminal condition, provided the use is allowed under a facility policy that meets specified requirements. This is a procedural change that adds new law (new sections to chapters 69.51A, 70.41, 18.51, and 70.127 RCW) and takes effect January 1, 2027. Compliance with the new section is not a condition for obtaining, retaining, or renewing a facility license. The requirement does not apply to facility emergency departments or to patients receiving emergency care. The bill requires facilities to adopt policies addressing several elements: prohibiting smoking or vaping as methods of use; documenting the patient’s medical cannabis use in the medical record; requiring the patient to provide a copy of a valid authorization; allowing the patient or a designated provider (but not facility staff or health care professionals such as physicians, nurses, or pharmacists) to acquire, administer, and remove the cannabis; requiring secure storage in a locked container in the patient’s room, a designated area, or with the designated provider; prohibiting sharing between patients and visitors; and requiring removal of remaining product at discharge or disposal under the facility’s medical waste procedures if removal is not possible. Facilities may suspend permitting use if a federal agency (including the Department of Justice or CMS) initiates an enforcement action or issues an express prohibition, and may resume when the federal agency authorizes resumption. The text references existing definitions and laws but several important definitions and details are not included in the provided excerpts: the definitions of “qualifying patient” (RCW 69.51A.010) and “terminal condition” (RCW 70.122.020) are not provided, and “designated provider” and “valid authorization” are not defined here. The procedures for disposal under a facility’s medical waste policy are not detailed, and an internal cross-reference in one subsection appears unclear as presented. The bill also notes cannabis’s federal Schedule I status and cites section 2 of the act as the compliance standard for the new facility sections.

If enacted, beginning January 1, 2027 hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice centers will have to adopt and follow written policies that allow patients with a terminal condition to use medical cannabis in their facility under strict conditions: no smoking or vaping, the use must be recorded in the medical record, the patient or a designated provider must bring, administer, store (locked), and remove the cannabis, staff may not administer it, and unused product must leave with the patient or be disposed of under the facility’s medical waste procedures. In practice this shifts procurement and administration responsibility to patients and their designated providers, requires facilities to create new policies, storage and disposal procedures, and staff training, and will add operational and administrative costs and new workflow constraints; facilities can suspend the policy if a federal enforcement action or express federal prohibition occurs, creating potential sudden changes in allowed practice. The groups most affected are the licensed facilities (hospitals, nursing homes, hospice centers), their clinicians and staff who must follow new documentation and prohibition-on-administration rules, and qualifying terminal patients and their designated providers who must obtain and handle cannabis themselves. The bill does not provide funding and does not include the definitions of “qualifying patient,” “terminal condition,” “designated provider,” or details on “valid authorization” and disposal procedures in the extracted text, so there is practical uncertainty about who exactly is covered and how some requirements will be carried out.