Prescription drugs

From the 2024 DOR Tax Exemption Study

(2) (b) Medicines of mineral, animal, and botanical origin prescribed, administered, dispensed, or used in the treatment of an individual by a person licensed under chapter 18.36A RCW;. . . . (Emphasis added.) Later the same year, citizens of Washington approved Initiative 692, codified at RCW 69.51A. RCW 69.51A.030(2)(a) allows health care professionals to issue an “authorization” to patients informing them that they may benefit from the use of medical marijuana. Those health care professionals are to discuss with their patients the benefits and risks of using marijuana. Neither the initiative, nor the Legislature’s 2011 amendments to it, legalize the commercial sale of medical marijuana. See State v. Reis, 183 Wn.2d 197, 201, 351 P.3d 127 (2015). Rather, the primary purpose of the initiative was to provide an affirmative defense to criminal prosecution for individuals charged with possession of marijuana, if those individuals had valid authorization from a health care professional. Id. at 209-11. The initiative said nothing about the creation of a tax exemption for medical marijuana. The authorizations permitted by the initiative were originally limited to physicians and did not