Washington healthcare practitioners who authorize medical hashish should use the up to date Division of Well being Medical Hashish Authorization Kind beginning Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Leftover older tamper-resistant inventory was allowed solely by August 31. From right now, the up to date type is required.
The Washington Medical Fee despatched that discover to practitioners on August 12. Final yr, the Division of Well being revised the shape so it now not names the affected person’s particular situation and so the authorizing practitioner acknowledges that the primary workplace go to needs to be in individual. Clinics that also had older paper have been informed they might hold utilizing it till the September 1 deadline. The fee pointed practitioners to the division’s healthcare-practitioner web page and FAQ, and to its Aug. 12 bulletin, for questions at MedicalCannabis@doh.wa.gov.
Situation names come off the shape, not out of the chart
The rewrite is a privateness change, not a rewrite of who qualifies. The older type used checkboxes for particular qualifying situations. The up to date type replaces these with a single checkbox confirming that the affected person’s situation qualifies as a “terminal or debilitating medical situation” below RCW 69.51A.010. The division says the shift got here after sufferers raised privateness considerations about diagnoses showing on a type they carry right into a retailer.
The prognosis nonetheless needs to be recorded. Practitioners should hold the precise situation within the medical file. It merely now not prints on the authorization itself.
That’s the reverse of the course different states are taking over paper. Illinois just lately added sickle cell illness and PMOS with persistent ache to its public qualifying listing, placing extra situation names on the roster clinicians use. Washington’s statutory definition is unchanged. The state is taking these names off the shape the affected person holds.
What nonetheless has to occur within the examination room
The shape is an authorization, not a prescription. Earlier than finishing it, a practitioner has to conduct an in-person bodily examination and doc a provider-patient relationship as a principal care supplier or a specialist for the situation. The chart additionally has to point out the terminal or debilitating situation which will profit from medical hashish, that the affected person was given details about different therapy choices, and that different measures have been tried.
The finished Division of Well being type needs to be printed on accepted tamper-resistant paper from a vendor that carries inventory with the RCW 69.51A.030 brand within the decrease proper nook. If the affected person has a delegated supplier, the practitioner completes an equivalent type for that individual and fingers each copies to the affected person and designated supplier.
State regulation units what the shape should embrace: the affected person’s or designated supplier’s identify, deal with, and date of delivery; the practitioner’s identify, deal with, and license quantity; the quantity of hashish really useful; a telephone quantity the place the authorization may be verified; the dates of issuance and expiration; and a press release that the shape doesn’t shield from arrest except the affected person or designated supplier can also be entered within the medical hashish database and holds a recognition card.
For an grownup 18 or older, the authorization expires one yr after issuance. For a affected person below 18, it expires six months after issuance. Grownup sufferers must renew every year. Sufferers below 18 renew each six months and will need to have a father or mother or authorized guardian as a delegated supplier.
Renewals require one other in-person examination except the practitioner determines and paperwork that follow-up exams would probably lead to extreme hardship. In that case, follow-up could also be performed by telemedicine. The primary go to nonetheless needs to be in individual. That in-person acknowledgment is among the updates the Medical Fee flagged on the brand new type.
The practitioner doesn’t put the affected person within the registry
Handing over the printed type remains to be the practitioner’s final step with the paper. Sufferers are entered into the Medical Hashish Registry by a licensed advisor at a medically endorsed retailer, not by the healthcare practitioner. The practitioner doesn’t problem a recognition card.
The upgraded registry went dwell July 1, 2025, changing Airlift. Practitioners can open an non-compulsory registry account to revoke authorizations and look at data for their very own sufferers and designated suppliers. They nonetheless can not register a affected person or print a card. Copies of an authorization will not be legitimate. A misplaced type needs to be changed with one other authentic, signed and printed on the required tamper-resistant paper.
How massive this system is that this summer season
Division of Well being figures up to date in July 2026 put lively grownup sufferers at 27,749, minor sufferers at 85, and designated suppliers at 1,849. Of 459 licensed shops, 321 are medically endorsed. The registry created 14,202 recognition playing cards in 2026 by the second quarter, counting preliminary playing cards, renewals, replacements, and corrections for each sufferers and designated suppliers.
The division now not publishes a breakdown by qualifying situation. That matches the shape change taking impact right now: the precise prognosis stays within the chart, not on the paper that leaves the clinic.
Practitioners who nonetheless have the previous inventory ought to cease utilizing it. The up to date type is the one which has to exit the door on and after September 1.
