Recommendation: Schedule an appointment with your health care practitioner to see if your medical condition qualifies (see Qualifying Conditions). If it is determined you qualify, your practitioner may provide you with a medical cannabis authorization (authorization) – see form example.

Register*: Call a medically-endorsed retail store and schedule an appointment with a medical cannabis consultant (certified consultant) who may register you into the medical cannabis database and issue a medical cannabis card. Bring your authorization and government- or state-issued identification (i.e., driver license) to the appointment (WAC 314-55-150).

Receive: Once you have a medical cannabis card, you are now officially registered with the program and may take advantage of the card benefits (see A Patient’s Guide to the Medical Cannabis Database).

*Note: Registration is voluntary for adult patients (age 18 and older), but required for minor patients (under age 18) and their designated provider.

At this time, insurance companies are not required to cover medical cannabis. Consequently, all patients who participate in the program may be responsible for these costs:

Health Care Visit: Typical office visits are covered by the patient’s health care insurance; however, there may be associated out-of-pocket expenses.

Once the patient receives a medical cannabis authorization from their health care practitioner, they may call a nearby medically-endorsed store (PDF) and schedule an appointment with a certified consultant who will:

• review the authorization for completeness and accuracy;
• compare the information to the patient’s state identification;
• take a photo of the patient’s face and designated provider (if any);
• enter patient information and upload the photo into the medical cannabis authorization database;
• generate, print and laminate the medical cannabis card; and
• return the authorization, identification and medical cannabis card to the patient.