Yakima County, WA Cannabis Regulations: Home Cultivation (2026)
Key Facts
- Standard home-grow limit
- 6 plants, 8 oz useable cannabis
- Higher-need authorization limit
- 15 plants, 16 oz useable cannabis
- Unregistered patient limit
- 4 plants, 6 oz useable cannabis
- Governing law
- RCW 69.51A.210, state medical cannabis chapter
- Recognition card issuer
- Cannabis retailer with medical endorsement
- Applies in
- Unincorporated Yakima County statewide
Summary
Unincorporated Yakima County follows Washington's state medical cannabis law, RCW 69.51A.210, for home cultivation. A qualifying patient or designated provider can grow up to six plants at their domicile, rising to fifteen with a health care professional's higher-need authorization, or dropping to four if the patient never enrolls in the state authorization database.
(1) ... The qualifying patient or designated provider may also grow, in his or her domicile, up to six plants for the personal medical use of the qualifying patient and possess up to eight ounces of useable cannabis produced from his or her plants. These amounts shall be specified on the recognition card that is issued to the qualifying patient or designated provider. (2) If the health care professional determines that the medical needs of a qualifying patient exceed the amounts provided for in subsection (1) ..., the health care professional must specify on the authorization that ... the patient be allowed to grow, in his or her domicile, up to fifteen plants for the personal medical use of the patient. A patient so authorized may possess up to sixteen ounces of useable cannabis in his or her domicile. ... (3) If a qualifying patient or designated provider ... has not been entered into the medical cannabis authorization database, he or she may not receive a recognition card ... the qualifying patient or the designated provider may grow, in his or her domicile, up to four plants ... and possess up to six ounces of useable cannabis in his or her domicile.
Full Breakdown
210. The baseline tier applies when a health care professional authorizes a patient or designated provider without specifying a different amount: the grower may cultivate up to six plants in their domicile and possess up to eight ounces of useable cannabis produced from those plants, with the amount printed on the recognition card issued through the medical cannabis authorization database. A second, higher tier applies when the health care professional determines the patient's medical needs exceed the standard amount. In that case the professional must specify on the authorization that the patient is allowed to grow up to fifteen plants at the domicile and may possess up to sixteen ounces of useable cannabis there, with the plant count likewise entered into the authorization database and printed on the recognition card.
A third, lower tier covers patients or designated providers who hold a health care professional's authorization but have never been entered into the medical cannabis authorization database. 360. For home growing, this uncertified group may cultivate only up to four plants at the domicile and possess up to six ounces of useable cannabis there. All three tiers turn on registration status and a health care professional's documented findings, not on county zoning or a local permit, so the county has no separate home-grow ordinance layered on top of the state amounts.
Violations & Fines
The numbers in RCW 69.51A.210 are ceilings tied to registration status, not suggestions. A patient without a health care professional's specified higher-need finding is capped at six plants and eight ounces of useable cannabis; growing or holding more than that domicile allowance falls outside the tier the statute authorizes. A patient never entered in the medical cannabis authorization database is capped even lower, at four plants and six ounces, and cannot access the larger medical-endorsement purchase amounts at a retail outlet, being limited instead to the general adult-use retail amounts in RCW 69.50.360.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cannabis plants can a medical patient grow at home in unincorporated Yakima County?
Can a doctor authorize more than six plants?
What happens if a patient never registers in the medical cannabis authorization database?
Does Yakima County have its own home-grow cap separate from state law?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Yakima County
Compare Yakima County to another location·View the Washington cannabis regulations overview
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