Richland, WA Public Conduct: Public Marijuana Use (2026)

Chapter 9.09, Controlled Substances, does not spell out its own marijuana-consumption offense. Instead, § 9.09.010, 'RCW sections adopted,' declares that a list of Revised Code of Washington provisions 'are hereby adopted by reference and shall be given the same force and effect as if set forth herein in full.' That list runs from legend-drug definitions in RCW 69.41.010 through drug-paraphernalia sales in RCW 69.50.4121, and it specifically names RCW 69.50.445, 'Opening Package of or Consuming Marijuana, Useable Marijuana, or Marijuana-Infused Product in View of General Public – Penalty.' Because the ordinance gives the adopted RCW text the same force as if it were printed in full in the Richland Municipal Code, a violation is enforced by the Richland Police Department exactly as if the city council had drafted the language itself; the penalty tracks whatever RCW 69.50.445 prescribes, not the general misdemeanor scale in § 9.02.020.

The chapter also folds in RCW 69.50.4013 and 69.50.4014, the state's cannabis-possession penalty sections, through the same adoption clause. Immediately after, § 9.09.020 separately adopts Chapter 69.51A RCW, Washington's medical cannabis law, 'as it currently exists or as it may be amended,' recognizing affirmative defenses for prescribed medical cannabis use. Richland repealed its own former Chapter 9.10, 'Marijuana,' and Chapter 9.11, 'Drug Paraphernalia,' by the same 2023 ordinance that rewrote § 9.09.010, consolidating everything into this reference-adoption structure rather than keeping locally drafted marijuana offenses on the books.