2SSB 5073 -
By Senators Parlette, Kohl-Welles
WITHDRAWN 03/02/2011
Beginning on page 28, line 7, strike all of sections 901, 902, and 903 and insert the following:
"NEW SECTION. Sec. 901 (1) By July 1, 2012, the department of
health shall, in consultation with the department of agriculture, adopt
rules for the creation, implementation, maintenance, and timely
upgrading of a secure and confidential registration system that allows:
(a) A peace officer to verify at any time whether a health care
professional has registered a person who has been contacted by that
peace officer and has provided that peace officer information necessary
to verify his or her registration as either a qualifying patient or a
designated provider;
(b) A peace officer to verify at any time during ordinary business
hours of the department of health whether a health care professional
has registered a person as either a qualifying patient or a designated
provider, or an address as the primary residence of a qualifying
patient or designated provider; and
(c) A peace officer to verify at any time during ordinary business
hours of the department of health whether a person, location, or
business is licensed by the department of agriculture or the department
of health as a licensed producer, licensed processor of cannabis
products, or licensed dispenser.
(2) The department of agriculture must, in consultation with the
department of health, create and maintain a secure and confidential
list of persons to whom it has issued a license to produce cannabis for
medical use or a license to process cannabis products, and the physical
addresses of the licensees' production and processing facilities. The
list must meet the requirements of subsection (9) of this section and
be transmitted to the department of health to be included in the
registry established by this section.
(3) The department of health must, in consultation with the
department of agriculture, create and maintain a secure and
confidential list of the persons to whom it has issued a license to
dispense cannabis for medical use that meets the requirements of
subsection (9) of this section and must be included in the registry
established by this section.
(4) Law enforcement shall comply with Article I, section 7 of the
state Constitution when accessing the registration system for criminal
investigations, which, at a minimum, requires an articulated
individualized suspicion of: (a) Criminal activity; or (b) the
possession, use, manufacture, production, processing, delivery,
transport, or distribution of cannabis, whether criminal or
noncriminal.
(5) Registration in the system shall be optional for qualifying
patients and designated providers, not mandatory, and registrations are
valid for one year, except that qualifying patients must be able to
remove themselves from the registry at any time. For licensees,
registrations are valid for the term of the license and the
registration must be removed if the licensee's license is expired or
revoked. The department of health must adopt rules providing for
registration renewals and for removing expired registrations and
expired or revoked licenses from the registry.
(6) Fees, including renewal fees, for qualifying patients and
designated providers participating in the registration system shall be
adequate to recapture the cost to the state of implementing,
maintaining, and enforcing the provisions of this section and the rules
adopted to carry out its purposes.
(7) The department of health, in conjunction with the department of
agriculture, must establish and collect reasonable fees for the
dissemination of information to employees of state and local law
enforcement agencies relating to whether a person is a licensed
producer, processor of cannabis products, or dispenser, or that a
location is the recorded address of a license producer, processor of
cannabis products, or dispenser, and for the dissemination of log
records relating to such requests for information to the subjects of
those requests.
(8) During the rule-making process, the department of health shall
consult with stakeholders and persons with relevant expertise, to
include, but not be limited to, qualifying patients, designated
providers, health care professionals, state and local law enforcement
agencies, and the University of Washington computer science and
engineering security and privacy research lab.
(9) The registration system shall meet the following requirements:
(a) Any personally identifiable information included in the
registration system must be "nonreversible," pursuant to definitions
and standards set forth by the national institute of standards and
technology;
(b) Any personally identifiable information included in the
registration system must not be susceptible to linkage by use of data
external to the registration system;
(c) The registration system must incorporate current best
differential privacy practices, allowing for maximum accuracy of
registration system queries while minimizing the chances of identifying
the personally identifiable information included therein; and
(d) The registration system must be upgradable and updated in a
timely fashion to keep current with state of the art privacy and
security standards and practices.
(10) The registration system shall maintain a log of each
verification query submitted by a peace officer, including the peace
officer's name, agency, and identification number, for a period of no
less than three years from the date of the query. Personally
identifiable information of qualifying patients and designated
providers included in the log shall be confidential and exempt from
public disclosure, inspection, or copying under chapter 42.56 RCW:
PROVIDED, That:
(a) Names and other personally identifiable information from the
list may be released only to:
(i) Authorized employees of the department of agriculture and the
department of health as necessary to perform official duties of either
department; or
(ii) Authorized employees of state or local law enforcement
agencies, only as necessary to verify that the person or location is a
qualified patient, designated provider, licensed producer, licensed
processor of cannabis products, or licensed dispenser, and only after
the inquiring employee has provided adequate identification.
Authorized employees who obtain personally identifiable information
under this subsection may not release or use the information for any
purpose other than verification that a person or location is a
qualified patient, designated provider, licensed producer, licensed
processor of cannabis products, or licensed dispenser;
(b) Information contained in the registration system may be
released in aggregate form, with all personally identifying information
redacted, for the purpose of statistical analysis and oversight of
agency performance and actions;
(c) The subject of a registration query may appear during ordinary
department of health business hours and inspect or copy log records
relating to him or her upon adequate proof of identity; and
(d) The subject of a registration query may submit a written
request to the department of health, along with adequate proof of
identity, for copies of log records relating to him or her.
(11) This section does not prohibit a department of agriculture
employee or a department of health employee from contacting state or
local law enforcement for assistance during an emergency or while
performing his or her duties under this chapter.
(12) Fees collected under this section must be deposited into the
health professions account under RCW 43.70.320."
Renumber the remaining sections consecutively and correct any internal references accordingly.
On page 34, beginning on line 27, after "under" strike "sections 901, 902, and 903" and insert "section 901"
EFFECT: Rather than establish a patient registry and separate lists of licensees, a single registry is established to include patient and licensee information.