Iowa momentum continues: Board of Pharmacy recommends rescheduling marijuana!

Published: February 17, 2010

After a series of four hearings that began last summer, the Board of Pharmacy reviewed all of the evidence, and todayrecommended that the legislature reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II. In recommending the rescheduling, the board has recognized the medical value of marijuana and its value to seriously ill Iowans. The board’s statement also calls upon the legislature to set up a task force to study how to administer a medical marijuana program.

The recognition of marijuana as medicine in Iowa is a huge step. But for patients’ lives to improve, the legislature must also provide protections from arrest, like 14 other states have done. The bills currently being considered in the Iowa legislature, S.F. 293 and H.F. 2179, will provide these protections. Please take a moment to send an e-mail to urge your representatives and senators to support these comprehensive medical marijuana bills. Last year, Sen. Joe Bolkcom’s S.F. 293 was the first medical marijuana bill to have a substantive subcommittee meeting since 1996; and Rep. Mary Mascher’s H.F. 2179 is the Iowa House’s first medical marijuana bill introduced since 1998!

One other piece of amazing news: Yesterday, a Des Moines Register poll found that 64% of Iowans support patients’ use of medical marijuana with a doctor’s approval! The support cut across the partisan divides, with 76% of Democrats, 66% of Independents, and 47% of Republicans standing up for seriously ill patients. This should hopefully dispel the myth once and for all that medical marijuana is at all politically controversial, or could create electoral problems for a legislator. With these numbers, one would think the electorate would actually reward a legislator who backed compassionate legislation.

Thank you to the board, for doing the right thing. If you want to send a short, respectful note expressing your appreciation for the decision, you can e-mail the board’s executive director, Lloyd Jessen, at lloyd.jessen@ibpe.state.ia.us. Thank you so much to everyone who testified, especially all of the seriously ill patients who bravely shared their stories with the board, including Lisa Jackson, Jeff Elton, and Ladd Huffman. According to our great grantee, Jimmy Morrison, 107 out of the 111 people who spoke at the first three hearings spoke in support, and we all submitted over 12,000 pages of written material.  Thank you also to Dr. Joseph McSherry, who flew all the way from Vermont to share his exhaustive knowledge on and positive experiences with medical marijuana. Dr. Alan Koslow, Dr. Ed Hertko, and Dr. Deborah LeBeau also offered important local medical testimony that likely contributed to the board’s positive decision. This process never would have been started without the excellent legal work of the Iowa ACLU and Carl Olsen, and the support of his co-petitioners George McMahon, Barbara Douglass, and Bryan Scott. I am also grateful that the board allowed Professor Raphael Mechoulam, a high-profile Israeli researcher who was the first to isolate THC in marijuana, to testify by phone, along with myself.

Noah Mamber

Legislative Analyst

Marijuana Policy Project