I attended my precinct caucus last night. We had ten people. There was only one platform resolution, mine. I explained that since the last caucus I had picked up support from the Des Moines Register (opinion poll on February 16, 2010, finding 64% of Iowans in favor of medical marijuana), the Iowa Board of Pharmacy (unanimous ruling on February 17, 2010, to reclassify marijuana as medicine), the Iowa Medical Society, and the Iowa Pharmacy Association. I explained how I had to sue the Iowa Board of Pharmacy just to get them to consider the issue. One of the precinct members asked me if I had heard the Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) had just filed a bill to keep marijuana classified as non-medical. I responded that I had been on the phone with the ODCP last week and just received an official response from their office by email the same day as the caucus. The ODCP is basing their opinion on a 2006 letter from the FDA. The FDA interprets the federal Controlled Substances Act, not the Iowa Uniform Controlled Substances Act, so I’m going to sue them for violation of state sovereignty. Grinspoon v. DEA, 828 F.2d 881, 887 (1st Cir. 1987): “Unlike the CSA scheduling restrictions, the FDCA interstate marketing provisions do not apply to drugs manufactured and marketed wholly intrastate. Compare 21 U.S.C. § 801(5) with 21 U.S.C. § 321 (b), 331, 355(a). Thus, it is possible that a substance may have both an accepted medical use and safety for use under medical supervision, even though no one has deemed it necessary to seek approval for interstate marketing.”