Governor Branstad’s Straw Man

Gov­er­nor Branstad said he’s opposed to a med­ical mar­i­jua­na pro­gram like Cal­i­for­ni­a’s, while ignor­ing the fact that the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health has rec­om­mend­ed a pro­gram like New Mex­i­co’s Med­ical Cannabis Pro­gram. As you may recall, Iowa State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Clel Baudler went to Cal­i­for­nia in 2010 and lied about hav­ing hem­or­rhoids to get a med­ical rec­om­men­da­tion for mar­i­jua­na. The leg­is­la­tion being pro­posed here in Iowa, SF 2215, would require a doc­tor and a patient to sub­mit an appli­ca­tion to the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health, which would then review the appli­ca­tion to make sure it is legit­i­mate. Gov­er­nor Branstad is not being hon­est when he says Iowa’s med­ical mar­i­jua­na law will be like Cal­i­for­ni­a’s. Obvi­ous­ly, Gov­er­nor Branstad would like every­one to think the leg­is­la­tion being pro­posed here in Iowa is like Cal­i­for­nia, so he can set up a straw man argu­ment and knock it down. Here’s what Gov­er­nor Branstad had to say this morn­ing:

Gov­er­nor Branstad cites deaths from pre­scrip­tion drug abuse, but there are no deaths from mar­i­jua­na. Branstad cites the abuse of pre­scrip­tion drugs, but fails to acknowl­edge that the extra pro­tec­tion pro­vid­ed in SF 2215 ensures that every appli­ca­tion for med­ical use of mar­i­jua­na is indi­vid­u­al­ly reviewed by the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health before it is approved. A doc­tor will not be able to sim­ply write out a pre­scrip­tion as we cur­rent­ly allow for extreme­ly lethal nar­cotics. Mar­i­jua­na’s safe­ty record is beyond dis­pute. The Chief Admin­is­tra­tive Law Judge for the U.S. Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion found that, “Mar­i­jua­na, in its nat­ur­al form, is one of the safest ther­a­peu­ti­cal­ly active sub­stances known to man.” DEA Dock­et No. 86–22, Sept. 6, 1988.