The Official Position of the Branstad Administration

While Gov­er­nor Branstad lies about the offi­cial posi­tion of his admin­is­tra­tion, the Iowa Board of Phar­ma­cy, the admin­is­tra­tive agency giv­en the task of for­mu­lat­ing the offi­cial pol­i­cy of the Branstad Admin­is­tra­tion, con­tin­ues to say their offi­cial posi­tion is that mar­i­jua­na is med­i­cine and the leg­is­la­ture should cre­ate a med­ical mar­i­jua­na pro­gram. You can lis­ten for your­self by click­ing here.

The first 52 min­utes of the hear­ing was peo­ple tes­ti­fy­ing about their need for med­ical mar­i­jua­na. Then there was a dis­cus­sion of the law that cre­at­ed the duty of the board to make rules for med­ical use of mar­i­jua­na that last­ed for anoth­er 19 min­utes, and then, final­ly for the last 20 min­utes or so the board explains why it still sup­ports the rul­ing it made in 2010.

When the leg­is­la­ture cre­ates a law giv­ing a spe­cif­ic admin­is­tra­tive agency the duty of mak­ing a deci­sion for the exec­u­tive branch, it is the con­sti­tu­tion­al duty of the gov­er­nor to faith­ful­ly exe­cute that law. How­ev­er, in this sit­u­a­tion, Gov­er­nor Branstad is deny­ing that his admin­is­tra­tion sup­ports reclas­si­fi­ca­tion or med­ical use of mar­i­jua­na. That is a vio­la­tion of the Iowa Con­sti­tu­tion, imposter gov­er­nor, sir.

This was also con­firmed when we went to tri­al against the Iowa Board of Phar­ma­cy on Jan­u­ary 3, 2014. In the tran­script of the hear­ing, on page 17, the judge asked the board­’s attor­ney:

THE COURT: In fact, it made no oppo­site rec­om­men­da­tion; is that cor­rect?

MS. GAVIN: That’s cor­rect, Your Hon­or. The Board has not tak­en any pub­lic posi­tion since this 2010 rec­om­men­da­tion.