Iowa Republican Senators File Marijuana Reclassification Bill

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sf2025
Iowa sen­a­tors Mark Chel­gren, Charles Schnei­der, Jason Schultz, Steven Sod­ders, Wal­ly Horn, and Joe Bolk­com

Three Iowa Repub­li­can sen­a­tors, Charles Schnei­der, Mark Chel­gren, and Jason Schultz, have filed a stand alone mar­i­jua­na reclas­si­fi­ca­tion bill in the Iowa Sen­ate, SF 2025, this week. Two pre­vi­ous bills, SSB 1205 and SF 282, that would do the same thing were filed sep­a­rate­ly by two Iowa Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tors, Steven Sod­ders and Joe Bolk­com, in 2015.

The Iowa Med­ical Cannabis Act, SF 484, bare­ly squeaked through last year on a heav­i­ly par­ti­san vote (26 to 19, with one Repub­li­can and one Demo­c­rat cross­ing par­ty lines), but it was amend­ed on April 15, 2015, with an amend­ment, S‑3123, that would reclas­si­fy mar­i­jua­na. That amend­ment passed by a vote of 44–0‑6. So, you can see there is some momen­tum for reclas­si­fy­ing mar­i­jua­na in Iowa.

I am extreme­ly encour­aged that Repub­li­cans are now bring­ing some com­mon sense to the table. Reclas­si­fy­ing mar­i­jua­na does not make it legal for any­thing. It would take both state and fed­er­al reclas­si­fi­ca­tion of mar­i­jua­na to make research eas­i­er, but state reclas­si­fi­ca­tion is a step in the right direc­tion. Reclas­si­fi­ca­tion does not oblig­ate the state to do any­thing fur­ther, so it should not be a dif­fi­cult issue.

SF 2025 is cur­rent­ly pend­ing in the Iowa Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Judi­cia­ry, and has been assigned to a sub­com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of sen­a­tor Charles Schnei­der, Steven Sod­ders, and Wal­ly Horn. Please let them know you sup­port this bill.