Overlooking the Medical Boards

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Rep. Jarad Klein

Rep. Jarad Klein

July 2, 2017

Jarad Klein
Keota, Iowa

Dear Rep. Klein,

Thank you for your work in expanding the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Act in 2017.  While Iowans for Medical Marijuana (Iowa Business No. 334412) is concerned the program does not go far enough, production of CBD in Iowa is a huge step forward.

As you mention in your interview with KCII Radio, Washington, IA, on June 30, the new Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board can recommend expansion of the program.  Production in Iowa is the cornerstone that makes it all possible.

You also mention in your interview that the Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board is often overlooked by critics of the program.  I would like to point out that the Iowa Board of Pharmacy has also been overlooked throughout this process.  There is a pattern here that deserves your attention.

In 2010, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy recommended the reclassification of marijuana as a substance with accepted medical use in the United States.  The authority for their recommendation can be found in Iowa Code § 124.201 (2017), and the requirement that substances classified in schedule 1 must have no medical use in the United States is found in Iowa Code § 124.203 (2017).

I have included the pharmacy board’s recommendation from February 17, 2010, and the legislation the board filed in 2011, to refresh your memory.

It’s certainly an empty promise if the pharmacy board’s recommendations are not taken seriously.  That could be the reason people are overlooking the significance of this new board now.  We can keep creating boards, but the boards don’t mean much without serious consideration of their recommendations.

I do realize that production of CBD in Iowa has been the biggest obstacle we’ve had to overcome.  I also realize the pharmacy board’s recommendation may have been premature.

However, now that we have agreed on production of CBD in Iowa, let’s get this plant out of schedule 1 so we are not making medicine from a plant classified as having no medical use in the United States.  Forty-six states have accepted the marijuana plant for medical use or extracts[1] from the plant as medicine.  Either way, the plant is essential in all forty-six states.

Compare this to morphine produced from opium plants, or cocaine produced from coca plants.  Opium plants and coca plants are not in schedule 1 and have never been in schedule 1, showing a legislative intent at the time these laws were created to exclude plants with medical use from schedule 1.

It’s time to fix the classification.

Thank you for listening!

Sincerely,

Carl Olsen
http://iowamedicalmarijuana.org/

[1] CBD is one of many cannabinoids.  State laws vary on the level of THC that is allowed in a CBD product, but they don’t specify any levels for the other cannabinoids.  These products are referred to as “marijuana extracts.”

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