Request for State Legislation 2019

Iowa Code Chap­ter 124E, the Iowa Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Act, lacks a sec­tion on com­pli­ance with exist­ing fed­er­al law.

Cannabis is a fed­er­al sched­ule 1 con­trolled sub­stance, and yet Iowa Code Chap­ter 124E doesn’t even men­tion it.  Why?

In 2018, the Iowa Sen­ate passed SF 2398 by a vote of 49–0.  Sec­tion 6 is titled “Com­pli­ance with fed­er­al law.”

SF 2398 proves Iowa leg­is­la­tors know fed­er­al law exists, but the leg­is­la­ture failed to address fed­er­al law in Iowa Code Chap­ter 124E.

This caus­es numer­ous prob­lems for patients and providers, some of which are doc­u­ment­ed in an Arti­cle from Novem­ber 30, 2018, in the Des Moines Reg­is­ter.

This year is a per­fect time to address the sit­u­a­tion by stat­ing clear­ly that Iowa is cre­at­ing an exemp­tion from exist­ing fed­er­al sched­ule 1.  Any law the state has a fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion­al right to enact is a law the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment must hon­or and respect.

Fed­er­al sched­ule 1 is only for sub­stances that have no accept­ed med­ical use in the states.  The leg­is­la­ture has cre­at­ed an accept­ed med­ical use for cannabis in Iowa.

This state pro­tec­tion under exist­ing fed­er­al law doesn’t extend beyond the state’s bor­ders, but it does pro­vide Iowa patients and providers with the pro­tec­tion they need when being accused of vio­lat­ing fed­er­al law here in Iowa.

Please fix this bro­ken law so the peo­ple it was intend­ed to help do not need­less­ly suf­fer due to the state’s gross neg­li­gence to explain how it com­plies with exist­ing fed­er­al law.

Carl Olsen