Proposed Amendment to HSB 244

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The fol­low­ing amend­ment became part of SF 501 on Tues­day, March 5, 2019, by a vote of 14 — 1 in the Iowa Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee. Please add the same lan­guage to HSB 244.

House Study Bill 244
1Amend House Study Bill 244 as fol­lows:
21.  Page 2, after line 18 by insert­ing:
3<Sec. ___.  NEW SECTION.  124E.20  Fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions not
4applic­a­ble.
5Notwith­stand­ing any fed­er­al reg­u­la­tion to the con­trary, the
6use of med­ical cannabid­i­ol pur­suant to this chap­ter is not
7sub­ject to fed­er­al reg­u­la­tion.>
82.  By renum­ber­ing as nec­es­sary.
PROPOSED COMMITTEE AMENDMENT

It is crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant that this state­ment of leg­isla­tive intent be includ­ed in our state law. State leg­is­la­tors fre­quent­ly say that the Iowa Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Act autho­rizes vio­la­tion of fed­er­al law, includ­ing leg­is­la­tors who vot­ed for it (Rep. Lin­da Upmey­er and Rep. John Forbes). Stig­ma­tiz­ing patients as crim­i­nals should not be some­thing suf­fer­ing Iowans are bur­dened with. The fed­er­al Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion (DEA) reg­u­la­tions exempt the reli­gious use of a fed­er­al sched­ule 1 con­trolled sub­stance, pey­ote. See, 21 C.F.R. § 1307.31 (2019). For the same rea­son, DEA must exempt a state med­ical cannabis pro­gram. We need to declare we have the right to do this and that DEA must include an exemp­tion in Title 21 Sec­tion 1307 of the Code of Fed­er­al Reg­u­la­tions.