Last Minute Back Door Dealing Dooms HF 732 (Medical Cannabidiol)

I’m sure you’ve heard it said, “Laws are Like Sausages.  Bet­ter Not to See Them Being Made.”

2014 Medical Cannabidiol Act

Iowa Poll: 59% back legal­iz­ing med­ical mar­i­jua­na, Tony Leys, Des Moines Reg­is­ter, March 2, 2014

Senate File 2360 (Medical Cannabidiol Act)

SF 2360 was intro­duced by Sen­a­tor Joe Bolk­com (chair of the Sen­ate Ways and Means Com­mit­tee) on Wednes­day, April 23, 2014, and cre­at­ed the Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Act, Iowa Code Chap­ter 124D.  SF 2360 passed in the Sen­ate by a vote of 36–12 at 2:30 p.m. on Thurs­day, April 24, 2014.

After a last minute House amend­ment by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Clel Baudler (chair of the House Pub­lic Safe­ty Com­mit­tee), SF 2360 passed as amend­ed in the House by a vote of 77–20 at 3:30 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, May 1, 2014

The last minute House amend­ment required send­ing the bill back to the Sen­ate ear­ly that same morn­ing.  SF 2360, as amend­ed, passed in the Sen­ate by a vote of 38–8 at 4:30 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, May 1, 2014.

SF 2360 placed a 3% cap on tetrahy­dro­cannabi­nol (THC) in a cannabid­i­ol prod­uct.

2017 Medical Cannabidiol Act

Iowa Poll: Med­ical mar­i­jua­na draws 78% sup­port, Tony Leys, Des Moines Reg­is­ter, March 1, 2016

Med­ical mar­i­jua­na sup­port keeps climb­ing, Iowa Poll shows, Tony Leys, Des Moines Reg­is­ter, Feb­ru­ary 15, 2017

Senate File 506 (Medical Cannabis Act)

SF 506 was intro­duced by Sen­a­tor Charles Schnei­der (chair of the Sen­ate Appro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee) on Tues­day, April 11, 2017, and would have cre­at­ed a Med­ical Cannabis Act.  SF passed in the Sen­ate by a vote of 45–5 at 7:30 p.m. on Mon­day, April 17, 2017.

On Tues­day, April 18, 2017, the House Ways and Means Com­mit­tee assigned SF 506 to a sub­com­mit­tee, but the sub­com­mit­tee nev­er met and SF 506 did not pro­ceed any fur­ther.

House File 524 (Prescription Monitoring)

The orig­i­nal ver­sion of HF 524 added a dai­ly report­ing require­ment and mul­ti-state agree­ments to a pre­scrip­tion mon­i­tor­ing pro­gram, but said noth­ing about cannabi­ol.  HF 524 passed in the House by a vote of 96–0 at 12:00 p.m. on Tues­day, March 21, 2017.

A Sen­ate amend­ment removed the dai­ly report­ing require­ment.  The amend­ed ver­sion of HF 524 keep­ing the mul­ti-state agree­ments passed in the Sen­ate by a vote of 49–0 at 11:50 a.m. on Thurs­day, April 13, 2017.

House File 524 (Medical Cannabidiol Act)

A 22-page amend­ment to HF 524 by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jarad Klein (vice chair of the House Pub­lic Safe­ty Com­mit­tee) was dis­trib­uted at around 3:00 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, April 22, 2017.  The amend­ment cre­at­ed a Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Act, Iowa Code Chap­ter 124E.  The amend­ment was adopt­ed and the amend­ed ver­sion of HF 524 passed in the House by a vote of 83–11 at 6:10 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, April 22, 2017.

HF 524 passed in the Sen­ate by a vote of 33–7 at 7:05 a.m. on Sat­ur­day, April 22, 2017.  Sen­a­tor Bolk­com sar­cas­ti­cal­ly remarked that the sun had risen and vot­ing was tak­ing place in the light of day.

SF 524 retained the 3% cap on tetrahy­dro­cannabi­nol (THC) in a cannabid­i­ol prod­uct, and required an advi­so­ry board to advise the leg­is­la­ture if any change to the 3% cap on THC was need­ed.

2019

Senate File 501 (Medical Cannabidiol)

Sen­ate File 256 (which lat­er became SF 501) was intro­duced on Feb­ru­ary 12, 2019.  SF 256 would have added addi­tion­al med­ical con­di­tions to the list of qual­i­fy­ing con­di­tions.

SF 256 did not change the 3% cap on THC.

Sen­a­tor Rich Tay­lor agreed to sub­mit an amend­ment for me.  The ver­sion of my amend­ment draft­ed by the Leg­isla­tive Ser­vices Agency was a lot short­er than mine, but we agreed that sub­mit­ting it was bet­ter than noth­ing.

SF 256 was approved by a sub­com­mit­tee on Feb­ru­ary 13, 2019.

Because SF 256 went beyond the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Advi­so­ry Board by adding addi­tion­al qual­i­fy­ing med­ical con­di­tions, House Speak­er Lin­da Upmey­er respond­ed on Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 18, 2019, say­ing the leg­is­la­ture should wait for the advi­so­ry board to add addi­tion­al qual­i­fy­ing med­ical con­di­tions by admin­is­tra­tive rule with­out fur­ther action by the leg­is­la­ture.

Iowa Poll: 78% want med­ical mar­i­jua­na pro­gram expand­ed, Tony Leys, Des Moines Reg­is­ter, Feb­ru­ary 23, 2019

SPEAKER UPMEYER MEETS PRIVATELY WITH SOME OF THE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS ON FEBRUARY 25

House speak­er eyes more cannabid­i­ol access for Iowans, James Lynch, Cedar Rapids Gazette, Feb­ru­ary 26, 2019

SF 256 was approved along with my amend­ment by the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee on Tues­day, March 5, 2019.  At the meet­ing Sen­a­tor Brad Zaun (chair of the com­mit­tee) said my amend­ment was a good amend­ment and asked his col­leagues to vote for it.  My amend­ment passed by a vote of 14–1.

My amend­ment sim­ply says the state med­ical cannabid­i­ol pro­gram is not fed­er­al­ly reg­u­lat­ed, which seems obvi­ous.  To under­stand my amend­ment you’ll need to refer to my com­ments in the min­utes from the Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 1, 2019, advi­so­ry board meet­ing:

Carl Olsen – pri­vate cit­i­zen, addressed the board with a sin­gle ques­tion.  “Is every­thing autho­rized by 124E a fed­er­al crime?”  Mr. Olsen indi­cat­ed that he has also sub­mit­ted this ques­tion in writ­ing to the Iowa Dept. of Pub­lic Health for com­ment.

Then read my peti­tion to the advi­so­ry board which is on the agen­da for the Fri­day, August 2, 2019, advi­so­ry board meet­ing.  I am ask­ing the board to rec­om­mend the depart­ment obtain for­mal acknowl­edge­ment from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment that our state med­ical cannabid­i­ol pro­gram is exempt from fed­er­al reg­u­la­tion.

SF 501 (for­mer­ly SF 256), includ­ing my amend­ment on page 5, lines 19–23, was intro­duced by the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee on Wednes­day, March 6, 2019 and placed on the Sen­ate Debate Cal­en­dar.

House File 732 (Medical Cannabidiol)

House Study Bill 244 (which lat­er became HF 732) was intro­duced on Wednes­day, March 6, 2019, appar­ent­ly in response to SF 501.  HSB 244 was the result of the pri­vate meet­ing with some of the advi­so­ry board mem­bers in Speak­er Upmeyer’s office on Feb­ru­ary 25 — Cedar Rapids Gazette, Feb­ru­ary 26.  There is no pub­lic record of what was said at that pri­vate meet­ing.

HSB 244 was intro­duced a day before the last day bills must be approved by a com­mit­tee before dying on the Fri­day, March 8, 2019, fun­nel date (dead­line).

HSB 244 did not add any new qual­i­fy­ing med­ical con­di­tions.

HSB 244 removed the 3% cap on THC and replaced it with a 20 gram per 90 day lim­it which the depart­ment could low­er by rule if need­ed.

The advi­so­ry board had not rec­om­mend remov­ing the 3% cap on THC, and there is no pub­lic record of what “some” of the board mem­bers said at the pri­vate meet­ing in Speak­er Upmeyer’s office.

To be clear, the advi­so­ry board made its rec­om­men­da­tions on Fri­day, Novem­ber 2, 2018, and then filed them with the leg­is­la­ture on Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 1, 2019.  The board met again on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 1, 2019, and the next board meet­ing was sched­uled for Fri­day, May 2, 2019.  The board had not changed it’s rec­om­men­da­tion.

HSB 244 was approved by a sub­com­mit­tee on Wednes­day, March 6, 2019, the same day it was intro­duced.  HSB 244 then passed by a unan­i­mous vote in the House Pub­lic Safe­ty Com­mit­tee on Thurs­day, March 7, 2019, the day before the Fri­day, March 8, 2019, fun­nel date (dead­line).

House File 732 (for­mer­ly HSB 244) was intro­duced by the House Pub­lic Safe­ty Com­mit­tee on Wednes­day, March 13, 2019, and placed on the House Debate Cal­en­dar.

The House debat­ed HF 732 on Tues­day, March 26, 2019.  Dur­ing debate, House Democ­rats filed sev­er­al amend­ments: H‑1074, H‑1079, and H‑1080.  H‑1079 was sim­i­lar to H‑1080 and it was with­drawn.  H‑1074 was replaced by H‑1080.  H‑1080 was adopt­ed.

H‑1074:

Increase the lim­it on THC from 20 grams per 90 days to 30 grams per 90 days, remove the author­i­ty of the depart­ment to low­er the lim­it, and allow patients with ter­mi­nal ill­ness to receive more than 30 grams per 90 days.

H‑1084:

Increase the lim­it on THC from 20 grams per 90 days to 25 grams per 90 days, remove the author­i­ty of the depart­ment to low­er the lim­it, and allow patients with ter­mi­nal ill­ness to receive more than 25 grams per 90 days.

HF 732 then passed as amend­ed (H‑1080) by a vote of 96–3.

The fol­low­ing Fri­day, two of the advi­so­ry board mem­bers (two who attend­ed the pri­vate meet­ing in the House Speaker’s office) said they had been mis­rep­re­sent­ed.  Med­ical mar­i­jua­na bill allow­ing stronger med­ica­tions con­tra­dicts stance of state’s expert pan­el, Tony Leys and Bar­bara Rodriguez, Des Moines Reg­is­ter, Fri­day, March 29, 2019.

What I find high­ly unusu­al is that these two board mem­bers (or any of the board mem­bers, for that mat­ter) did not say any­thing from March 7 when HF 732 was intro­duced until March 26 when it was debat­ed and amend­ed on the floor of the House.  The amend­ment on March 26 increased the THC lim­it by 5 grams (from 20 to 25) and it removed the department’s abil­i­ty to low­er that lim­it.

Do we assume these two board mem­bers were okay with HF 732 until it was amend­ed dur­ing debate?  And, how do these two mem­bers have author­i­ty to speak for the board when the board hadn’t met to con­sid­er the mat­ter?  The board had not changed the rec­om­men­da­tion it made in Jan­u­ary.

HF 732 was then mes­saged to the Sen­ate on March 27 and referred to the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee.  A sub­com­mit­tee approved HF 732 with­out rec­om­mend­ing any amend­ments.  How­ev­er, when the full Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee con­sid­ered HF 732 on Thurs­day, April 4, 2019, the com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed an amend­ment, S‑3124, return­ing to the 3% cap on THC as the advi­so­ry board had rec­om­mend­ed in Jan­u­ary.

At this point the advi­so­ry board decid­ed it need­ed to meet to con­sid­er HF 732.  The advi­so­ry board is only allowed to meet four times per year and it had peo­ple with seri­ous med­ical con­di­tions who were expect­ing to be on the agen­da for its May 3 meet­ing.

The advi­so­ry board decid­ed around 2:00 p.m. on Fri­day, April 12, 2019, to can­cel the May 3 meet­ing and have a 1 hour spe­cial meet­ing at 7:00 a.m. on Tues­day, April 16, 2019, to con­sid­er HF 732.  This was a major incon­ve­nience for peo­ple peti­tion­ing the board to add new med­ical con­di­tions.

Care­givers of patients with adult autism and self inju­ri­ous behav­ior had already arranged for time off from work on May 3 (at a pre­vi­ous board meet­ing, the board had approved adding this con­di­tion for chil­dren but not for adults).  For­tu­nate­ly, the board approved these peti­tions to add adult autism with self inju­ri­ous behav­ior.

At the spe­cial meet­ing on Tues­day, April 16, 2019, the advi­so­ry board not only reject­ed HF 732, but reject­ed it’s own rec­om­men­da­tion from Jan­u­ary.  The board made a new rec­om­men­da­tion at 8:00 a.m. on Tues­day, April 16, 2019.

The advi­so­ry board is now rec­om­mend­ing 4.5 grams of THC per 90 days.

This ren­dered S‑3124 (3% lim­it on THC) incon­sis­tent with the board’s new posi­tion.  It also ren­dered HF 732 incon­sis­tent with the new posi­tion.

S‑3124 failed to pass when HF 732 was debat­ed on the Sen­ate floor on Sat­ur­day, April 27, 2019, and HF 732 passed by a vote of 40–7.  The gov­er­nor vetoed HF 732 on Fri­day, May 24, 2019, stat­ing that 25 grams of THC per 90 days was more than a recre­ation­al user would con­sume.

The argu­ment that recre­ation­al users and med­ical users should have the same lev­el of poten­cy seems con­trived to me.

The entire ses­sion was wast­ed because of a back door, off the record, meet­ing in the House Speaker’s office on Feb­ru­ary 25 that could have been resolved on the record at the board’s for­mal meet­ing ear­li­er in the month.

Iowans deserve bet­ter than this.  Repub­li­cans and Democ­rats should come togeth­er before Jan­u­ary of 2020 and come up with a plan.  The advi­so­ry board has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to review a plan at it’s last meet­ing in 2019 or it’s first meet­ing in 2020.  Leg­is­la­tors could file any amend­ments they think are nec­es­sary after receiv­ing input from the board before time runs out in the ses­sion.  And, every­one needs to remem­ber, the board is advis­ing and does not have the final say.  Leg­is­la­tors specif­i­cal­ly reserved the right in the act to make the final deci­sion.

No more off the record meet­ings.  Be open and trans­par­ent.