Updates to Medical Cannabidiol Act 2020

Dear Leg­is­la­tors,

I am writ­ing regard­ing pend­ing leg­is­la­tion requir­ing the Iowa Depart­ment of Pub­lic Health (IDPH) to request guar­an­tees that fed­er­al fund­ing will not be with­held from state edu­ca­tion­al and long-term care facil­i­ties that allow the use of med­ical cannabid­i­ol con­sis­tent with chap­ter 124E, see House File 2589 at page 5 (Sec­tion 23 at lines 19–27) and Sen­ate File 2363 at page 9 (Sec­tion 28 at lines 25–33):

The department of public health shall request guarantees from the agencies of the federal government providing funding to educational and long-term care facilities that facilities with policies allowing patients to possess medical cannabidiol on the grounds of the facilities consistent with chapter 124E or allowing facility staff to administer medical cannabidiol to a patient shall not lose eligibility for any federal funding due to such policies.

This is a bad idea because fed­er­al fund­ing is not cur­rent­ly being with­held from state edu­ca­tion­al and long-term care facil­i­ties and this would be an open invi­ta­tion for increased fed­er­al scruti­ny of these facil­i­ties.

While these bills were being intro­duced (SF2363 on Feb­ru­ary 20,2020, and HF2589 on Feb­ru­ary 27, 2020), the Unit­ed States Court of Appeals for the Sec­ond Cir­cuit upheld with­hold­ing of fed­er­al grants because of incon­sis­ten­cy with fed­er­al law in New York v. Unit­ed States, 951 F.3d 84 (2nd Cir. 2020).

Fed­er­al fund­ing has actu­al­ly been with­held just recent­ly because the state of Maine allows the med­ical use of mar­i­jua­na.  Fed­er­al men­tal health grants can­celed because Maine has legal mar­i­jua­na, Steve Collins, Sun Jour­nal, May 15, 2020.

HF2589 Sec­tion 23 and SF2363 Sec­tion 28 are incon­sis­tent with Rec­om­men­da­tion 6 of the 2019 Annu­al Report of the Iowa Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Board, Decem­ber 31, 2019, at page 7:

seeking exemption for Iowa’s program from federal drug laws

Unlike the process for obtain­ing an exemp­tion from fed­er­al drug laws, 21 C.F.R. § 1307.03, there is no fed­er­al process for obtain­ing guar­an­tees that fed­er­al fund­ing will not be with­held for vio­la­tion of fed­er­al drug laws.

Please amend HF2589 Sec­tion 23 and SF2363 Sec­tion 28 by replac­ing the sec­tions with the fol­low­ing:

The department shall submit a written request, in accordance with title 21 C.F.R. section 1307.03, to the Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Administration by July l, 2020, stating that chapter 124E does not create any positive conflict with state or federal drug laws and regulations and is consistent with title 21 U.S.C. section 903, and requesting formal written acknowledgement that the listing of marijuana as a controlled substance in federal schedule I does not apply to the nonprescription use of cannabis under the medical cannabidiol program established pursuant to chapter 124E.

I have request­ed that the Iowa Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Board review these two bills (HF2589 and SF2363) at their next meet­ing on Fri­day, June 19, 2020, and I would ask that you defer to their exper­tise on this mat­ter and put these two bills on hold until the board has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to review them and pro­vide fur­ther input.

Thank you very much for your time and atten­tion to this mat­ter.