2025 Iowa Cannabis Legislative Session Update

There were sev­er­al bills filed this ses­sion that would make changes to Chap­ter 124E: HF 950, HF 990 / SF 399, HF 995, and one that ref­er­ences Chap­ter 124E, HF 978.

The bill that ref­er­ences Chap­ter 124E, House File 978, cre­ates a new Chap­ter 124F, a med­ical psilo­cy­bin pro­gram.  House File 978 passed the House 84–6 and will have to pass through the Sen­ate next year in 2026 to reach the Governor’s desk.

House File 978 cre­ates sev­er­al sec­tions that say the new chap­ter requires vio­la­tion of fed­er­al drug law, just like Chap­ter 124E does with­out explic­it­ly say­ing so, 124F § 3, 124F § 15, 124F § 23, 124F § 24, and 124F § 32.

House File 978 also allows the same med­ical cannabid­i­ol man­u­fac­tur­ers and dis­pen­saries licensed under Chap­ter 124E to facil­i­tate psilo­cy­bin man­u­fac­ture and dis­pens­ing, 124F § 5.

A pat­tern is devel­op­ing here.  There will be a new chap­ter for every hal­lu­cino­gen in Chap­ter 124, Sched­ule I: 124G for ayahuas­ca, 124H for pey­ote, 124I for ibo­gaine, 124J for LSD, 124K for DMT, 124L for mesca­line, and so on.

Just as we have agreed upon the need for a med­ical cannabid­i­ol board, there is a need for a legal task force to study these bills over the inter­im.  The more we dive into this “per­ceived” con­flict with fed­er­al drug law, the more we need to take a seri­ous look at 21 U.S.C. § 822(d) which would resolve the “per­ceived” con­flict.  The only con­flict is in the imag­i­na­tion of Iowa’s lead­er­ship.

To be fair, this is a nation­al phe­nom­e­non.  Forty-eight (48) states have these pro­grams and all of them, includ­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, “per­ceive” the same imag­i­nary fed­er­al con­flict.  It’s time to take the time to look at this more care­ful­ly.

House File 990, increas­es the num­ber of dis­pen­saries from 5 to 10, passed the House 90–2 and was attached to Sen­ate File 399 HHS Com­mit­tee Bill pend­ing in the Sen­ate.

House File 995, cre­ates out of state reg­is­tra­tion for peo­ple vis­it­ing Iowa for a lengthy peri­od, passed the House 91–1 and is pend­ing in the Sen­ate.

House File 950, adds flower and assigns the med­ical cannabid­i­ol board with the task of cre­at­ing pack­ag­ing require­ments, 124E § 5(f), is a Health and Human Ser­vices Com­mit­tee Bill.  HF 950 was sub­stan­tial­ly amend­ed in com­mit­tee, and there is anoth­er amend­ment, H‑1083, cur­rent­ly pend­ing in the House.

Other Stuff

House Study Bill 279, increas­es the poten­cy of con­sum­able hemp prod­ucts, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Pub­lic Safe­ty.

House File 609, adds psilo­cy­bin and pey­ote to the reli­gious free­dom restora­tion act, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Judi­cia­ry.

House File 351, removes psilo­cy­bin and psilo­cyn from the list of con­trolled sub­stances, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Pub­lic Safe­ty.

House File 78, low­ers the penal­ty for pos­sess­ing small amounts of mar­i­jua­na, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Pub­lic Safe­ty.

House File 72, low­ers the penal­ty for pos­sess­ing small amounts of mar­i­jua­na, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Pub­lic Safe­ty.

House File 8, autho­rizes school nurs­es to pro­vide broad spec­trum con­sum­able hemp prod­ucts to stu­dents, pend­ing in the House Com­mit­tee on Edu­ca­tion.