Letter to Senate Subcommittee — January 24, 2026

House File 978: An Act relat­ing to the pro­duc­tion and admin­is­tra­tion of psilo­cy­bin

Because psilo­cy­bin is an ille­gal sub­stance under fed­er­al law, House File 978 requires employ­ees to “engage in con­duct which is in vio­la­tion of the crim­i­nal laws of the Unit­ed States.” HF 978 § 4, at page 5, lines 12–21.  This is exact­ly the same prob­lem the Med­ical Cannabid­i­ol Board has been ask­ing the leg­is­la­ture to fix with the med­ical cannabis pro­gram, Chap­ter 124E, for the past sev­en years.  Here is the board’s most recent request from Jan­u­ary 1, 2026:

The Board rec­om­mends that a task force of legal experts be autho­rized, sim­i­lar to the cur­rent board of med­ical experts, to assist the depart­ment in nav­i­gat­ing the legal issues involved with request­ing an exemp­tion for Iowa’s pro­gram from nec­es­sary Fed­er­al agen­cies.  This is relat­ed to a rec­om­men­da­tion in the Board’s 2019 Annu­al Report and the pas­sage of HF2589 in June, 2020.

It is hard to believe law mak­ers are enact­ing laws that require vio­la­tion of the law, but that is how bad this has got­ten.  If fed­er­al law does not allow the med­ical use of a psy­choac­tive plant or fun­gi, the leg­is­la­ture sets up fed­er­al rack­e­teer­ing scheme in the state to run it.

Some­thing this extreme might seem jus­ti­fied if it was the only way to resolve the prob­lem, but there is a much bet­ter way.  A fed­er­al exemp­tion for the reli­gious use of the psy­choac­tive plant pey­ote is autho­rized by 21 U.S.C. § 822(d) which allows the Attor­ney Gen­er­al to waive reg­is­tra­tion require­ments if “con­sis­tent with the pub­lic health and safe­ty.”  The fed­er­al exemp­tion for pey­ote, 21 C.F.R. § 1307.31, is an exam­ple of how Chap­ter 124E could be com­pli­ant with fed­er­al drug law.  The same is true for psy­choac­tive mush­rooms.

The last sec­tion of HF 978 requires the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices to con­duct a study on the use oth­er psy­choac­tive plants and fun­gi.

Sec. 34.  PSYCHEDELIC COMPOUNDS — STUDY.  The depart­ment of health and human ser­vices shall con­duct a study regard­ing the use of psy­che­del­ic com­pounds oth­er than psilo­cy­bin in the treat­ment of med­ical con­di­tions.  The depart­ment shall sub­mit a report to the gen­er­al assem­bly, includ­ing the department’s find­ings and rec­om­men­da­tions, by Jan­u­ary 1, 2026.

Why can’t HF 978 be amend­ed to include a study on how a church was grant­ed a fed­er­al exemp­tion to use pey­ote and what is required for the state to get the same exemp­tion for the med­ical use of psy­choac­tive plants and fun­gi?  Why would we want to pro­mote orga­nized crime in Iowa if we don’t need to?

Pho­to By Alan Rock­e­feller — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link