Iowa Expands Medical Cannabis Program
photo by Gage Skidmore
Iowa’s limited medical cannabis oil program is slowly making progress. On May 12, Gov. Terry Branstad signed legislation into law that expands the list of qualifying conditions for patients who wish to get access to medical cannabis oil in Iowa. The law goes into effect immediately, allowing potentially thousands of Iowans to be treated with cannabis oil.
On April 23, 2014, the Iowa Legislature passed S.F. 2360 which is now called the “Medical Cannabis Act.” The Medical Cannabis Act sunsets in July 2017, prompting the expansion bill which keeps the program in operation. House File 524 expands the list of qualifying conditions to include untreatable pain, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, seizures, AIDS/HIV, Crohn’s disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and most terminal illnesses with a life expectancy of a year or less.
The law allows cannabis to be grown in Iowa and processed into cannabis oil with three percent THC or less. The Department of Public Health will approve up to two manufacturers and up to five distributors throughout the state. The Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board will be established to oversee the program and the board will fall under the Department of Public Health. The board will have the power to recommend that the state Legislature raise the THC limit.
Threase Harms is a lobbyist representing the Epilepsy Foundation and the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “There’s still a lot of work to do,” Harms told the Des Moines Register. “Even with epilepsy, not everybody can be treated with a medicine that has three percent THC.” Threase Harms, a lobbyist representing the Epilepsy Foundation and the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Dispensaries could be open by December 2018, however currently, patients must travel to Minnesota to access medical cannabis oil. One of the bill’s provisions mentions Minnesota as a potential source of medication and allows regulators to contract with Minnesota’s two cannabis manufacturers. Because there’s nowhere to obtain cannabis oil in Iowa, state records indicate that only 145 patients have registered to possess medical cannabis oil in Iowa.
