— Iowa lawmakers are considering allowing medical marijuana patients to buy raw cannabis flower at the state’s dispensaries, a move that could potentially greatly increase the number of patients in the state's limited program.
Lawmakers advanced a bill, House Study Bill 532, to add the product out of a subcommittee on Tuesday, though they said they were looking to hear more from stakeholders and weigh other regulations to the state’s program and the sale of THC products.
Under the proposed change, Iowa law would define the types of products available for sale at Iowa’s five dispensaries, including “vaporized dried raw cannabis,” which is not currently allowed by state regulators.
State law currently vests the authority to allow or prohibit various cannabis products with the state Medical Cannabidiol Board. The board allows the sale of tablets and capsules, topical products, and products that vaporize cannabis oil. Patients also are restricted to purchasing no more than 4.5 grams over 90 days unless they receive a waiver from their doctor.
While the proposed bill specifies the cannabis would be intended to be vaporized, patients would be able to burn and smoke it as well.
Iowa’s medical cannabis companies have advocated for the change, saying cannabis flower would dramatically reduce costs and could attract new patients that are currently turned off by high prices.
Selling cannabis flower would allow Iowa’s medical cannabis producers to bypass the process of extracting THC from the cannabis plant, said Dane Schumann, a lobbyist for Bud & Mary’s, formerly MedPharm, one of two cannabis producers and dispensers in the state. Schumann said allowing the change could cut production costs in half.
“What we hear consistently from patients of the medical program, even those that like the effects of what it delivers for their conditions, is that the program is simply too expensive,” he said.
Schumann also said that Iowa is one of the only medical programs in the country that does not allow the sale of raw cannabis flower.
The addition of raw cannabis to Iowa’s medical program would likely greatly expand the number of patients who hold medical marijuana cards, Iowa Department of Public Safety general counsel Catherine Lucas told lawmakers during Tuesday’s meeting.
In Minnesota, she said, medical cannabis patients increased from 20,000 to 100,000 after the state added the product to its program.
She warned that increasing the number of people lawfully using cannabis in the state could lead to higher impaired driving fatalities.
Iowa currently has more than 18,000 medical cannabis cardholders, according to a December report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
www.thegazette.com
Robert Shreck, a doctor and member of Iowa's Medical Cannabidiol Board, said he was concerned that the product, which can be smoked, would tarnish what he considers to be the strictly medical program Iowa currently offers.
“Nowhere in American medicine is there another compound, molecule or substance that is dispensed by combustion,” he said. “It doesn’t make medical sense.”
The state’s medical cannabis board denied a petition to add flower to the list of available products earlier this year. They cited the same concerns around the introduction of smoking, the rise of telehealth certifications for the program, and an inaccuracy in dosing as reasons for the denial.
Though the bill was advanced unanimously by a subcommittee of two Republicans and one Democrat, lawmakers said they wanted to have further conversations about the effects of the bill.
Rep. Hans Wilz, a Republican from Ottumwa, said amendments were likely as the bill moves forward through the lawmaking process.
"There is room in this bill for amendments, for whatever might be brought to the table," he said. "But I do believe it is a spirited conversation, one that Iowans are having as well.
Lawmakers advanced a bill, House Study Bill 532, to add the product out of a subcommittee on Tuesday, though they said they were looking to hear more from stakeholders and weigh other regulations to the state’s program and the sale of THC products.
Under the proposed change, Iowa law would define the types of products available for sale at Iowa’s five dispensaries, including “vaporized dried raw cannabis,” which is not currently allowed by state regulators.
State law currently vests the authority to allow or prohibit various cannabis products with the state Medical Cannabidiol Board. The board allows the sale of tablets and capsules, topical products, and products that vaporize cannabis oil. Patients also are restricted to purchasing no more than 4.5 grams over 90 days unless they receive a waiver from their doctor.
While the proposed bill specifies the cannabis would be intended to be vaporized, patients would be able to burn and smoke it as well.
Iowa’s medical cannabis companies have advocated for the change, saying cannabis flower would dramatically reduce costs and could attract new patients that are currently turned off by high prices.
Selling cannabis flower would allow Iowa’s medical cannabis producers to bypass the process of extracting THC from the cannabis plant, said Dane Schumann, a lobbyist for Bud & Mary’s, formerly MedPharm, one of two cannabis producers and dispensers in the state. Schumann said allowing the change could cut production costs in half.
“What we hear consistently from patients of the medical program, even those that like the effects of what it delivers for their conditions, is that the program is simply too expensive,” he said.
Schumann also said that Iowa is one of the only medical programs in the country that does not allow the sale of raw cannabis flower.
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The addition of raw cannabis to Iowa’s medical program would likely greatly expand the number of patients who hold medical marijuana cards, Iowa Department of Public Safety general counsel Catherine Lucas told lawmakers during Tuesday’s meeting.
In Minnesota, she said, medical cannabis patients increased from 20,000 to 100,000 after the state added the product to its program.
She warned that increasing the number of people lawfully using cannabis in the state could lead to higher impaired driving fatalities.
Iowa currently has more than 18,000 medical cannabis cardholders, according to a December report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Iowa lawmakers advance bill to add raw cannabis flower to medical program
Iowa lawmakers are considering allowing medical marijuana patients to buy raw cannabis flower at the state’s dispensaries, a move that could potentially greatly increase the number of patients in the state's limited program.
www.thegazette.com
Board physician opposes adding cannabis flower
Robert Shreck, a doctor and member of Iowa's Medical Cannabidiol Board, said he was concerned that the product, which can be smoked, would tarnish what he considers to be the strictly medical program Iowa currently offers.
“Nowhere in American medicine is there another compound, molecule or substance that is dispensed by combustion,” he said. “It doesn’t make medical sense.”
The state’s medical cannabis board denied a petition to add flower to the list of available products earlier this year. They cited the same concerns around the introduction of smoking, the rise of telehealth certifications for the program, and an inaccuracy in dosing as reasons for the denial.
Lawmakers want more information
Though the bill was advanced unanimously by a subcommittee of two Republicans and one Democrat, lawmakers said they wanted to have further conversations about the effects of the bill.
Rep. Hans Wilz, a Republican from Ottumwa, said amendments were likely as the bill moves forward through the lawmaking process.
"There is room in this bill for amendments, for whatever might be brought to the table," he said. "But I do believe it is a spirited conversation, one that Iowans are having as well.
