The Capitol Building of Iowa in Iowa City.

Drew Tarvin

Iowa Inches Toward Comprehensive MMJ Regime

Lawmakers in Iowa are considering legislation that would expand the qualifying conditions under the program, prevent it from expiring in July, and permit medical cannabis to be grown and sold in the state, the Globe Gazette reports. Currently, only patients with intractable epilepsy are able to access the program, and they must obtain their medicine elsewhere – in violation of state and federal laws.

The additional medical conditions covered by the program would need to be recommended by the University of Iowa’s medical college and approved by state lawmakers, and the products grown in the state would be low-THC and high-CBD, according to the bill text. The measure would also allow medical cannabis card holders from other states to make purchases in Iowa.

Although all three members of the panel approved the measure, Chairman Rep. Jared Klein indicated changes would be possible.

“This is a working vehicle,” Klein, a Republican, said in an Iowa Public Radio report. “This is not a set in stone thing.”

The measure is set now to be introduced in the GOP-controlled Iowa House, which rejected a similar proposal last April, according to the IPR report. That bill had narrowly passed the Democrat-led Senate.

Get daily cannabis business news updates. Subscribe

Have an additional perspective to share? Send us a message to let us know, and if your comment is chosen by our editors it could be featured here.

End


Latest Cannabis News

View all news Get email updates

Featured Business Profiles

Create a profile View all categories

From Our Partners