Iowa Board of Pharmacy Tables Medical Pot Discussion until January

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We told you earlier this month about the Iowa Board of Pharmacy and their struggle to get medical cannabis recognized under state controlled substance laws. At the time, the board looked like they may again ask to have marijuana declassified from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule II. But with pushback from state leaders, the talks have been moved to next year.


It’s the second time the board has taken up the issue of reclassifying cannabis. In 2010 the board suggested the change to the legislature. Their call was ignored, however. But with Iowa recently passing CBD-only medical cannabis laws, Pharmacy Board members say it’s time to address the issue.
“The passage of this act is an affirmative recognition by the Iowa General Assembly that there is some medical use for marijuana,” Board member Edward Maier said at a board meeting this week. “Continued placement of marijuana in schedule I is not consistent with that act.”
But the opposition wasn’t going to let logic and sense get in the way of prohibition. A governor-appointed representative told the committee that neither they nor the legislature had any business changing the schedule of cannabis.
“The Iowa Board of Pharmacy making a rule about schedule changes when this is clearly the purview of the federal government,” Miller said, according to WHOTV News.
That apparently shut things down until January, angering activists who have pushed for this for years.
“Obviously we need some education with some of the board members here who don’t have the argument correct,” activist Carl Olsen of Des Moines told WHOTV News. “Some states don’t have marijuana in any schedule, the state can do anything it wants to do. Federal law supersedes state law so federal schedule I supersedes anything the state does but that doesn’t prevent the state from reclassifying marijuana.”
Education is going to be required regardless. The move would have to be approved by the legislature then signed by the governor to become law.

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