The Green Organic Dutchman Announces Executive Leadership Consolidation

Iowa’s 2020 legislative session is set to kick off next week, and lawmakers are again considering legislation that would lift the state’s 3% THC limit on medical cannabis products.

The legislature passed similar legislation last year that would have replaced the THC limit with a rule that patients could purchase 25 grams of THC over 90 days, but the bill conflicted with recommendations from the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board, according to The Courier, and Gov. Kim Reynolds ultimately vetoed it.

Wendy Zadeh, a neurologist from Des Moines, even resigned from the board upon the bill’s passage in the House, The Courier reported.

Reynolds has indicated that she supported the other provisions included in last year’s legislation, which incorporated recommendations from the board that a pharmacist be on staff at the state’s five licensed dispensaries, and that physician assistants and nurse practitioners should be allowed to recommend patients for the program, according to the news outlet.

In its latest report to lawmakers, the board recommended replacing the 3% THC cap with a limit of 4.5 grams of THC over 90 days, The Courier reported, although the purchase limit would not apply to the terminally ill and could be increased by the certifying health care professional.

Now, Rep. Todd Prichard (D-Charles City) has suggested that legislators send Reynolds the same bill as last year, according to the news outlet.

“I would like to see the bill that passed the House go back,” he said. “In my mind, we sent a good bill down. I think [the governor’s veto] was a mistake.”

Republicans currently control both chambers of Iowa’s legislature, and leaders have said that they expect to work with the governor this year to pass a bill she will sign, The Courier reported.