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Meeting Public Comments

Subcommittee meeting and times are as follows:
HSB 532
A bill for an act relating to the definition of medical cannabidiol.
Subcommittee members: Wilz, H.-CH, Meyer, B., Shipley
Date: Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Time: 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: House Lounge
Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.
Comments Submitted:

01-12-2024
Maggie Ballard [Heartland Family Service]
Dear Members of the Public Safety Committee,I'm very concerned to see HSB 532 proposed. In an age where state after state is legalizing marijuana and experiencing catastrophic effects re: people's mental health, addiction, drugged driving, and accidental ingestions and overdoses, especially by children, it's unbelievable to me that anyone would look at expanding access to cannabis. Furthermore, taking away the recommendations and language that the medical CBD Board and the Iowa Board of Medicine is senseless and clearly a tactic to take the medical out of medical CBD and even out of medical cannabis. I urge you to please vote "no" on HSB 532. Please let me know if you have any questions.Best Regards,Maggie
01-16-2024
Carl Olsen [Iowans for Medical Marijuana]
Marijuana has no accepted pharmaceutical grade products approved for interstate marketing, and the cost of producing those highly refined products is astronomical. This bill would at least bring the cost down, while ensuring patients get access to the broadest range of cannabinoids in the plant. Vaporization removes the particulate matter produced by combustion and patients are more likely to use a vaporizer if it isn't considered contraband. We've always heard that the psychoactive component, delta9THC, was the reason marijuana had to be illegal, but now we have a vape product that contains 80% delta9THC, which may be useful for some patients, but not all. Vaporizing the raw plant material is never going to have that much delta9THC in it. How this ancient herbal medicine ever got into Schedule I is something I'll never understand. Now, because of that and the 2018 federal Farm Bill, we have crazy synthetics like delta8THC that nobody ever heard of before. Let's get this right and return the whole plant to get better results and lower the cost for patients.