Iowa is good to go with the feds after the USDA recently approved its state plan under the USA’s domestic hemp production program.

“We know farmers are eager for new opportunities and this milestone means they are one step closer to being able to grow hemp during the 2020 growing season,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig recently.

The plan was approved on the 20th of this month, but farmers keen to get cracking will need to wait a while longer before applying for licences.

A new poll shows that the Hawkeye State is ready to embrace legalization.

The poll from the Des Moines Register and Mediacom found that 53 percent of Iowans support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. According to the Des Moines Register, it marks the first time that the survey, conducted by the pollster Selzer & Co, shows a majority in favor of legalization for recreational use. Selzer & Co. has testing the question since February 2013.

The Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would add more qualifying medical conditions to the state’s medical marijuana program and change the cap on THC for patients. The bill, House File 2589, was passed by a vote of 52 to 46.

Under the bill, post-traumatic stress disorder and “severe, intractable autism with self-injurious or aggressive behaviors” would be added to the state’s list of medical conditions that qualify a patient to use medical marijuana. The measure also changes “untreatable” pain to “chronic” pain on the list.

Wendy Shoemaker has lived with chronic pain for decades, and she was prescribed opioids to treat it.

“All you do is stand there and watch your life,” she said.

Shoemaker said she couldn’t do much with her daughter when she took opioids. She has holes in her memory from that time, and she was in heart failure. But almost a year ago, she was weaned off opioids and joined Iowa’s medical cannabis program.

At her home overlooking a lake in Dexter, she held up a bottle of pills that contain chemicals found in cannabis.

“It’s so much better on this,” Shoemaker said. “I don’t know if it’s being reborn or what, but I’ll tell you what, it’s working.”

Throughout history, cannabis was regulated by federal law on reservations, so it was generally illegal. But after the 2013 Cole Memo, the topic of cannabis on tribal land and how it ties into the tribe’s government autonomy became increasingly prevalent.

What effect does marijuana have on the aging body? In partnership with the National Institute of Health, the University of Iowa plans to find out with a first-of-its-kind research project.

Neurologist and radiologist Dr. Thorsten Rudroff, whose background includes a PhD in neurophysiology and a degree in physical therapy, is heading up the study. Exploring cognition, motor function, balance and other elements of the human body, Thorsten  believes the time has come to “find out if medical marijuana increases this risk of cognitive issues and which products with higher or lower THC content, are safe to use.”

Researchers say the time has come to find out if medical marijuana increases this risk of cognitive issues and which products with higher or lower THC content, are safe to use.

What effect does marijuana have on the aging body? In partnership with the National Institute of Health, the University of Iowa plans to find out with a first-of-its-kind research project.  

This year is set to be another big one for drug reform in the United States. Not so in Iowa, where politicians with old-timey views on science and personal freedom insist on preserving strict prohibition.

Take a look at the six states bordering Iowa, ranging from staunchly conservative to moderately liberal, and you can see how embarrassing the situation is. Iowa already has some of the region’s harshest criminal penalties for marijuana possession, and there’s a good chance we will look even worse by comparison at the end of 2020.

As of the New Year, Iowans can go just over the Mississippi River into neighboring Illinois to buy recreational marijuana. Now that sales are legal in the Prairie State, some officials in Iowa are warning residents to be mindful of state law.

Despite the law change in Illinois, it is still illegal to transport the drug across state lines or to drive impaired. 

Sergeant Alex Dinkla of the Iowa State Patrol says officers will likely be keeping an eye out for potentially impaired drivers, especially in the eastern part of the state.