DES MOINES, Iowa —

A recent Iowa Poll reports a majority of Iowans who would be in favor of legalizing marijuana.

A bill in the Iowa Senate that would loosen Iowa’s marijuana penalties has bipartisan support from lawmakers.

SF 533 would lower the legal penalty for first time offenders possessing less than five grams of marijuana in Iowa to a simple misdemeanor, translating to a maximum sentence of 30 days in prison and a fine between $105 – $855. Current state laws could result in up to six months of imprisonment and $1,000 in fines.

The bill has received bipartisan support and was originally introduced by Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale. It was unanimously passed in a Senate Committee on March 3, meaning the bill can be called for a full vote on the Senate floor.

Marijuana should be legalized for recreational purposes in Iowa among adults.

The illegal cannabis market in this country is estimated to total about $50 billion a year (National Affairs, 2020). A legal product could help eliminate that dangerous illegal market with legitimate access and the stabilization of appropriate chemical composition.

Regulatory hurdles, backbreaking work and an uncertain market. Top that off with then having your crop destroyed and it was a really crappy season for some hemp farmers in the US state of Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reported last week reported approximately 13% of Iowa farmers’ hemp crops had to be fully or partially destroyed because the plants were “hot” – THC levels exceeded 0.3%, the maximum level permitted under state and federal laws.

The number of patients in Iowa’s medical marijuana program fell by one-third during the COVID-19 pandemic because patients couldn’t see their doctors or go to driver’s license centers to get cannabidiol registration cards, officials said.

Iowa averaged about 360 patients per month in its medical marijuana program between June 2019 and March, when Gov. Kim Reynolds asked Iowans to stay home to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, Owen Parker, program manager told the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board Friday.

Patient numbers averaged 244 per month for April, May and June so far, he said.

The governor has signed a bill into law that makes it clear “smoke-able” hemp is illegal in Iowa and hemp cannot be fed to animals.

The legislation is an update to a 2019 law that legalized the growing of industrial hemp in Iowa. Representative Ross Paustian, a Republican from Walcott, said the State of Iowa is still awaiting USDA approval before Iowa farmers can start growing hemp.

“This bill helps us to comply with some federal requirements,” Paustian said. “The bill also allows for the manufacture, sale and transportation of hemp products if they contain no more than 0.3% of THC.”

Representative Bob Kressig, a Democrat from Cedar Falls, said even though some of the requirements for growing hemp are pretty strict, the bill sets Iowa in the right direction.

Medical cannabidiol patients in Iowa now have only one company’s products to choose from as the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forces the state’s only other licensed CBD manufacturer to shutter its operations.

At the end of March, Have A Heart Compassionate Care announced that it was closing the medical CBD dispensaries it operated in Council Bluffs and Davenport. That was followed by an announcement in early April from New York-based Acreage Holdings that it was temporarily closing several cannabis facilities including its Iowa Relief wholesale plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kevin Murphy, the chairman and CEO of Acreage, said in a press release at the time that the measures were being taken due to the coronavirus crisis.

Iowa lawmakers passed a bill this week to tweak the state’s medical marijuana program, and now the measure now awaits the governor’s signature.