Iowa’s Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board has reportedly approved chronic pain as an additional qualifying condition for the state’s medical cannabidiol program. Well, sort of additional.

As the program’s name suggests, Iowa’s focuses on medicines containing cannabidiol (CBD), with THC levels restricted to no more than 3%. Medicines can be administered in oral, topical, nebulized, suppository or vaporized forms – but smoking of products is not permitted.

On Friday, Iowa’s Medical Cannabidiol Board voted to add chronic pain to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana, substituting it for the previously approved condition of “untreatable pain.” The edit is expected to expand access to the program, but many who are involved with the cannabis industry and its patients in the state are getting frustrated with Iowa’s slow evolution of marijuana policy.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has vetoed legislation, House File 732, that would have amended the state’s low-THC access program.

The proposal would have expanded the pool of health professionals eligible to recommend medical cannabis products and would have opened the program up to those with severe or chronic pain. It also removed the three percent THC cap on medical cannabis products.

Governor Reynolds said that she opposed changes to the law that would have allowed qualified patients to possess products with greater quantities of THC.

Iowa’s legislative session came to an exciting end for medical marijuana patients.

A bill that would remove the cap on how much THC may be in a cannabis-product designated for medical use has passed both floors of the legislature and is headed to Governor Kim Reynolds’ desk for either approval or veto.

The Iowa State Senate advanced the bill to the governor’s desk in a 40 to 7 vote. The bill, if approved by the governor, would remove the current 3 percent cap on THC from medical marijuana. In removing the cap, legislators approved a per-patient limit of 25 grams of marijuana per 90 day period.

The only exception for this rule is that terminally ill patients with a life expectancy of one year or less may receive a waiver to get more than 25 grams.

In the final hours of the legislative session Saturday, the Iowa Senate sent a bill to the governor that would expand the state’s medical marijuana program.

The bill allows for more potent medical marijuana products at the state’s five dispensaries. It would remove the 3 percent cap on THC—the chemical that makes people feel high—and replace it with a per-person limit of 25 grams in 90 days.

One exception to the limit is a waiver available to terminally ill people with a life expectancy of less than one year.

Sen. Tom Greene, R-Burlington, had tears in his eyes as he expressed his support for the change.

Iowans could obtain medical marijuana products for a wider range of health problems under a bill moving in the Iowa Senate.

A Senate subcommittee Monday approved the bill, which would expand Iowa’s fledgling medical marijuana program.

Under current rules, patients wanting to participate in the program must get a physician to certify they have a qualifying medical condition, such as seizures, Crohn’s disease, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or untreatable pain.

A Republican lawmaker in Iowa introduced a bill in the state legislature that would legalize using Psilocybin, MDMA and Ibogaine for medical reasons.

Jeff Shipley introduced the bills on February 6 in the House of Representatives. House File 249 would remove the substances from the list of Schedule 1 controlled substances and allow for the state to create laws that would allow the drugs for medical purposes. House File 248 would remove Psilocybin from Schedule 1 of the state’s uniform controlled substances act.

The Iowa Legislature’s tepid entry into the medical marijuana field is so typically Iowa.

It is overly cautious and, we suspect, likely to be marginally effective as it now stands.

Since 2014, the legislature has taken baby steps to make cannabidiol available to Iowans.

First, it was legalized for people with epilepsy. The law also limited THC content to 3 percent. THC is the ingredient in marijuana that provides the "high."

However, there were no provisions in the 2014 law to manufacture or sell CBD. It took three years to fix that flaw.

In 2017, the legislature consented to expand the list of conditions and allow it to be manufactured at two locations and dispensed at five sites. One of those sites is in Davenport.

Iowa is now home to five medical marijuana dispensaries. They were approved under a law passed last March, permitting the sale of specific cannabis-derived products to those suffering from qualifying conditions including untreatable pain, side effects of cancer, seizures, ALS, and others.

The company that runs two of Iowa’s medical cannabis dispensaries calls the first weekend their products went on sale an “absolute success.”

Iowa’s only medical marijuana manufacturer MedPharm Iowa reports it served about 120 patients at its Windsor Heights dispensary in suburban Des Moines and at least 15 in Sioux City over the weekend.

MedPharm’s General Manager Lucas Nelson was at MedPharm’s Windsor Heights dispensary. He said opening day was “a whirlwind of emotions.”

“It was truly incredible to see the look on peoples’ faces, to hear some of their stories that this was finally officially available for them,” Nelson said. “I can’t even put into words, I think, just the overall happiness that people felt.”