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An Iowa regulatory board has voted to recommend that the legislature create a legal task force to explore seeking an exemption protecting the state\u2019s limited medical cannabis program from federal interference.<\/p>\n
At a meeting of the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board last week, activist Carl Olsen proposed the task force, which he said should bring legal experts together to \u201ccarefully review the state, federal and international drug laws to come up with an application for an exception\u201d under federal statutes.<\/p>\n
Olsen has long been pushing the state to submit such an application, and the legislature did pass a bill in 2020 that required the state to seek the protections. But following months of delay,\u00a0the advocate filed a lawsuit against the governor<\/a> last year to compel the state to move forward with the application, and one state department did subsequently take steps to reach out to federal agencies about the process.<\/p>\n Board member Robert Shreck said at last week\u2019s meeting that Olsen \u201cthinks that the state can obtain an exemption from the restrictions on cannabis and, as far as I can tell from reading what he\u2019s done, and he\u2019s been very persistent about this, I think he\u2019s correct.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the pathway to proceed to do this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been done half-heartedly by some parts of our government\u2026at least, it hasn\u2019t gone forward and been successful. But I would whole-heartedly support Carl\u2019s recommendation. And I would propose that the board make that recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n Owen Parker, bureau chief the Medical Cannabidiol Board at the Iowa Department of Public Health, made a motion to vote on including Olsen\u2019s task force recommendation in the board\u2019s annual report to the legislature, and it passed<\/a> unanimously.<\/p>\n It\u2019s another modest win for Olsen, whose earlier lawsuit against the governor generated headlines and seemed to motivate the public health department to send letters about a cannabis law exception to\u00a0the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Education.<\/p>\n In 2020, DEA\u00a0rejected a request for an exemption<\/a>\u00a0that was submitted by Olsen himself, but he has been hopeful that the result would be different with the state formally involved.<\/p>\n DEA regulations stipulate that the agency\u2019s administrator \u201cmay grant an exemption in his discretion, but in no case shall he\/she be required to grant an exception to any person which is otherwise required by law or the regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Relatedly, the Hawaii legislature adopted a resolution last year seeking an exemption<\/a>\u00a0from DEA stipulating that the state is permitted to run its medical cannabis program without federal interference.<\/p>\n \u2014 Back in Iowa, the board separately voted to recommend to the legislature<\/a> that it passes legislation to exempt medical cannabis products from the state sales tax and decouple cannabis taxes from a federal code known as 280E that precludes businesses from making tax deductions if they sell a Schedule I controlled substance like marijuana.<\/p>\n At the beginning of the year, Iowa Democratic senators released the text of a joint resolution<\/a> to put the question of cannabis legalization before voters on the state\u2019s ballot, but that did not ultimately advance.<\/p>\n Sens. Joe Bolkcom (D), Janet Petersen (D) and Sarah Trone Garriott (D), who first\u00a0unveiled their marijuana reform plan<\/a> last year, had said that inaction on the issue in the GOP-controlled legislature meant they needed to pursue the alternative route to end prohibition.<\/p>\n A bill to decriminalize cannabis possession\u00a0did clear an Iowa Senate subcommittee<\/a> early last year, but it also stalled. Another Senate panel separately approved a bill to reduce medical cannabis patient registration costs<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Irish Lawmaker Files Bill To Legalize Marijuana Possession For Adults, Draws Early Criticism From Top Government Official<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Iowa Regulators Recommend Marijuana Task Force Be Formed To Explore Federal Exemption For State\u2019s Medical Program<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
An Iowa regulatory board has voted to recommend that the legislature create a legal task force to explore seeking an exemption protecting the state\u2019s limited medical cannabis program from federal interference. At a meeting of the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board last week, activist Carl Olsen proposed the task force, whichContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":58547,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58548,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58546\/revisions\/58548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Iowa Regulators Recommend Marijuana Task Force Be Formed To Explore Federal Exemption For State\u2019s Medical Program<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"