Still your call, legislators

By The Gazette Editorial Board

Medical marijuana is legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia. A few months ago, the Iowa pharmacy board unanimously voted in favor of allowing marijuana for regulated medical use in our state, too.

A majority of Iowans say they favor legalizing medical use of the controlled substance. Still, legislators punted when given an opportunity to advance the issue. Their reluctance has left the issue in limbo. They need to step up.

We don't buy some legislators' argument that the pharmacy board can implement such a broad and important policy change without lawmakers' approval.

Lawmakers have shirked their duty, we only can assume, because they fear potential political implications of a vote. But voting on policy is what they're elected to do.

In February, the state pharmacy board unanimously recommended that Iowa allow marijuana for medical use, and asked the Legislature to create a study committee to consider how a change in policy might be implemented.

That was after holding public meetings and gleaning information from medical experts. Board members reviewed thousands of pages of materials before making their decision, recommending that state lawmakers reclassify the drug.

But even back then, it was clear that legislators would stall the issue until they finished the more pressing business of being re-elected.

“It's an election year. Probably both parties don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Sen. Merlin Bartz, R-Grafton, told a reporter in February.

So it didn't come as much of a surprise when legislators dropped the committee that would have studied legalization of medical marijuana, citing a section of Iowa law they say would allow the pharmacy board to authorize its use without a change in the law.

Not a surprise, maybe, but a disappointment. Their explanation seems thin.

“We were operating under the paradigm that it was against the law because of a statute,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, told a reporter. But, he said, that's not the case.

Pharmacy Board Executive Director Lloyd Jessen rightly argues that's too much responsibility for the board to take on its own.

Establishing regulations, distribution channels and limitations for use of medical marijuana - and criminal sanctions for its misuse - is something that must be considered and designed by a committee and debated by lawmakers - as the pharmacy board recommended.

It's not like there are no other examples to review. As one advocate recently pointed out, there are 15 other models to consider in crafting a medical marijuana policy for our state.

The only difficult part, it seems, is for lawmakers to stop passing the buck.