Hearings open up debate on medical marijuana

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, 53-year-old Barbara Douglass can no longer walk and uses a scooter. She copes with the condition she calls “ungodly and terrible” by smoking marijuana.

“It doesn't make it better, but it makes it easier,” said Douglass, who also is legally blind.

Douglass, of Lakeside, is one of two Iowans in a federal program that allows them to smoke marijuana legally for their medical conditions. Each month, Douglass gets a can of pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes from her doctor. To her, marijuana is medicine.

Advocates of legalizing the medical use of marijuana are optimistic that a series of public hearings on the issue could open the door to Iowa becoming the 14th state to effectively allow it.

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy is holding four hearings, beginning Aug. 19, on the pros and cons of medical marijuana and may make a recommendation to state lawmakers based on their findings.

Carl Olsen of Iowans for Medical Marijuana said he has been working since about 1990 to get Iowa to recognize the medical benefits of it.

He unsuccessfully petitioned the board to recognize that marijuana has accepted medical uses and to remove it from Schedule I, the most restrictive class of drugs. He is planning to appeal the decision and is organizing supporters to attend the board's hearings.

“I want to nail this thing now while I've got the momentum on my side,” Olsen said.

The board will accept comments from the public but is especially looking for scientific evidence on the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Any change in Iowa's classification of marijuana, though, would have to be made by the Legislature, said Scott Galenbeck, an assistant Iowa Attorney General who handles legal matters for the board. An attempt to make marijuana legal for medical use stalled in the Iowa Senate last session.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said if the pharmacy board makes a recommendation to allow medical marijuana, it would lend credibility to debating it.

“I do think it gets to the point then where you'll see other legislators that may introduce bills in the House, and you might start some public conversation about this,” Murphy said.

Sen. Merlin Bartz, a Republican from Grafton, is open to allowing marijuana for medical purposes if it is prescribed by a doctor and has scientifically proven benefits. Still, Bartz said, some advocates appear to be “a little disingenuous” and simply want to legalize marijuana.

That's why Rep. Clel Baudler, a Republican and retired state trooper from Greenfield, is staunchly opposed.

“It's just another step in ruining our society as we know it and ruining our nation. I will never, ever support this,” Baudler said.

Even if Iowa were to change its law allowing for the medical use of marijuana, it is still illegal under federal law.

Douglass, the Lakeside woman who smokes marijuana for her MS, has been enrolled in a federal medical marijuana program since 1991. She hopes other Iowans have a chance to use marijuana legally, if it would ease symptoms for their medical conditions.