Medical marijuana ruse triggers ethics complaint

A Des Moines man who is part of a group fighting to decriminalize marijuana possession said Monday he filed an ethics complaint against a state legislator who admitted he lied about having hemorrhoids and depression to obtain a medical marijuana prescription in California last year.

Mike Pesce, a Des Moines resident affiliated with the Green Central Station online radio show and the Iowa Clemency Project, said he brought the complaint against Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, because the GOP representative said he knowingly provided false information to obtain a California medical marijuana card as a way to demonstrate why a similar program should not be adopted in Iowa.

“We think that's definitely a violation of ethics. I think it's grounds for impeachment,” said Pesce, who noted that the state constitution denotes grounds for impeachment as the commission of any misdemeanor or malfeasance and what Baudler did violated the law of another state.

Baudler, who said in an October email that he did what he did to “show how asinine it would be to legalize ‘medical marijuana,'” declined to comment Monday because he had not seen the ethics complaint brought against him. He previously noted he did not think he would face an ethics sanction because he didn't believe the person he saw in California was a real doctor and he never filled the prescription he was given.

“I'm actually surprised that no lawmaker took it upon themselves to file an ethics complaint,” he said. “It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize that you can't go to a physician and lie about a condition to get a regulated drug.

You can't do that here in Iowa. You can't do that in any state. That's a violation of the law. I'm actually shocked that nobody's done this already.”

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, who has proposed legislation similar to laws in 17 other states that he said have determined that medical cannabis has a medical value for chronically ill people, called what Baudler purported to have done was “just over the top.”

Bolkcom noted that Iowa has established a data base to prevent people from “doctor shopping” in the manner than Baudler described. “It seemed like his charade in California was pretty inappropriate,” Bolkcom said, but it would be up to the House Ethics Committee to decide the seriousness of what he did.

Rep. Kevin Koester, R-Ankey, chairman of the House Ethics Committee, said Baudler will have 10 days to respond once he formally receives the complaint, which must meet three tests – the allegation must involve a legislator, it had to have happened in the past three year, and the complainant must have proper standing. He said he expected the ethics panel would meet by mid-February to discuss the allegations.

The House Public Safety Committee, which Baudler chairs, voted unanimously Monday to approve House Study Bill 4, which would eliminate a provision in Iowa law allowing medicinal use of marijuana.

The bill would clarify who determines the proper classification for marijuana. The Legislature and state Board of Pharmacy have disagreed on which body determines whether marijuana is a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance. The classification determines whether it is available for medicinal use. HSB 4 strikes a reference to marijuana as a Schedule II substance.