Medical Cannabis Bill is in the Senate

Things are finally moving at the Capitol for Medical Cannabis. The Senate is fast-tracking a bill (SF 506) and will debate on the floor as early as Monday. This bill is actually exactly what sick and suffering Iowans need: it includes multiple medical conditions, a medical advisory board as well as growing and distribution in Iowa as early as 2018.  It flew through the sub-committee and full-committee hearings this week and will hopefully make it off the Senate Floor as early as Monday.

I'm trying to remain hopeful but it's hard knowing the Houses's stance on medical cannabis and what their opinion is on what percentage to cap the THC. For some reason, many Representatives in the House have been quoted as saying that they won't allow more than 3% THC and claim that there are proven trials showing that this is the key amount of THC used before people get "high".  Sadly, this is untrue as many people with cancer and other debilitating diseases NEED more THC.

In fact, the children with Epilepsy (like my son) that they use as an example of "only" needing low THC oils actually NEED more THC in many instances. I for one would LOVE to have access to products out of Colorado called Cannatol. Cannatol makes several products including a nasal rescue spray for Grand Mal seizures and that product is 5% THC. So people in Iowa who have children with Grand Mals wouldn't even be able to use that as a rescue med because it has 2% more THC in it than some House members feel we should have access to.  The option for rescues instead are heavy duty benzos that have to be administered rectally and leave children in a drug induced phase for days vs being able to come out of a Grand Mal quickly and with no side effects like the kiddos shown in the viral Cannatol videos.

Here is a video of Cannatol being used:

Here is a video of Diastat that is used for emergency rescues. Please watch and ask yourself if you were in this situation - would you want to have the right to try a nasal spray vs a rectally administered rescue medication? Diastat is extremely sedating and is most definitely getting children "high".

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I will remain hopeful that the House will do the right thing for families like mine but with the comments that have already been publicly made in regards to this bill, I think that perhaps all they are willing to give us this year is a removal of the July expiration date... but we shall see.  I attended House Speaker Linda Upmeyer's Legislative Forum on our way home from MN a few weeks ago and she claimed to not be against growing/distributing medical cannabis in Iowa. I hope that she and the Leadership decide to do the right thing for those who suffer and for those of us who have children who need safe, legal access within their own state's borders.

Here are some articles for reference:

• New Push for Medical Marijuana in the Iowa Senate
• Medical Marijuana Bill Faces Roadblock in Iowa House
• Iowa Senators Eye Medical Marijuana
• Senate's Medical Marijuana Bill faces Opposition in House
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