Tony Leys

tleys@dmreg.com

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy, which has said the state should move toward allowing medical uses of marijuana, is considering whether to make a new recommendation on the issue to legislators.

A committee of the board will meet Nov. 17 to hear testimony on the issue.

The pharmacy board voted unanimously in 2010 to recommend that legislators reclassify marijuana in a way that could make it easier to use legally for medical purposes. Iowa law now classifies marijuana both as a Schedule I drug, impermissible for almost any use, and a Schedule II drug, which could be used for closely controlled medical purposes.

Legislators declined to approve the board's 2010 recommendation, but the political landscape could be changing. The Iowa Legislature last year approved a very limited law that would allow possession of a marijuana extract for treatment of people with severe epilepsy. Proponents say that the law is unworkable, but that it could represent a starting point toward broader legalization of medical marijuana.

According to the advocacy group the Marijuana Policy Project, 23 states and Washington, D.C., have effective laws allowing medical uses of marijuana. The group does not include Iowa in that list.

The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll found last spring that 59 percent of Iowa adults supported making marijuana legal for medical purposes. However, just 28 percent of poll participants said they supported making the drug legal for recreational purposes.

The pharmacy board has rejected advocates' suggestions that it could unilaterally allow medical uses of marijuana. Gov. Terry Branstad and House Speaker Kraig Paulsen have expressed doubts about the need to move quickly to expand the limited law passed last spring to allow possession of special marijuana oil for treatment of seizures in people with epilepsy.

The pharmacy board hearing on the issue is scheduled for 1 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the board's Des Moines office, 400 S.W. Eighth St. The scheduled speakers include representatives of the Iowa Pharmacy Association, the Iowa Department of Public Health, the University of Iowa and the state Office of Drug Control Policy. Also scheduled to speak is Carl Olsen, a longtime advocate for marijuana legalization whose petition to the board sparked the consideration of the issue.