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DMACC Ankeny Campus Chronicle
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BY CASEY MORGAN
STAFF WRITER
Should pot be prescribed? DMACC student Ryan Jones says yes. "[Marijuana] has so many more uses than what the average perception is. There's medical breakthroughs: ways to deal with pain, hunger, eating disorders. It's either be miserable for the rest of your life — or take something that's natural, instead of some crazy pill."
Jones' opinion may not be far from becoming a reality. And college students like him could be a deciding factor. Currently, it's illegal to prescribe marijuana under both federal and state laws.
To make it legal, Iowa would need to reclassify the drug. The Legislature did nothing this session to revise the law. Experts aren't optimistic about next year either. But if polls prove accurate, Iowans seem to be on board with the idea of making medical marijuana legal.
Especially college students.
An informal survey to a DMACC class indicates that 92 percent of the students would support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.
The result of the 25-student survey trends higher than the national average of 65 percent, according to a national poll conducted by the University of Iowa in December 2010. In February 2010, The Des Moines Register conducted an Iowa poll that found 64 percent would support the measure.
"It seems like there is some public support for it," said Lloyd Jessen, executive director of the Iowa Board of Pharmacy.
College students could be instrumental in the fight to change the legality of medical marijuana. "College students are going to look at this as a social justice thing," said Carl Olsen, founder of the Web site "Iowans for Medical Marijuana." Olsen said, they're going to be more satisfied if the State does something compassionate."
Under the current state law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it is a controlled substance with no known medical benefits.
Looking ahead to 2012, political science professor at Drake University, Arthur Sanders, doesn't think lawmakers will take up the reclassification issue in the 2012 legislative session either. "It's very difficult. Candidates don't want to look politically like they are soft on drugs."
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy, however, is pushing for a change to the classification after concluding the drug provides medical benefits. The Board had come to this unanimous decision: "The Board made a recommendation to the legislature that they consider changing [marijuana] to a Schedule II drug, and that would be the first
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step in making it available as a medication," Jessen said.
That was in February 2010.
The Iowa Legislature still hasn't reclassified marijuana. Neither has any other state.
James Getman, director of NORML's Iowa Chapter said he's not surprised. We're kind of disappointed that we're not making progress, but considering the political climate, it's understandable," he said.
The Board previously took the position that marijuana remain in Schedule I and that it not be available medically, Jessen explained.
That was until 2009.
That was before Olsen filed a petition with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy requesting that the Board consider reclassifying marijuana so that it would be available medically.
"And that's what really got this whole thing started," Jessen said.
Olsen studied law at the University of Miami Law School for four years before he was convicted on marijuana charges in 1980, where he spent the next four years studying law while incarcerated. "My job was running the law library," he said.
Upon release, he returned to Iowa to get his paralegal degree from DMACC.
Then, in 1990, Olsen met a man at a marijuana rally at the Iowa State Capitol building who had just received a federal license to use marijuana and he was smoking a joint. The man was a part of a small, now defunct federal program that enabled individuals to use pot legally. "It just hit me and I said 'This is the prototype. This is a person using marijuana legally. This is what legal marijuana looks like,'" Olsen said.
Since that day at the Capitol building, Olsen has become Iowa's leading proponent of medical marijuana. He served as president of the Iowa Chapter of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) from 1992 to 2002 and co-founded the Web site "Iowans for Medical Marijuana."
Today Olsen works as the web developer at Drake University.
After years of failed efforts filing lawsuits against the state of Iowa and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Olsen wised up. He realized it was the Board who dictated the classification of the drug. "It's the Iowa Board of Pharmacy I need to go after," he said.
In response to the petition, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy began an extensive review on marijuana. "We held a series of four public hearings and did our own research on it. We ended up with hundreds of medical or scientific articles that we looked at," Jessen said. "Then we received a lot of testimony from various people: patients, physicians, attorneys - just a very broad spectrum of people who wanted to give us information on it."
After months of research the Iowa Board of Pharmacy compiled a list of the top 10 diseases in which the use of medical marijuana may be helpful.
The top 10 diseases are: spinal cord injury, chronic pain, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, multiple sclerosis, cancer, epilepsy, various diseases of the gastrointenstinal tract, and hepititis.
But some 20 other diseases have also been studied, Jessen explained. "Glaucoma, Parkinson's disease, fibromyalgia - just a wide range of illnesses," he said.
Renee Chesnut, president of the Iowa Pharmacy Association, an organization that "promotes safe and effective medication use to improve the health of patients," said the group favors moving forward on the issue. She provided this policy statement: "IPA supports the development of a restricted process for production, procurement, distribution, and control of a standardized marijuana product for medical purposes."
Getman said he'd like to see marijuana regulated. "If I could go to a Walgreens and buy a commercial product, that would be cool," he said.
As much progress as Olsen has made in recent years, the fight for medical marijuana remains an uphill battle. "Even if states enact a medical marijuana program, they have to automatically move it to Schedule II," Getman said.
Olsen explained that "The key to the whole thing is the way the Iowa Uniform Controlled Substances Act is written," he said. "It says anything with accepted medical use in the United States must be removed from Schedule I. Since marijuana has accepted medical use in 15 states, it has accepted medical use in the United States."
Getman said he wanted to back Olsen up. "The [Feds] say, 'We'll let you get away with medical marijuana,' but it's still on the books as Schedule I. So, if Iowa would actually move it into Schedule II, then that would give Carl ammunition to sue the Feds and say, 'Yes it does have accepted medical use. It does in Iowa so it should in the rest of the United States,'" Getman said.
The Dean of Health and Public Services at DMACC, Sally Schroeder, said that folks shouldn't rush the stoic lawmakers. "Iowa is very selective in what they do and very purposeful in their deciding on these things," Schroeder explained. "It might take a while, and that's okay. We want to make sure we're doing the right thing."
The health curriculum at DMACC wouldn't be affected, said Schroeder. "The curriculum wouldn't change, [marijuana] would just be integrated," she said.
Sgt. Larry Davey of the Des Moines Police Department's Narcotics Division declined official comment,
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stating that the DMPD would like to remain neutral on the matter because it's such a "hot topic," Davey said.
If the State fails to come to a conclusion in January 2012, Olsen is prepared to go on the offensive...again. "If the state doesn't pass the Iowa Board of Pharmacy bill in 2012, I'm going to file a lawsuit against the state. That's the next move," he said.
Olsen went on to say, "So, the Iowa Legislature really doesn't have a choice here. They either have to change the statute to ignore the scientific evidence and legal requirements, which nobody has even suggested as a remote possibility, or follow the law as it is written," he said. "If they don't do that, this should be an easy case to win in the Iowa courts."
Olsen said he could find himself in a position to take the issue all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Getman's still waiting for Iowa to set the precedent for reclassification. But if lawmakers continue to sit on their hands, any state with a medical marijuana program could take the reigns. "One of these states has to grow their Tenth Amendment balls and stand up to the federal government." Getman said.
The future of medical marijuana in Iowa remains uncertain, but Olsen is still optimistic, confident. He knows he's laid the proper groundwork. "I am in the midst of pushing really hard. I've made enough progress to make the whole thing worth it. I am really satisfied having accomplished what I have," Olsen said.
"One of these states has to grow their Tenth Amendment balls and stand up to the federal government," Getman said.