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cultivate up to 15 cannabis plants and possess up
to 24 ounces of usable marijuana. The new limits
took place November 2, 2008. Patients who possess
larger quantities of cannabis other than those
approved will continue to receive legal protection
under the law if they present evidence indicating
they require such amounts to adequately treat their
qualifying medical condition.
And a row has broken out in Britain
this week when the chief drug advisor to the
government was -- was fired when he said that
alcohol and cigarettes were more dangerous than
cannabis. Other scientists on the drug advisory
counsel in Britain have resigned in protest
complaining the government is ignoring science in
favor of popular myths, and that's the exact same
thing that Chuck Grassley is trying to do here in
Iowa or the congressional government. He said the
drug needs to be reclassified from C to a more
dangerous Category B against scientifically, simply
on the whim of prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Now, also we had a response from Cerro
Gordo, Iowa County Sheriff Kevin Pals who doesn't
think people should be allowed to smoke marijuana
for medical condltions. You know, you're going to
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see people out in public smoking a joint, and I'm
not sure we're ready for that or if it's needed.
Well, Pals, medical marijuana patients
want to feel safe at home. We're not looking to
use our medicine in public and offend. At the same
time the State of Iowa put all our health at risk
by holding a hearing in a casino where tobacco
smoke is allowed. I ask -- and alcohol.
I ask any opponents of medical
marijuana and those left on the winning side,
please do not refer to cannabis or marijuana as a
drug. It is a plant. It always has been and
always will be. Cannabis use in various forms, be
it medical, sacramental, or to make clothes with,
is an 86-million-year tradition that ended in 1937.
Since the history of marijuana
prohibition, it is not taught in American history.
Many of you know only about marijuana from what
somebody told you. I leave it up to you to learn
about Jack Herer and his book. It's called The
Emperor Wears No Clothes. I suggest anybody that's
misinformed about marijuana read it.
Now, I'm going to say proven facts
previously submitted that all have scientific proof
to validate anything I may say, unlike our
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opponents who just read facts from some outdated
Reefer Sadness they find on the Internet making
them blind to the more recent facts determined by
science. Opponents will not only stand here and
lie and tell you that smoked marijuana causes
cancer and all kinds of crazy lies when, in fact,
cannabis has many cancer-fighting properties.
Science has proven that. And there's no link to
lung cancer or any cancer from marijuana smoke
If you're a young politician and part
of your campaign -- if you're a young politician
and part of your campaign platform is Reefer
Madness, you may want to do your homework on
cannabis since our history books didn't give you
the straight dope and left that to your DARE
classes.
Politicians are finally faillng in
line with science that has been saying since '74
when the first reports were published that cannabis
reduced cancer without damage to living cells. The
living -- excuse me. The legal use of medical
marljuana by those with proven medical condltions
that benefit from its use should not even be an
issue.
Why am I even standing here?
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Anti-marijuana ads -- anti-marijuana ads have
backfired, and they were buried by the White House
August 31 of 2006. On the heels of the U.S.
Government Accountability Office, the National
Institute of Drug Abuse released an evaluation that
the campaign ads actually encourage marijuana use.
The report finds that anti-marijuana campaigns not
only failed to reduce teen marijuana use but
actually increased marijuana use among certain
adolescents. More of your tax dollars being
wasted.
The reason the medical profession
cannot agree on it, it's not due to science. It's
strictly political. Politicians sacrifice human
lives as a result to furthering their ideology
about the evils of cannabis. In the United States
5 percent of all cannabis users are medical
marijuana patients improving our quality of life
without FDA poisons. 95 percent of all cannabis
consumers are recreational users, and these are
healthy people living with no long-term health
problems associated with use.
Medical marijuana patients are the new
minority in our -- in America. Only all diversity,
it crosses all races, color, creed, and 20-plus
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treatable conditions. If this were a hearing on
full-blown legalizatlon, you'd have a hundred
percent of the people showing up who are healthy.
If you want to talk about health
concerns, be concerned about phamaceuticals. Have
you heard the stories about Vicodin, Vioxx, or
Valium? Even Tylenol kills people. Pharmaceutical
products and profits are problems that need control
and regulation. Marijuana is not part of that
picture. Marijuana does not kill -- marijuana does
not kill people, never has, never will. Jail and
prisons do.
Studies show that there is no lethal
dose, all political fear-mongering at the expense
of public health. Medical and pharmaceutical
interests do not want to lose. Does anyone notice
the absurd cost of pharmaceuticals? Marijuana
should be a personal health-care choice easily
accessible, low cost, even tax free. Marijuana is
not to be prescribed. The patient is referred to
be included in a state-mandated list.
We are willing to pay the registration
fees. Most states it's $200 with waivers for
veterans and those on fixed incomes. There is no
prescription as marijuana is a drug no different
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than ginkoba and herbal supplement. Hence, no
pharmacy required. Ginkoba is not controlled by
the FDA. Cannabis can replace 47 to
52 prescriptions and over-the-counter medicines
that you're taking today.
A medical marijuana patient can be
anyone already taking prescribed or
over-the-counter that can replace the current
medicine with a natural. 85 percent of all
marijuana arrests for marijuana possession. From
this statistic, age 40 plus is on the increase.
This means many of them made medical marijuana
patients with no state protection for use of
possession of medical marijuana.
As I said before, medical marijuana
patients do not need a joint or a bong. We can
cook with it or vaporize with it. It is not a
drug. It is an herb. It is a plant put here on
earth by our creator. Making cannabis illegal in
1937, they put it on the street. They spent
millions trying to prove its danger only to
determine it was beneficial. All the while it was
sold to you for 70-plus years by dealers on the
black market who deal in death. Those dealers also
deal in death. Those are your drugs.
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What is -- what was evil about
cannabis that some American purists had to end an
86-million-year tradition of healing man? It was
racism. It was racism. Now the last vestige of
racism exists under medical marijuana and marijuana
prohibi>cion.
I found out it is not really worth it
to vaporize Marinol. It has THC, but the FDA
stripped away all the 60 cannabinoids that I need.
THC isn't for pain. THC is a psychoactive
ingredient in the cannabis plant. This is the part
that makes you feel good, makes us laugh.
RAY LAKERS: Okay. I'd like
to thank
you, and I would just like to say something about
Marinol and all the people that --
SUSIE DUGAN: Good morning, pharmacy
board. My name is Susie Dugan. I am the director
of communications for DrugWatch International,
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which is an all-volunteer network of doctors,
lawyers, journalists, addiction specialists,
teachers, drug prevention advocates, policymakers,
concerned parents, and parents ot those who have
lost children because of the problems they had with
marijuana.
DrugWatch International supports the
creation of healthy drug-free cultures throughout
the world and opposes the legalization of any drug.
I've been fighting for drug-free youth in the Omaha
and Council Bluffs area for over 30 years. I am
the former executive director of PRIDE Omaha, and
I'm semiretired now, but DrugWatch International is
housed at PRIDE Omaha, and I appeared today
representing DrugWatch International to strongly
oppose the rescheduling of marijuana as, quote,
medicine.
I have monitored the pro-marijuana
lobby for all of my career in drug prevention.
Back in 1980 the Families in Action Newsletter out
of Atlanta reported that in 1979 Keith Stroup who
was then the director of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or NORML told
Emory University students that NORML was going to
reclassify marijuana as medicine as a red herring
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to give marijuana a good name.&nsp; That hasn't changed
in all these 30 years. The goal of NORML has
always been the complete legalization and
normalization of marijuan use.
Iowa -- the so-called medical
marijuana movement has indeed grown since that
time. With millions of dollars from billionaire
George Soros and several other wealthy
pro-marijuana advocates, we know now that too many
states have fallen prey to the junk science lobby
that is promoting marijuana as medicine.
Iowa would be very wise to examine
what actually has happened in those states that
have already voted to declare crude marijuana to be
medicine. Despite national news reports and
stories that imply that U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder is opening the door to medical marijuana or
to the legalization of marijuana, please note that
in the packet I have placed here for you, the
present administration is nonetheless making it
clear that the new marijuana -- that the raw
marijuana plant is not medicine, and to quote Gil
Kerlikowske, the director --
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BOARD MEMBER FREY: Noah,
we have a
speaker going at the moment. Can you hold for a
few moments?
SUSIE DUGAN: I'll hurry.
Anyway, Gil
Kerlikowske who is the director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy has stated "Any state
considering medical marijuana should look very
carefully at what has happened in California."
In the packet also there are many
papers and many reports on what has actually
happened in California and other medical marijuana
states. The picture is much grimmer than the
individual stories you might probably hear today.
In -- in a 2009 white paper on
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marijuana dispensaries issued by the California
Police Chiefs Association, their task force pointed
out that California dispensaries are -- and this is
a quote -- are commonly large money-making
enterprises that will sell marijuana to most
anybody, close quote.
The report further states that
drug-dealing sales to minors, loitering, heavy
vehicle and foot traffic around those dispensaries
are also common ancillary by-products of their
operations. The executive summary of that report
ends with the statement "Too often medical
marijuana has been used as a smokescreen for those
who want to legalize it and profit off it and
storefront dispensaries established as cover for
selling an illegal substance for a lucrative
return."
In your packet also is an October 28,
2009, story from the Los Angeles Times that
documents how easy it was for a healthy reporter to
obtain a doctor's recommendation for medical
marijuana, and there were the inferences that there
would be no more further supervlsion.
I have also included a report on the
many, many California cities and counties that have
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bad to resort to banning medical dispensaries
because of all of the problems associated with
them. Indeed, Charles Lane in a Washington Post
editorial on October 22 this year objected to and
condemned medical marijuana stating, among other
things, that "It always bugs me when some group of
true believers tries to foist its views on the
public in the guise of science. This is especially
pernicious when it involves selling phony remedies
for real disease, unquote." He went on to state,
"Of course, laws like Californla1s which in
practice permit people to get pot for practically
any purported malady under the sun show that the
medical rationale is a cover for recreatlonal use."
In a September 26, 2009, story in the
Michigan Daily Press newspaper, a copy which of is
included in your packet, Jeff Racine who is the
commander of the Upper Peninsula Substance
Enforcement Team, called UPSET, reports that in
Mlchigan, another medical marijuana state, quote,
Some patients as well as some caregivers who are
allowed to grow pot are abusing the law and
obtaining permits through fraud. This deception is
creating more problems for law enforcement in
Michigan and other states which have enacted
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medical marljuana laws.
Marijuana is a dangerous drug that has
numerous side effects, one of which is the possible
suppression of the immune system, so in actuality,
marijuana can make sick people sicker. No national
or international medical association has approved
smoked marijuana as medicine. Just the Opposite.
They all agree that smoking is not the appropriate
delivery system for any medication. To safely
prescribe any medicine, the strength, purity,
effectiveness, proper dose for a specific medical
condition and its interaction with other
medications must be known. Crude marijuana's
chemistry can be changed by exposure to light and
to air. It is unstable and unpredictable.
Medicine must not be based on
anecdotal accounts of benefits but on peer-reviewed
scientific research. We've heard the Institute of
Medicine quoted here, and it stated marijuana's
future as medicine does not involve smoking. That
study only supported research into the development
of new, safe delivery systems of drugs related to
the compounds found in and then isolated from the
marijuana plant.
Indeed, many plants, animals, and
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minerals have medical properties, but that alone
does not translate them into safe or effective for
medical use in that crude form. We don't chew the
foxglove plant to get digitalis, a drug that treats
heart disease. We don't drink the urine of
pregnant horses to get estrogen replacement. We
don't eat moldy bread to get Penicillin.
And sick people should not smoke a
crude weed and call it medical marijuana. I thank
you.
NOAH MAMBER: Thank you so much. Good
morning, Iowa Board of Pharmacy members. Thank you
so much for allowing me to testify by phone. We
really appreciate it.
My name is Noah Mamber, and I'm an
attorney who's been admitted in practice in New
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Jersey and a legislative analyst at the Marijuana
Policy Project, the largest marijuana policy reform
organization in America which has been instrumental
in the drafting and passage of medical marijuana
laws, including in Hawaii, Rhode Island, Michigan,
Montana, and Vermont as well as the new law just
passed yesterday to improve access in Maine.
Previously, I worked as the legal
services coordinator for Americans for Safe Access
in Oakland, California, where I responded to
thousands of legal inquiries from medical marijuana
patients and educated them about how to assert
their rights in court. Thus, I am very familiar
with the medical value of marijuana and how
important it has been for hundreds of thousands of
seriously ill patients across the country.
I'm testifying today to urge you, the
Iowa Board of Pharmacy, to officially recognize the
medical value of marijuana at the close of these
hearings. I would also ask you to urge the
legislature to pass a comprehensive and effective
medical marijuana law that allows doctors to
recommend medical marijuana to seriously ill
patients and allow such patlents to legally under
Iowa state law possess, cultivate, and obtain
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medical marijuana from state-regulated compassion
centers.
I have no doubt that in hearing from
many doctors and other scientific and medical
experts throughout this process, you have
sufficient medical evidence to conclude that
marijuana has medical value. We know doctors
submitted convincing studies on medical marijuana's
effects on the debilitating medical conditions.
Aside from all of that hard scientific
evidence, many prominent medical organizations have
already demonstrated their support and recognition
for the medicinal value of marijuana. The
Institute of Medicine, American Academy of HIV
Medicine, American Nurses Association, American
Public Health Association, and the Leukemia &
Lymphoma Society all support allowing
doctor-supervised access as well as the Rhode
Island and New York Medical Society and two former
U.S. surgeon generals, Joycelyn Elders and Jesse
Steinfeld.
Once you have decided to recommend to
the legislature that marijuana has medical value,
then the question is, what is the best way? Some
people have said that the board should recommend
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that the legislature require a doctor to prescribe
medical marijuana. Unfortunately, because of
current federal law, a prescription requirement in
Iowa's medical marijuana law would create an
unworkable system, and patients wouldn't be able to
access it as opposed to a doctor -- allowing a
doctor to write a recommendation.
Iowa can still maintain a doctor's
place as the gatekeeper who controls who is allowed
to possess the medicine, also creating an effective
medical marijuana law.
From 1978 to 1995, 34 states and the
District or Columbia passed laws that reflected
positively on medical marijuana, but they were all
symbolic and not implemented. Specifically, the
laws of Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Virginia,
and Wisconsin required a patient to get a doctor's
prescription before state law would recognize the
legality of a patient's possession of medical
marijuana.
A prescription is a legal document
from a licensed physician ordering a pharmacy to
release a certain amount of controlled substance to
a patient. A doctor is granted a prescription
license by the federal government, and it remains
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in violation of federal law to prescribe marijuana
regardless of state law because marijuana is a
federal Schedule I substance and is therefore not
on the list of prescribable substances.
On the contrary, a recommendation is a
professional opinion provided by a qualified
physician in the context of a bona flde
doctor-patient relationship. The term
recommendation circumvents the clear federal
prohibition on marijuana prescriptions, and the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has
affirmed a physician's right to discuss medical
marijuana with patients as well as to recommend it
as a form of protected First Amendment speech.
In Conant vs. Walters, the Ninth
Circuit held that the federal government may not
investigate or revoke the prescription licenses of
physicians who voice their professional opinions
and recommend the medical use of marijuana to their
patients. In this case the court draws a clear
line between illegal activity and the federal law
such as writing a prescription or aiding and
abetting a patient in obtaining medical marljuana
and constitutionally protected activity under
federal law such as discussion of the risks and
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benefits of medical marijuana with a patient and
writing a recommendation.
Thus, the court allows a doctor not to
write a prescription for a specific amcunt of
marijuana but to provide a recommendation that
concludes that the benefits of marijuana outweigh
the risks for a specific patient.
And while technically Conant vs.
Walters is only a Circuit Court of Appeal decision,
it is highly persuasive. It was a unanimous and
soundly reasoned decision, and the U S. Supreme
Court has denied review, so there is no -- there's
also no reason to assume that any of the Circuit
Court of Appeals will ever come to a different
result in a similar case.
And in order for this case to stop
being the law of the land, the process must begin
with the U S. District Court ruling against the
doctor, and there are no cases currently of that
sort in litigation.
Furthermore, the federal government
has, you know, realized since this ruling and has
not targeted or harassed any doctors, and so a
doctor and the legislature anywhere in this country
can be confident on the rules allowing doctors to
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make recommendations.
It's also important to note that all
13 states with effective medical marijuana laws --
and there are 13, not just California, which the
last speaker was trying to make -- where patients
can actually possess marijuana for personal medical
use without fear of criminal sanction, and all of
them use some form of the recommendations and none
require a prescriptlon. In these states patients
receive recommendations and a state ID card to
possess their medicine, and the laws work well and
enjoy popular support.
Aside from the success of the
recommendations, these 13 state laws are also
successful in other ways. For instance, data have
shown that any concerns about these laws increasing
youth marijuana use are unfounded. All 11 of the
medical marijuana states that have produced before
and after data have reported overall decreases in
teen marijuana use, including 50 percent in some
age groups.
After a clearly written medical
marijuana law passes, law enforcement is still able
to do its job as well as it could before the law
passed, if not better. Patients can get ID cards
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in 12 of the 13 states, and then law enforcement
can easily differentiate between law-abiding
medical marijuana patients and recreational
marijuana users.
Law enforcement will still be able to
conduct searches and seizures based on probable
cause with the only difference being that after
verifying an Iowa patient's status and that they
possess the appropriate amount of medical
marijuana, law enforcement will not need to
continue a needless encounter.
Colonel James Baker of the Vermont
State Police told WCAX-TV on October 18, 2007, "At
this point four years into this, we're comfortable
with what's happening, and we believe that the
people who are getting it are getting it under the
true color of what the law is." So there's even
law enforcement support.
Additionally, others have suggested
that Iowa require its seriously ill patients to
acquire their medical marijuana only from a
pharmacy. Because distribution of medical
marijuana remains illegal under federal law, as
does furnishing an official prescription, mandated
pharmacy distribution doesn't make sense because
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most national pharmacy chains are very risk averse
and will almost surely forbid any individual
pharmacy from breaking federal law, let alone state
law, in distributlng what remains a Schedule I
substance under federal law.
However, if the board believes it is
important to include pharmacies, it can definitely
recommend to the legislature that it affirmatively
allow pharmacies to apply to become registered
compassion centers as long as they are not the only
entities allowed to provide qualified patients with
medical marijuana.
The model that has worked well in
other states is to create state-regulated
compassion centers, started by compassionate people
who are willing to break federal law while obeying
state law in order to provide patients with the
medicine they need. The not-for-profit model is
working as has been seen in New Mexico which
licensed its first producer in March.
It should also work well in Rhode
Island, which expanded its law in June by an
overwhelming margin to include state-regulated
compassion centers and will be finalizing its
regulations and beginning to accept applications.
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And finally, just yesterday great
news. 59 percent of Maine voters approved a
similar law which will allow regulated nonprofits
to dispense medical marijuana to registered
patients. And it is also likely that New Jersey
will also pass the medical marijuana law as well
with similar regulated compassion center
provisions.
Now, in California medical marijuana
dispensaries have had mixed success. While their
sheer abundance has provided safe access to any
patients who needs medicine in most major cities in
the state, there is no state regulation. There is
no state registration, unlike the proposed bill in
Iowa, unlike in New Mexico, Rhode Island, and
Maine.
As a result, some unscrupulous
operators will unfortunately abuse the ambiguous
law and the lack of regulation. This has not been
a problem in New Mexico nor will it be in Rhode
Island or Maine where very tight regulations will
provide people with access and community safety.
Thus, the best way to ensure that
seriously ill patients have access to medical
marijuana is for the legislature to establish a
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compassion center system that is licensed and
tightly regulated by the state.
Last point finally is that it's
important to remember that the federal government
has just recently given Iowa and other states like
it the legal and legislative space to protect
medical marijuana patients and their caregivers
from criminal sanctions. President Obama pledged
to end raids on medical marijuana patients during
his campaign, and this pledge was supported and
fleshed out now just recently by a policy
memorandum from the Department of Justice directing
U.S. attorneys not to prosecute legitimate medical
marijuana patients and caregivers who are obeying
state law.
Specifically, the October 19, 2009,
memorandum says "Prosecution of individuals with
cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana
as a part of a recommended treatment regimen
consistent with applicable state law or those
caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with
existing state law who provlde such individuals
with marijuana is unlikely to be an efficient use
of limited federal resources."
In releasing this memorandum, the
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Obama administration is directing its prosecutors
to let states set their own marijuana policy. With
a clear, unambiguous law that specifically
regulates the distribution of medical marijuana to
seriously ill patients and allows doctors to write
recommendations, which is a concept that effective
state laws have used since 1996, and which includes
other specific rules for patients and caregivers,
it will be obvious who is in unambiguous compliance
with the law and who is not.
This type of law will avoid any issues
that have been present in California and will
significantly reduce any chance of possible federal
interference while robustly protecting all Iowa
patients and caregivers.
In conclusion, given the overwhelming
evidence, I ask the Board of Pharmacy to officially
recognize the medical value of marijuana and to
urge the legislature to pass a comprehensive and
effective medical marijuana law that allows doctors
to write recommendations and also allows patients
to legally possess, cultivate, and obtain medical
marijuana from state-regulated compassion centers.
Thank you very, very much from all of
us for holding these hearings and for including all
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of us. Have a nice morning.
CARL OLSEN: Could you ask him to
submit that in writing so it gets in the record
correctly?
NOAH MAMBER: I'm going to submit
them
in writing today. I'm just putting very, very
small corrections, and I'll make sure they're there
before the end of the day Iowa time.
NOAH MAMBER: And it has all the
necessary citations for the facts that I quote.
NOAH MAMBER: Wonderful. Thank
you,
guys. Thank you so much for making the phone
testimony happen. I hope that the earlier
testimony by the researcher was also helpful, and
wish you luck. Thank you.
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BOARD MEMBER MAIER: Our
job here is
to determine whether we should -- whether we should
reschedule this drug from Schedule I to
Schedule II. Can you tell me without me
researching the other 13 states that -- where their
medical marijuana has become available, have those
states rescheduled to Schedule II, or is it the
compassion -- compassion center approach?
NOAH MAMBER: Again, without
researching, the 13 other states as far as I know
have not taken the rescheduling route, but that
would be more just a matter of -- it was an
oversight. I mean they decided to pass these laws
to make sure that marijuana was available to folks,
but in the ideal, you know, if everyone was to go
back and do it again, it would be great if the
state also, you know -- you know, both symbolically
and in making a statement that marijuana is not
appropriate to be in Schedule I. We are going to
change it as well as making sure that it is
available to patients.
So it's -- it's --the most important
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thing is that Iowa medical -- Iowa seriously ill
patients will be able to have access to the
medicine they need.
But definitely rescheduling marijuana
is a great first step and recognizing its medical
value. We would just ask that in doing so that you
also ask the legislature to formulate a plan in
which doctors who write recommendations for
patients to legally possess, cultivate, and obtain
marijuana from state-licensed compassion centers.
TERRY WITKOWSKI: We will be
taking a
lunch break now. We will be back to hear
additional testimony and comments at l o'clock.
And we have asked that the room be locked during
this period, so if anybody wants to leave any of
their equipment here, you're welcome because it
will be secured. Thank you.
(Lunch recess.)
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Okay.
We'll get
started again. I'm going to go a little bit of the
introduction, purposes for the meeting again for
those who were not here this morning.
This is a final public hearing on
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medical marijuana. It is being held by the Iowa
Board of Pharmacy pursuant to Iowa Code
Section 124.201(1). I'm Terry Witkowski, executive
officer for the board.
With me today are two board members
Susan Frey is a pharmacist and vice chairperson of
the board from Villisca, Iowa. Ed Maier is a
pharmacist board member from Mapleton, Iowa. Also
wlth us today is Jennifer O'Toole. She's at the
back table. And SueAnn Jones of Johnson Reporting
Services serving as the certified -- excuse me
certified shorthand reporter for this hearing.
The purpose of the hearing is to
receive information from the public. A transcript
of all comments received at today's hearing will be
reviewed by all seven members of the board.
This hearing will be held according to
the following ground rules and will proceed in the
following manner. Both proponents and opponents
of medical marijuana will be allowed to speak. All
speakers are to come to the stage and speak into
the microphone. Speakers are to speak slowly and
clearly so their comments can be accurately
recorded.
Speakers need to identify themselves
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on the record using at a minimum their first name.
Full names and addresses would be appreciated but
will not be required. If you're representing an
organization or are speaking on behalf of an
organization, speakers should state that before
making comments.
Speakers who wish to offer exhibits or
written materials to the board need to have them
properly identified for the record. Testimony that
references an exhibit should identify the exhibit
number.
Depending on the number of people who
wish to speak at today's hearing, time limits will
be imposed. In general, each person will be
allowed a minimum of ten minutes to speak. If
feasible, additional time may be allowed. However,
the board wants to ensure that every person who
wishes to speak receives an opportunity to do so.
Speakers will be called according to
the order on our sign-up sheet. Some speakers
reserved time prior to today's hearing, and they
will provide their comments as previously
scheduled. We have a few speakers that have also
requested additional time. All requests for
additional time will be allowed as circumstances
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permit.
We will notify each speaker as you
approach the end or your allotted time by holding
up signs indicating four minutes, two minutes,
thirty seconds remaining, and finally thank you
when your time is up.
The board wishes to remind everyone
that this hearing is not an opportunity for debate.
We are here today to receive comments concerning
the medical use of marijuana. As part of this
process, I, the board members, or the board staff
may have questions for speakers. Please be aware
we are not here to receive comments regarding the
legalization of marijuana.
Speakers are also reminded to avoid
repetitious or irrelevant comments, and speakers
should be as short and concise as possible.
Speakers will only be allowed to speak once.
Additional thoughts may be submitted to the board
in writing following today's hearing.
Unruly behavior such as booing or
hissing or harassing remarks will not be tolerated.
Speakers will not be allowed to make personal
attacks. Please hold your applause until each
speaker has finished making their comments.
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In addition to receiving oral comments
at today's hearing, the board welcomes and
encourages written comments. Any comments or other
information received at today's hearing will be
public information and may be referred to or
referenced in reports or recommendations issued by
the board to the legislature.
We will be in session until 7 p.m. We
will be taking two 15-minute breaks during the
afternoon. Are there any questions?
TERRY WITKOWSKI: As soon as
possible,
but I would suggest you have them into our office
by the end of this week so that we make sure that
we compile them into the full material.
TERRY WITKOWSKI: We are hoping
to
have an opinion to the legislature -- legislators
by the time that they open session in January.
CARL OLSEN: It's my understanding
that anything had to be submitted by midnight
tonight.
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more than I do.
CARL OLSEN: It's my understanding
that today is the deadline for anything.
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Okay.
We have that
confirmed. It is by midnight tonight that comments
need to be submitted. You can fax those. You can
mail them. You can e-mail them, whatever your
preference. And if you need contact information,
see me at a break. Okay? Yes.
KAITLYN DONOVAN: What about
is there
any way that you could request that it be, like, a
Schedule IV or, like, something different than a
Schedule II?
TERRY WITKOWSKI: You can always
make
your recommendation or make your argument for
placing the marijuana for medical use into a
different schedule. That's -- that's what the
board is looking at.
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ROBERT MANKE: I have a legal document
here, and I don't really want to let go of it
because it's something that I keep in my
possession. And I would like to make sure that you
get this as evidence.
How can I do this and receive it back?
Do you have a way to copy this or something or --
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Yes.
If you want to
give that to me, I would be happy to take it back
and copy it. I can mail it back to you.
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Yeah.
If you want
to provide that directly to me, I'll make sure that
you do get it back.
Okay. Now we will proceed with the next scheduled
speaker, and that is Paul Peterson.
PAUL PETERSON: My name is Paul
Peterson. I'm formerly a practicing attorney from
Chicago. I was suspended from the practice of law
in 2001 based upon my advocacy for the utilization
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of the then-current Illinois Medical Marijuana
Enabling Statute. Perjured testimony was used
against me, and I'm a little bit frustrated for the
last eight years, so please forgive me if I sound
anxious.
I have attention deficit disorder, and
that has a strong anxiety component, and I was told
by a therapist that marijuana might help me with
the debilitating side effects of the prescription
Ritalin that I took then and I take now per valid
prescription.
After reviewing the Illinois statute
and advocating for a program, I had to leave the
practice of law because I could no longer do that,
and I had a health food store, and researched for
dietary supplements and alternatives that might do
the same things as the THC molecule that I'd found
had great efficacy for me,
Based on that, I developed a livestock
feeding program with high-grade essential fatty
acids, the lack of transfatty acids, and some other
changes, and I came up with a meat product that had
a unique brain attribute. Call it a buzz factor.
I know that that sounds strange.
But I had gained the cooperation of
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the Wilmette chief of police in Wilmette, and they
decriminalized marijuana possession. Now that has
leaked out all over Illinois to where there are
perhaps 100 Illinois towns and cities that have
done this with great success, I might add,
including Springfield, the capital, and Cook
County. And there's probably an entire ring of
so-called rebelhead zone all the way around
Chicago.
In 2006, forced to lose my store
because of business reverses, I moved back to Iowa,
and I started to advocate for change on the
local -- the zone in Buena Vista County.
I have a number of exhibits that I'd
like to bring into evidence starting with a group
of anti-cancer articles showing that marijuana
constituents have strong therapeutic potential to
stop a number of different cancer processes,
including brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, colon
cancer, breast, lung, skin, blood-borne cancers,
lymphomas, and it's really frustrating to me that I
have not received any possibility to get this word
out.
For instance, in 2007 when I saw a
brain cancer patient dying at the hospital, I
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decided to try to bring meaning to his passing by
delivering some of these arcicles to the Storm Lake
city council, and I was immediately criminally
arrested and assaulted by the chief of police, and
evidence has been tampered as a result to hide the
fact that he grabbed me by both arms
inappropriately.
These are part of this Group
Exhibit A, anti-cancer articles including Madison,
Wisconsin, "U.S. Investigators Praise Cannabinoids
as Chemo Treatment." This was from January '08.
Brain cancer from Manual Guzman of Spain, July of
2006. "Apoptosis of Pancreatic Tumors." Apoptosis
is called program cell death, and this could have
possibly saved a remarkably talented actor that
played the part of an unconventional FBI agent
recently. I'm very frustrated that this has not
come to the fore. This was one of the articles I
gave to the chief of police and was criminally
assaulted as a result of that.
Another article from a number of
foreign researchers in 2006 about human breast
cancer cells that are inhibited by Cdc2 regulation.
Another article from Forbes magazine dated 3-31-09
about how experts say -- say their findings are
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worth further study about cancer, brain cancer. I
offer this as a Group Exhibit A.
Group Exhibit 2 is an article that I
found regarding the therapeutic uses of medical
marijuana in the treatment of attention deficit
disorder. Now I understand that Iowa probably
will not go to the extent of allowlng this for such
a -- such a purpose because that is still
controversial. But I submit to the board that if I
lived in any one of the 13 states where it's
allowed, I could get a green card for that in about
a New York minute.
I've been repeatedly confirmed to have
ADHD and not that other thing called bipolar
disorder. And in fact, when I saw a civil rights
violation in Storm Lake January 21, '06, I was
falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted,
criminally assaulted, and evidence was tampered
with, falsified police report, and because I asked
for an internal affairs investigation of false
police action, I was committed to Cherokee Mental
Health Institute for six weeks and forced to take
brain-numbing neuroleptic drugs because of the
falsified innuendos, because I have had an article
in the paper about marijuana decriminalization, and
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I'll have you know that my urine was negative for
marijuana at that time. Otherwise I'd probably
permanently be attached to a urine collection pump
to this very day. You could applause if you want.
That's okay.
There's also an article at the end of
this about how the brain may produce its own
antipsychotic drug, and that would be anandamide.
You might have heard testimony already about this.
It was discovered in the '80s or '90s by a DEA or
an Institute of -- I don't know. NIDA, National
Institute of Drug Abuse.
Now, I know that there are three
classes of the so-called endocannabinoids. One is
the anandamide that comes from the Omega 6 class.
Another is a thing called steramide (phonetical)
that comes from Omega 3. Another one is called
oleamide, o-l-e-a-m-i-d-e, which is known as the
sleep-inducing cannabinoid.
Now, this is pivotal and salient here
because the buzz factor that I developed in this
unique livestock product would cause me to have to
go to sleep, and I believe from my further research
that by removing the transfatty acids from the
dietary stream, I had caused the livestock to start
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to produce all three of these classes of
endocannabinoids. I offer this exhibit as Group
Exhibit No. B.
Group Exhibit No. C is about
Alzheimer's and migraine headaches. Now, when I
had my health food store in Illinois, I had
harvested some wild-growing hemp from Illinois, so
I did not transport that across state lines, if you
know what I mean.
And because my chief of police was so
supportive, I would keep that frozen in my
refrigerator, and if somebody came into my store
with a migraine headache, I could make a fresh
green marijuana tea, hemp tea, and they would take
two sips, look at me, and say "It's going, going,
gone." In ten seconds I could cure a migraine
headache with hemp.
Now, the hemp has the precursor
chemical called cannabidiol which is turned into
THC in a live marijuana, but I believe that the CBD
is a neuroprotective without causing psychoactive
changes, and I believe that this hemp, medical
hemp, would be a valuable and valid course of study
for the board and for the State of Iowa.
In addition to that, I've noticed over