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P R O C E E D I N G S
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Good morning.
Welcome to the second public hearing on medical
marijuana. This hearing is being held by the Iowa
Board of Pharmacy pursuant to Iowa Code
Section 124.201(l). I am Terry Witkowski, the
executive officer for the board, and with me today
are other members of the board staff, Debbie
Jorgenson, and Roger Zobel is at the table in the
back.
SueAnn Jones of Johnson Reporting
Services, Limited is serving as the certified
shorthand reporter for this hearing.
The purpose of this hearing is to
receive information from the public. A transcript
of all comments that are received at today's
hearing will be reviewed by all seven members of
the Iowa Board of Pharmacy. Those members regret
that they cannot be here today to hear you in
person.
Iowa law imposes upon the board the
duty to periodically recommend to the legislature
changes in controlled substance schedules. The
board views this statutory responsibility with
great seriousness, both because of the specificity
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of Iowa Code Chapter 124 and because marijuana use
and the use of drugs in general is a sensitive
medical, social, and political issue.
Any board recommendation for changes
to the controlled substance schedules will be
preceded by a thoughtful review and analysis of the
most helpful and current scientific information
available to the board.
In making a recommendation to the
legislature regarding marijuana, the board will
consider the following 12 factors: marijuana's
actual or relative potential for abuse, marijuana's
pharmacological effect, current scientific
knowledge regarding marijuana, the history and
current pattern of abuse of marijuana, the scope,
duration, and significance of abuse of marijuana,
the risk to the public health for moving marijuana
from Schedule I to a different controlled substance
schedule, the potential of marijuana to produce
psychic or physiological dependence liability,
whether marijuana is an immediate precursor of a
substance on some other controlled substance
schedule, whether marijuana's potential for abuse
or lack thereof is not properly reflected in its
inclusion in Schedule I, whether marijuana lacks a
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high potential for abuse, whether marijuana has an
accepted medical use in treatment in the United
States, and whether marijuana does not lack
accepted safety for use in treatment under medical
supervision.
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 must come to the stage and speak into the
microphone at the podium here. Please, if you wish
to speak, check in with Roger at the table in the
back prior to coming forward.
Speakers must speak slowly and clearly
so their comments can be accurately recorded.
Speakers need to identify themselves on the record.
They should at a minimum provide their first name.
Full names and addresses would be appreciated but
will not be required. If speakers are representing
an organization or are speaking on behalf of an
organization, they should state that before making
their comments.
Speakers who wish to offer exhibits or
written materials to the board need to have them
properly identified for the record. Testimony that
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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. Debbie will hold up cards letting you
know how much time is remaining in your time slot
to let you know whether you need to speed up your
presentation or start to wind down.
In general, each person will be
allowed a minimum of five 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. Some speakers have also requested
additional time. All requests for additional time
will be allowed as circumstances permit.
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 or other members of the board staff may
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have questions for the speakers. please be aware
that we are not here to receive comments regarding
the legalization of marijuana.
Speakers are also reminded to avoid
repetitious or irrelevant comments. 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 untll each
speaker has finished making their comments.
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.
This hearing will be in session until
7 o'clock p.m. We will take a lunch break from
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. We will also take two
15-minute breaks during the afternoon. Are there
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any questions?
Our next public hearing will be held
from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7 at
the Bowen Science Building at the University of
Iowa in Iowa City.
Debbie will notify you as a reminder
when you have four minutes, two minutes, and thirty
seconds left to speak by holding up these warning
messages. Once your time is up, she will hold up
the following sign. Please wrap up your comments
when you see the 30-second warning.
We will now begin with our first
speaker.
ROB: How will we get a mic down here?
BOB WATSON: I'd actually understood
that I had ten minutes, and so I have two written
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pages. Yep, yep, here you go.
BOB WATSON: I actually understood
that I had ten minutes, but I probably will not go
that long, but that mlght be about what I prepared.
BOB WATSON: My name is Bob Watson.
I
reside in rural Decorah. I am a disabled combat
veteran. I was a radio operator with second
battalion Fifth Marines, a combat unit in Vietnam
40 years ago.
My disabilities are PTSD. The
colloquial definition for me is too much combat
before the age of 21 and plenty more after. And
the cerebral form of P falciparum malaria. This
form of malaria destroys the insulation around the
synapsis in the brain and allows short-circuiting
of electrical impulses which are a form of
seizures. These disabilities are central to my
testimony.
Since the 1960s, the literature
abounds with studies about marijuana, trying to
prove its dangers, its helpful uses, and its
chemical compounds. This has led to the
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understanding that many of the old, thousands of
years old, uses for marijuana have a firm basis in
science.
Marijuana has been used to treat pain,
convulsions, nausea, glaucoma, neuralgia, asthma,
cramps, migraines, insomnia, and depression to name
a few. With the 1988 Allyn Howlett discovery of
specific receptors for THC in the brain, we begin
to understand the ability of marijuana to affect
humans.
In 1992, Raphael Mechoulam who
originally discovered THC discovered the brain's
own cannabinoid, and he named it anandamide. The
cannabinoid receptors Howlett found showed up in
vast numbers all over the brain as well as in the
immune and reproductive systems, though they were
clustered in the regions responsible for the mental
processes that marijuana are known to alter, the
cerebral cortex, the locus of higher order
thoughts, the hippocampus, memory, the basal
ganglion movement, and the amygdala -- sorry --
emotions.
The one neurological address where
cannabinoid receptors didn't show up was in the
brain stem which regulates involuntary functions
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such as circulation and respiration. This might
explain the remarkably low toxicity of cannabis and
the fact that no one is known to have ever died
from an overdose.
Howlett suggests that the purpose of
this network might be various direct and indirect
effects of cannabinoids, pain relief, loss of
short-term memory, sedation, and mild cognitive
impairment. She noted that cannabinoid receptors
had been found in the uterus and speculated that
anandamide might not only dull the pain of
childbirth but help women forget it later.
The sensation of pain is one of the
hardest to summon from memory. Howlett speculated
that the human cannabinoid system evolved to help
us endure and selectively forget the routine slings
and harrows of life so that we can get up in the
morning and do it all over again. It is the
brain's own drug for coping with the human
condition.
After my year in the rice patties and
mountains of Vietnam, there is much to forget.
Humans have a coevolution relation with marijuana,
much like pollinators and flowers which has had
evolutionary advantages to both species which gets
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me back to PTSD and malaria.
As I stated previously, One of the
effects of malaria is the creation of seizures.
These seizures lead to a number of problems,
including debilitating anxiety attacks, rages, et
cetera. Smoking marijuana dampens the seizures and
works as an anticonvulsant.
Marijuana has none of the side effects
or, in fact, unintended actions on the brain that
normal pharmaceutical drugs used for this purpose
have.
The central symptom of PTSD from the
jungle war in Vietnam for vecerans is
hyperalertness. Because hyperalertness saved my
life throughout that whole year, my brain won't let
me stop being hyperalert.
Hyperalertness causes the brain to
fill in voids with flashbacks, nightmares, and a
perpetual state of alertness which can take on many
forms of problematic behavior. One tends to forget
that not only did combat veterans hunt other
humans, they were also hunted by other humans.
This brings in a whole set of PTSD problems
normally not thought of when thinking with combat
veterans.
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Mine is not an easy life. I must
always be aware of and manage my PTSD and malaria
symptoms and try to separate them from what might
be called normal life. Smoking marijuana can
reduce hyperalertness. Reducing hyperalertness can
reduce the symptoms that combat veterans must live
with.
Smoking marijuana aces as an
anticonvulsant, thus relieving symptoms caused by
seizures that veterans with cerebral malaria must
live with. Smoking marijuana allows the veteran to
selectively forget many of the horrible memories of
combat.
When we have understood for the last
50 years the pharmacological reasons why marijuana
works as it does on the human brain, when we have
understood the positive cultural uses this plant
has been used for for thousands of years by humans,
when we understand that other states in this United
States understand and legally allow those medical
uses that marijuana has been shown to have, as a
combat veteran who spent the last 40 years dealing
daily with the effects of fighting for this
country, the effects fighting for this country has
had on my life, I find it morally reprehensible
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that a doctor at the VA or any other doctor is not
allowed to write me a prescription for marijuana
when that doctor knows that marijuana is the best
medicine I could have for my combat-related
disabilities.
Do me and the thousands of other
veterans with PTSD and malaria disabilities a
favor. Understand the real history this plant has
had with humans. Understand the positive medical
outcomes this plant has shown and recommend the use
of medical marijuana in Iowa. Thank you.
ROB: Hi. My name is Rob, and I was
diagnosed with MS in 1988. And ever since my
diagnosis, it's been a downhill run, and people
think I'm nuts when I say that medical marijuana
works, and it does. It really -- it relieves
symptoms and mostly the psych symptoms, which to me
is the worst, and I have to deal with it every day.
I have to deal with all this I was given, and it's
so much easier when I'm -- when I smoke marijuana.
People think I'm crazy. My doctors
look at me like I'm crazy. I'm tired of feeling
that way and being treated that way. It should be
legal for all the people, not just myself but
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everybody else that has MS. I can't say they all
do it, but I know some that do, and it does the
same thing for them it does for me. Relieves
symptoms. Relieves the psychological side, which,
by the way, for me is the hardest part, but I have
to deal with it because I don't have a choice.
This is the hand I was dealt.
And I'm just -- I'm not asking for a
handout. I'm asking for a hand-up. And I just
hope with all my heart that they will allow this to
be available to us people with medical problems
because dealing with the disease alone is bad
enough. All I'm asking for is some relief, and
with marijuana I get that relief. And for us,
relief of symptoms, and life is not so bad then.
I don't have to sit in negativity all
day long like I'm guilty of. I'll admit it. I've
tried suicide three times to get away from it, but
I know now with God's help, that's not the answer.
We're all going to go there anyway someday. So I
speed it up.
But all I'm asking for is some relief
for this beast I have inside me, and give me some
relief, and marijuana gives me relief, and people
think I'm crazy. Well, then I'm crazy because it
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does do what I say.
And I just -- I want some -- I need --
I need -- I need -- I need it for a distraction.
True, it's a Band-Aid, but they make marijuana. So
like I said, long story short, I wish the public
and the medical people could understand it. It
should be available to us with diseases, cancer,
AIDS, MS, the whole -- the whole deal.
And again, I'm going to repeat myself,
which I'm very good at. I just want some relief
physically and mentally. I take -- I take
antidepressants. I take all kinds of pills. I've
tried injectable meds. They don't work. I got
deathly ill off the last injectable I tried, and I
will not put -- have a needle put in my arm ever
again for that reason.
I just -- I want medical marljuana to
be legal for us people that it works for because
I've tried umpteen pills and this, that, and the
other, and I -- again, I just want it legal for --
if for not the world, for the medical -- the sick
people in the world that do -- it does help.
I guess that's about all I have to
say. Thank you all for listening.
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Speaker No. 2 signed up? Are you ready to go?
TERRY WITKOWSKI: Do we have
a Speaker
No. -- do we have a Speaker No. 3 signed up? Okay.
We'll wait for the second one then.
(Short recess.)
TERRY WITKOWSKI: I've been
informed
we do have a Speaker No. 3. Are you ready to
speak? Ma'am, would you come up to the microphone,
please? And identify yourself at least by first
name, please.
DEBBIE JORGENSON: Can you
come up the
stairs, or do you want me to bring the microphone
down to you?
MAE: Yes. My one question is, what
is the difference between med:cal marijuana and
street marijuana?
RAY LAKERS: Is this a question/answer
session? didn't think it was.
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MAE: MAE: That isn't known? We don't
know
the difference between street marijuana and
medical?
TERRY WITKOWSKI: There is not
necessarily a difference as far as the substance
itself. The question here is whether or not to
allow the use of marijuana when it is provided
under the care of a health-care practitioner.
MAE: MAE: I have a son-in-law in North
Carolina who has MS, and he functions without
marijuana. So it is possible. You don't have to
have marijuana. He functions. He's in a mobile
chair. I mean he does -- does a lot of things, but
he has no cravings or asking to have marijuana
legalized.
Do you want me to say anything more?
MAE: So I -- my opinion is that this
legalizing marijuana is opening a door, much as it
did in the abortion arguments.
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GEORGE McMAHON: This may take
me a
few minutes. I'd like to -- the previous speaker
didn't really seem to understand what we're doing
here.
GEORGE McMAHON: Yeah.
My name is
George McMahon. I live in Iowa, Riverside, Iowa.
Livermore, Iowa. Excuse me. What I brought with
me was Barb Douglass's testimony. She's not quite
able to make it today. She was, through no fault
of her own, withheld her medical marijuana for two
years.
She's an MS patient. She's on the
federal program. And after two years, she's no
longer able to travel much.
At the point that they -- it was cut
off, it was a matter with her doctor, not with
her -- she was still traveling. She was probably
80 percent blind, but she was still able to walk
and travel, and she's not able to walk and travel
or see now. But she's back on the medical
marijuana. She got that straightened out.
In 1988 -- this is Barb Douglass
speaking now. In 1988 I was diagnosed with a
devastating medical condition, multiple sclerosis.
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It has slowly taken my vision and my ability to
walk. It causes muscle spasms and pain which can
be quite intense. At a friend's suggestion, I
tried marijuana for relief. It worked, helping
both my spasms and my pain.
At the time a federal govement --
the federal government was accepting applications
to receive marijuana for medical use through its
Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program,
IND.
My doctor filled out the paperwork,
and in 1991 and for the next 16 years, I received
about 300 marijuana cigarettes per month from the
federal government's farm in Mississippi. Although
the program is called the Investigational New Drug
Program, the government didn't do any
investigating. The federal government has not
spent a dime to study how marijuana has made my
disease better and those other federal patients
more bearable. Not one federal researcher examined
me or the other patients to see what side effects
we suffered. There were virtually none.
The only study that has been conducted
on federal patients was published in the 2002, and
it did not receive government funding. It studied
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four of the seven federal patients who were alive
at the time, all of whom had been using federal
marijuana for at least 11 years.
The study confirmed what we each knew.
Marijuana helped us. It found cannabis smoking,
even of a low-grade crude product, provides
effective symptomatic relief of pain, muscle
spasms, and intraocular pressure, glaucoma,
elevations in selected patients failing other modes
of treatment. These -- and their accompanying side
effects. Clinical cannabis provides an improved
quality of life in these patients.
And then through no fault of my own, I
was no longer one of the lucky few. Over two years
ago I stopped receiving my medical marijuana. The
doctor who signed my paperwork was no longer
licensed. I found a new doctor who would sign the
paperwork. But the federal government did not
resume their shipments and my medicine until after
two years had passed.
During that time, my multiple
sclerosis worsened significantly, and I am in much
poorer health than I was before I was cut off. I
spent two years in the same predicament as
thousands of others in states like Iowa that they
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do not allow medical marijuana.
If seriously ill patients use a
medicine that helps them, they can be hauled off to
jail, and if they don't, they will live in pain and
discomfort.
Some may think that this is a prcblem
for the federal government, but our state is
responsible for deciding its own criminal
penalties. Patients llke me can and have been
arrested by state and local police for medical
marijuana.
State and local police are responsible
for 99 percent of all marijuana arrests, and the
DEA would have no reason to encounter a disabled
patient like me. They focus on major distributors.
In contrast, state and local police
arrest more than 700,000 Americans each year for
simple possession. I have a friend who has had his
life torn apart for a state-level medical marijuana
prosecution.
Iowa has the power to pass a
compassionate use exemption in its marijuana laws.
It should be swiftly exercised, the power to allow
patients with terminal or debilitating conditions
to relieve our suffering.
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It's just a letter from her to explain
who she is and kind of give you guys the idea that
we do have a lot of seriou medical evidence and
scientific evidence, and it's coming, and I'm glad
you guys are reading it because you're probably the
first ones to do it.
Thank you very much for having us
here. Let's go ahead and change this, guys. It
needs to be changed. Probably -- oh, by the 21st
of September or so. How's that? Thank you.
DEBBIE JORGENSON: Do we have
anybody
else wanting to speak at this point that's ready?
Okay. We'll wait.
JIMMY MORRISON: All right.
My name
is Jimmy Morrison, but today will be speaking
here on behalf of Lad Huffman. He's 58 years old
and from Calumet, Iowa, and I'm going to be also
reading his testimony from his perspective.
My name is Lad Huffman, and I'm
actually in support of senate File 293, medical
marijuana legislation. That would vastly improve
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my quality of life.
I'm 58 years old and have spent most
of my life in Iowa. I'm a good citizen. When my
country drafted me into the Vietnam War, I went,
sacrificing two of the 29 years that I could walk
to the jungles of Vietnam.
I was diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis at age 27. MS is a degenerative disease
that causes pain, spasms, paralysis, and weakened
muscles. There is no cure. In fact, there are
very few treatments for the symptoms, which in my
case are particularly devastating.
By the time I was 28, I had to stop
work, and by age 30, I was in a wheelchair. I've
tried several prescription medications, but they
have too many side effects, including weakness,
which I didn't need any more of.
In my first four years after the
diagnosis, I was hospitalized seven times for a
week to ten days each time. Eventually I tried
treating my symptoms with medical marijuana, and it
worked. It kept me out of the hospital, alleviated
my spasms, took the edge off the pain, and improved
bladder control. I also would not get depressed,
and it would relax me.
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I grew my own modest garden, enough so
that I could harvest my medicine twice per year.
But our state's criminal laws have no exception for
people like me. In 1990 a neighbor alerted the
police to my plants. My one and only criminal
conviction is for relieving my symptoms.
I became a criminal for trying to live
with some dignity, for improving my quality of
life, and for treating my symptoms. I didn't end
up in jail. I probably would have spent at least a
night there, but it wasn't accessible at the time.
But the prosecution was devastating nonetheless.
The stress and expense caused by the
ordeal drove my wife and I close to divorce.
Eventually I was convicted and sentenced to a
one-year deferred sentence and two years of
probation.
Using marijuana was no longer an
option, and my quality of life quickly
deteriorated. I became almost completely homebound
as I was no longer able to drive using hand
controls due to my deteriorating condition.
During this ordeal, I even thought
about leaving my home in the state that I love for
a state that was more sympathetic to my medical
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needs. However, I realized that moving was out of
the question because of my fragile health and my
strong ties to Iowa, my house and my friends and my
family.
In the midst of the prosecution, the
federal government briefly gave me help, and just
as swiftly they took it away. Two other Iowans,
Barbara Douglass and George McMahon who is here
today and just spoke, were either already receiving
or in the process of applying to receive free
marijuana from the federal government under its IND
compassionate use program.
My doctor filled out the paperwork,
and they even approved me. After I was approved
but before I received any medicine, the program was
closed to any new patients. Four federal patients
still receive about eight ounces of medical
marijuana per month, but I continue to be forbidden
from relieving my symptoms.
There is a legal medicine that is made
out of one of the 60-plus therapeutic compounds in
marijuana. Marinol is 100 percent pure synthetic
THC, which is incidentally the only psychoactive
compound in marijuana.
Other properties in marijuana moderate
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THC's effects, and Marinol was far too intoxicating
for me. It also took more than an hour to work and
provided incomplete relief.
There is a conflict between my medical
needs and state law. And the Board of Pharmacy and
state legislature has the power to change that.
All I am asking is to be allowed to live with
dignity and less discomfort.
I ask that the legislature and the
governor please allow patients like me to use
marijuana for medical purposes with our doctor's
approval. It is a medicine that has been used for
more than 5,000 years. It has never caused an
overdose death, unlike Oxycontin -- excuse me --
Tylenol, and even water.
As the American Public Health
Association said, marijuana, quote, has an
extremely wide acute margin of safety for use under
medical supervision and cannot cause lethal
reactions, end quote.
Iowa should follow the lead of
13 other states and enact a compassionate use
medical marijuana law. Please take the first step
with me by recognizing the medical value of
marijuana and by supporting Senate File 293,
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medical marijuana legislation sponsored by Senator
Joe Bolkcom. Thank you very much for your help.
I'll give you a copy of this letter as well.
And I also have here a book called
Marijuana, The Forbidden Medicine. It was written
by Lester Grinspocn who is the associate professor
of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and it's
basically a review of scientific evidence, so it
refers to a lot of studies, and hopefully it will
be of benefit to you guys. Thank you very much.
(Short recess.)
TERRY WITKOWSKI: We're ready
for
Speaker No. 2 if he's available. We're ready for
Speaker No.2. Are you ready?
(Off-the-record discussion.)
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you're welcome.
JEFF: Greetings. My name is Jeff.
I
suffer from three different pain situations and a
chronic nausea condition called diabetic
neuropathic gastroparesis, of which marijuana or,
as I call it, cannabis is extremely effective and
safe in controlling chronic nausea, vomiting, and
wasting syndrome.
The archaic, ignorant, and
unjustifiable laws of scheduling of cannabis in the
State of Iowa results in patients being forced to
lie to their personal doctors. In Iowa if you have
a pain issue and you use medical cannabis and your
doctor finds out, I go through a drug screen or
patient honesty. The doctor could lose his DEA
license if he prescribes any controlled substance,
for example, opiate analgesics.
Even a legitimate Marinol prescription
will make some Iowa doctors refuse to prescribe for
these patients for this is exactly what happened to
an Iowa patient who wishes to remain anonymous for
obvious reasons.
Simply because of the stigma and
attention on cannabis -- now marijuana, which is
slang for cannabis -- I don't understand why we
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don't use the proper word -- therefore the
attention -- I'm sorry. Excuse me. The stigma
and attention on marijuana, which is slang for
cannabis. Therefore, if an Iowan chooses to use
medical cannabis, they are putting themselves in a
position of breaking the law and not being able to
be treated by the so-called FDA-approved narcotic
analgesics and DEA-approved doctors. Is this the
way you want the -- I'm sorry. Forget that part.
Now, this is the Iowa Board of
Pharmacy's chance to recommend for Iowans the
safest, most effective medical treatment available.
With cannabis in Schedule I, patients in Iowa are
subject to substandard medical treatment.
Natural, whole plant cannabis has been
proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to have safe and
significant medical efficacy for a myriad of
ailments like chronic nausea relief, restore
appetite, better pain management.
The federal government's position on
cannabis has been proven to be based on pure
propaganda and/or biased, inaccurate science. The
real science is in, and it is accurate. Medical
cannabis has a place in good overall medical
practice.
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Cannabis meanwhile illogically remains
in Schedule I, and patients remain at risk of not
only arrest but substandard medical care forced on
them by their doctors working within the guidelines
so as not to lose their license and possibly serve
jail time also.
To withhold the best medical treatment
for Iowa patients is cruel and inhumane. Is this
how the Iowa Board of Pharmacy wants to be known?
I don't think so. Relegalize cannabis for medical
purposes and remove cannabis from Schedule I,
allowing doctors to give their patients the best
medical treatment available.
Iowa has a reputation of change at a
snail's pace when compared to the rest of the
world. Why don't you, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy,
change that to give Iowans modern state-of-the-art
medical care? So far 13, 14, and counting states
have seen fit to do just that. If Iowa refuses to
join these states, it is clear that our politicians
and policymakers are frightened people running from
the cure. Thank you.
JASON: Hi. My name is Jason.
I
never smoked cannabis throughout high school until
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I was a senior, two months before graduation. Up
to this point I had accomplished a lot, lncluding
varsity band, soccer, and working from the age of
14, all while maintaining a 3.5 G.P.A. I had good
enough grades to land a Principal Financial
scholarship to help with my Iowa State University
tuition.
I first smoked cannabis after the
urging of one of my soccer teammates to write a
paper for my senior English class comparing
cannabis to alcohol's effects and discovered that
apparently, there were very few downsides to using
marijuana as opposed to alcohol.
Soon after, I tried cannabis, which
confirmed my suspicions that I'd been lied to about
the actual effects of the drug. Six months later
when I went to Iowa State University, I found
myself overwhelmed by the freedom I hadn't
experience in high school.
During the first semester I drank
heavily socially, going to frat parties and house
parties every weekend with my friends. After two
months of this lifestyle, I decided I did not want
to continue drinking so heavily. It was having a
negative impact on my life and my grades, and I
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didn't wane to become addicted.
But as a result of my immature
behavior, I did not get very good grades in my
classes this first semester, so going back second
semester, I vowed not to make the same mistake.
Second semester was very hard for me.
I did nothing but work and study. I soon fell into
a deep depression, and my minor anxiety that I had
dealt with since childhood became full-blown panic
attacks on a regular basis. On top of this, my
sister fell into a mental-health crisis.
Due to this, my appetlte was gone, and
I was unable to maintain a normal sleep schedule.
Because of this, I had a hard time concentrating,
and my grades were worse than ever despite not
using any substance whatsoever and never going out
and having any kind of fun.
So in an effort to bring back some
routine and normalcy back to my life, I began
smoking cannabis medically at night, falsely to
stimulate my appetite. I found that my use of this
cannabis on a nightly basis helped regulate my
sleep schedule and enabled me to eat at the same
time. My health went up, and unexpectedly, my
anxiety completely vanished. My grades rose from
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barely C's to A's and B's. I give credit to my
medicinal use of cannabis for saving my second
semester.
Three months later I was arrested
after buying four ounces to use throughout the
summer from my dealer. The day after buying it, he
was busted by the DEA and told them that I had got
four ounces the day before. I was soon to find out
that there were, in fact, negative consequences
from using cannabis. Everything that I
accomplished was about to go out the window.
The subsequent fines, denial of
student loans, jail time, revocation of my driver's
license, and reaction from my community was insane.
I am still dealing with the repercussions of my
personal choice to smoke cannabis and am struggling
to payoff the rest of my fines and get back to
where I was Iowa State. My life, my schooling, and
my financial situation were all impacted negatively
by the situation due to the laws.
Today I'm here to support medical
cannabis for patients and to beg the board to
listen and understand the evidence that is being
presented from here to November.
From my critical analysis, why is
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cannabis illegal at all in the first place? I
cannot understand why there's such resistance to
the medicinal application of this drug despite lack
of evidence as to the consequences of cannabis.
I am dumbfounded as to why patients
that are living with terminal illnesses and chronic
pain must face the same persecution that I myself
have faced from using a drug that is less harmful
than tobacco or alcohol.
If a patient who has suffered from a
car accident says that cannabis better manages
their chronic pain than pharmaceutical drugs, why
are they denied this right to manage their pain how
they see fit? Why should they face the same
consequences that I and many others have? Don't
arrest them for it. They should have the freedom
to manage their pain with their doctor's consent as
they see fit. Only the patient can know whether or
not a treatment is going to work for their specific
pain management.
Thankfully for patients, this is
changing. Thirteen states have approved the
medicinal application of cannabis, and many more
are fighting to do the same.
Part of the reason it has taken so
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long for us to arrive at a point where the Board of
Pharmacy is even open to hearing both sides of the
issue are the laws. Fear keeps people from coming
out and speaking against the wrongdoing of our
current policy.
One of my childhood friends has
recently found thac cannabis is better at treating
his ADHD and anxiety than the Ritalin he's on. He
complains of the withdrawal symptoms of Ritalin and
the way it makes him feel. He wants to get
involved in these hearings but is afraid of
admitting publicly that he smokes cannabis
medicinally. He does not want to end up in the
same position where I am, and so he chooses to stay
hidden in his dorm where it is much safer.
His voice and many others are being
stifled by the threat of prosecution. So for
anyone who is willing to testify here today and at
the other hearings, I guarantee there's five more
with the same opinion and experience who would love
to be out here if not for prosecution.
Another person who has benefited from
cannabis is one of my parents' best friends from
high school. Back in the '90s while undergoing
chemotherapy for cancer treatment, this man was
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wasting away, unable to hold any food down.
When it got so bad that his doctor was
considering discontinuing his chemotherapy and
giving up, my mom asked him about cannabis. The
doctor agreed, and due to the laws, all he could
say was "All I can tell you is that it won't
interfere with his current medication."
As my mom told me when I was a kid,
she bought two joints for her friend, and he was
able to take a couple of tokes at a time, giving
him the ability to hold down food and nourish
himself. He was soon able to continue treatment,
and he beat the disease and is still with us here
today. He would most likely not be here if not for
his breaking of an unjust law.
Now, why is there such resistance to
people like this being allowed to use cannabls with
their physician's approval? There's an obvious
fear that a medical cannabis bill in Iowa would
increase teenage usage. As someone who just
graduated high school recently, I can tell you that
is impossible.
Teen use is not going to be affected
by whether or not terminally ill patients can get
cannabis. Teenagers already have no problem