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Category: News
News from the Hill…
There has been lots of progress this week, with several long nights of debate. Monday and Tuesday night went right up to the midnight hour. That makes very long days and wears on the body, mind and soul. Not a good mixture for making decisions. By the end of this week all of the budgets will have passed both chambers. This is a good sign as only a few will be going to conference committee. People are extremely optimistic in adjourning sine die by mid to late week. This would be the first time in six years that we would be done before May 1.
Medical Marijuana…
People have a wide range in beliefs in uses and benefits for Medical Marijuana and/or Medical Cannabidiol. The range goes from full blown legalization like Colorado to no legalization at all. In 2014 the State of Iowa decriminalized the possession of cannabidiol oil for very limited uses; however it is still a Federal Crime. This unfortunately started the process to more expansive uses down the road. Just two years later supporters are back and trying to expand Iowa’s current law. The Iowa Legislature does not approve drugs, the FDA does. This process while not perfect has served this country well and consumer safety is extremely important.
There are unintended consequences of legislating the manufacturing of “someone’s” idea of the proper amount of CBD and THC for medicine. The current Iowa Cannabidiol Act may be allowing for too much THC already and in time, may have more negative consequences for these children. Most likely, by next year, the CBD Oil, Epidiolex, being studied by Dr. Joshi at the University of Iowa and at 50 other sites across the nation, will be available at our local pharmacies across the nation legally. Epidiolex has little to no THC. But the most important part is that it has went through the double blind clinical studies to ensure it will do more good than harm. It will be what they call, pharmaceutical grade.
If we, the State Legislature, open this can of worms and start manufacturing, we won’t have what we start with for long. What we have has not been studied as all other legal medicines in Iowa have been. Soon after, there will be financial and emotional pressure to add more THC for more and more conditions.
There are pharmaceutical grade drugs being studied in the normal process with more THC, like Sativex for MS Spasticity is in Phase II of double blind clinical trials right now. It did no better than the placebo in Phase III trials for Cancer pain so they sent it back to be studied for MS. This is the important lesson here. These decisions need to be made by the best researchers in the country. Not state legislators. Even the stricter “medical” programs that have started in some states recently are getting more and more pressure to expand and a lot of the pressure is coming from those who want to make money and those who think marijuana is the cure for everything. All of this is at the expense of the young people who become addicted, lose IQ points, acquire major mental health problems, and experience more adverse consequences of using THC. Let’s don’t lose what is good in Iowa when it is so unnecessary. The connection is very clear to those in substance abuse treatment and prevention. If more people had this information, they would think twice about starting what seems harmless and only helpful right now.
“Important principles may, and must be inflexible” – Abraham Lincoln
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
To make earth cleaner, greener and safer, which energy sources should humanity rely on? Alex Epstein of the Center for Industrial Progress explains how modern societies have cleaned up our water, air and streets using the very energy sources you may not have expected–oil, coal and natural gas.
Climate change is an urgent topic of discussion among politicians, journalists and celebrities…but what do scientists say about climate change? Does the data validate those who say humans are causing the earth to catastrophically warm? Richard Lindzen, an MIT atmospheric physicist and one of the world’s leading climatologists, summarizes the science behind climate change.
News from the Hill…
There seems to be a move to adjournment next week. Farmers are getting anxious to plant their crop, people who take time off from work are needing to get back to work and everyone is ready to move back home. Those with young families want and need their dads/moms back home. Serving in the Legislature has been a great honor and one I have truly enjoyed. But few understand the sacrifices that are made by families as well as those serving. I can’t imagine what it must have been like a hundred years ago when legislators traveled to Des Moines, by horse and buggy or train.
Mental Health Funding…
A few years ago to address some of the mandates coming down from the Federal Government, the State told the Counties they needed to look at more of a regionalism for Mental Health. While some of us may be old enough to remember the old County Home system over time the Federal government has been moving from an institutional care into more of a community care. Regardless of whether that is the right direction to move or not, states and Counties are forced to look for better ways to deliver the services. The system would need to be able to fund as well as sustain the services for an acceptable level of care. But transition is always hard, we humans resist change. However, most would agree that the counties moving to a more region service care from the each county on its own method has been a good move. The county organizations working with other counties in their region are finding efficiencies and still delivering a good level of care. But the funding mechanism of the old system, property taxes, remains to be the only funding source. The total dollar amount that can come from property taxes from each county was capped several years ago. Some counties have grown a great deal in population and others have not may. In fact, some have even decreased in total population. This is upsetting some of the smaller counties inside the region within a larger populated area. So they came to the legislature with their solution, let us raise the property taxes. This is one of my biggest frustrations with too many elected officials. Simply telling tax payers that they need to pay more is not a solution. Raising people’s taxes is merely an action, not a solution to the problem. The odds of an acceptable solution coming forward in the last week of session are slim. Finding a long term sustainable solution moving forward will require a cross section of people working together outside the capitol to come up with several different ideas. That is how the regionalism concept came together. The long-term funding mechanism will be found the same way.
Water Quality…
The bill that sets up additional funding to improve the water quality in Iowa passed the Iowa House this past Monday with 65 voting aye, 33 voting no and 2 absent or not voting. This bill, HF 2451, appropriates an additional 2 million dollars from the general fund and 5 million from the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund (RIIF) which is gaming dollars. This is in addition to the 26.63 million that is already setup to appropriate in fiscal 2017. This amount is accomplished without raising taxes and would not include the Federal dollars or the private dollars that are spent each year on water quality. We started this bill in the Ways and Means Committee; it then went to the Appropriations Committee before it was debated on the House floor. I voted for this bill, but it needs a better dedicated funding source for the future. The money in the RIIF account is needed for vertical infrastructure needs in the State.
“The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination” – Ronald Reagan
For more information on these and other bills: www.legis.iowa.gov
Until next time,
Tom Sands
This weekend’s Legislative Forum:
Saturday, April 16th
9:15-11:00 am Burlington Public Library, Burlington, IA
Is it true that 1 in 5 women are raped on America’s college campuses? If so, what does that say about our universities and the people who run them? If not, how did that statistic get into the mainstream? Caroline Kitchens, Senior Research Associate at the American Enterprise Institute, looks at the data and explains the very significant results.