Kathie Obradovich (Photo: The Register )



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eporters asked legislative leaders back in January, a week before the start of the Legislature’s 2014 session, about the potential for action dealing with medical marijuana and polygamy.


At the time, the prospects for legislation on either issue seemed equally outlandish. Nobody wanted to touch polygamy, which had come up in a federal court case in Utah. There was also bipartisan discomfort about medical pot. “I think there will be zero chance of recreational marijuana. … And I think medical marijuana is a long shot, too,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal said.


Senate Minority Leader Bill Dix, a Republican, said legislators needed to keep gathering information. Usually the unspoken coda to a sentence like that is “instead of doing anything.”


Last week, however, there seemed to be a sizable shift in rhetoric from legislative leaders. Gronstal, on Thursday, said he believes the issue is gaining “traction” among legislators.


He pointed to the advocacy of a group of a mothers who came to the Capitol last week. They pleaded for the chance to use medical cannabis to treat young children with epilepsy instead of conventional drugs that can involve harmful side effects. Medical cannabis is now available in pills, creams and vapors without the chemical compound that makes marijuana a popular — and still illegal — recreational drug.


The mothers and children under 10, some who suffer hundreds of seizures a day, have become the “face of the issue,” Gronstal said. “I held one of the babies on the Senate floor, and that kind of brings it into perspective.”


In the Republican-controlled House, leaders agreed the ice had thawed on this issue. House Speaker Kraig Paulsen said the conversation had clearly changed. Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer wouldn’t predict what could be accomplished this year, but she said legislators are becoming more educated on the topic.


Medical cannabis is not entirely a partisan issue, but Republicans have been less supportive in general. The Register’s Iowa Poll published in February showed 59 percent of Iowans backed legalizing the drug for medical purposes but only 46 percent of Republicans. Another poll just a few weeks later, by Quinnipiac University, found much higher support for medical cannabis among Iowans and even from a majority of Republicans.


In one of his last acts as chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, A.J. Spiker wrote an essay in last Sunday’s Register calling on Republicans to reconsider their opposition to medical marijuana. The piece prompted one state central committee member, Jamie Johnson, to call for the committee to fire Spiker before his resignation takes effect. Johnson’s been a longtime critic of the GOP chairman, however, and Spiker says he’s received largely positive reaction otherwise.


State Sen. Brad Zaun of Urbandale, who is running in a competitive, six-way primary for Congress in the 3rd District, signed on to a Senate resolution calling for a study of legalizing medical cannabis for epilepsy sufferers. He’s been part of a small group meeting behind closed doors on the issue since late last year.


“I’m keeping an open mind about medical cannabis with very strict guidelines for distribution,” Zaun said. He said he wouldn’t support legislation similar to the permissive medical marijuana distribution in California or recreational use like in Colorado.


I wondered if he was courting the libertarian wing of the GOP, which tends to support legalization of marijuana and other drugs. That’s not it, Zaun said. He said he’d also heard from parents of children with epilepsy, including West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer, a Republican. “I cannot make decisions based on being re-elected, or elected,” Zaun said.


However, Zaun said he puts the chances for legislation this year at “slim to nothing,” because of continued opposition from Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. The governor has said he’s sympathetic to people with chronic illnesses, but he fears medical cannabis will be too easily abused. He’s also said he doesn’t think there’s enough time left in the session for the Legislature to reach consensus.


Judging from the speed with which the issue has gained momentum, a narrow bill actually could pass this year. That is, unless Republicans decide they don’t want to put Branstad in the position of possibly vetoing a bill with widespread public support in an election year.


If you’d told me three months ago that medical marijuana could be a live round in the Legislature this year, I’d have asked what you were smoking. Now, it appears this will be a serious issue in the gubernatorial campaign if nothing is done this year.


There’s been no action on polygamy, by the way. I’d make a prediction that won’t change — but I don’t want to be married to it.


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