Letter to the Editor

Reader supports medical cannabis bill
Letter to the editor:
 
     Time is running out. Relief will probably be delayed another year for Iowans suffering the symptoms of dire medical conditions such as cancer, HIV—AIDS, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, intractable chronic pain, PTSD, TBI, ALS, arthritis, fibromyalgia, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and others.
     We want to know why:
     • The Iowa Legislature refuses to do the will of the 76 percent to 80 percent of Iowans who want safe medical cannabis to be available to its suffering people.
     • One-sixth of Iowa’s three million people are denied the same medicine they could have if they lived in one of 23 states.
     • We don’t deserve to have the treatment that 66 percent of Americans can have.
     • The legislative concern is more about those who would illegally use a substance that is already widely, if illegally, available. Why are abusers more important than those whose suffering could be treated?
     • The Iowa legislators refuse to look at successful models in other states, taking the best ideas and implementing them here.
     • Iowa elected officials presume to know which conditions are appropriately treated with cannabis and which are not. Why do they “play doctor” when in states like New Mexico there is a medical advisory board that accepts that responsibility?
     We want to know why Iowa legislators are preparing a resolution to the FDA that will result in nothing happening. When was the last time the federal government took action on an item because the state of Iowa passed a resolution encouraging them to do something? The 12th of Never? Twenty-three states have passed bills and the feds aren’t going to magically move now that the gods from Iowa have weighed in and asked them “pretty please?”
     Iowa legislators can reschedule cannabis in Iowa. We need them to do that. If you are among the 76 percent of Iowans who support the medical cannabis bill, please call, email or write your state legislator.
 
Kathy Schnell
Belmond