Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee in a U.S. Senate race in Iowa this year, says it’s time to federally legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.
The candidate, currently a state representative, told voters at an Iowa State University football tailgate that he thinks cannabis’s longtime restrictive Schedule I status is “ridiculous.”
Turek told one man that he liked a cannabis leaf hat he was wearing. That prompted a woman to tell the Senate candidate that he should “fix” federal marijuana laws, adding that she has “so much pain” and “would like to be able to take gummies at night.”
Turek, who was born with spina bifida and is in a wheelchair, said he has “dealt with so many individuals with disabilities” and that cannabis is “one of the few ways that they see relief from their spasms.”
He suggested that marijuana isn’t harmful enough to be prohibited “in the grand scheme of things, when you’re looking at the health implications from tobacco or from alcohol.”
“Or opioids,” the woman voter chimed in. “I do not want to take opioids.”
“Absolutely,” Turek replied. Policymakers will “always reach out for Big Pharma,” he said, but not for “anything natural.”
“I would love to be able to address that federal level,” the candidate said. “I think it should be legalized and regulated, and let’s tax it. You’ve seen it with other states.”
In 2023, Turek cosponsored a bill in the Iowa House of Representatives to legalize adult-use marijuana and expand the state’s current medical cannabis program by allowing doctors to recommend it for any medical condition they see fit.
Turek’s opponent for the Senate seat, U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R), voted against a bill to federally legalize marijuana on the House floor in 2022. She did, however, support separate legislation in 2021 to ease the cannabis industry’s access to banking services.
Meanwhile in Iowa, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand recently explained why he thinks marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol, even if he thinks it’s “dangerous.”
“Marijuana is a dangerous drug,” he said. “You shouldn’t abuse it, but we also shouldn’t throw people in prison just for using it. We should treat it the way we treat alcohol. Alcohol is a dangerous drug. You shouldn’t abuse it, but we don’t throw you in prison just for having a beer when you get home.”
Separately, Iowa regulators are circulating proposed rules changes to remove the residency requirement for patients in the state’s medical cannabis program while also ensuring that military veterans qualify for reduced registration fees.
The residency-focused part of the regulatory change from the state Department of Health and Human Services is meant to comply with provisions of a bill that Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed into law in June.
In addition to allowing out-of-state residents to register in the medical cannabis program if they have a certification from an Iowa healthcare provider legislation, that legislation also doubles the number of medical cannabis dispensaries that are allowed to operate in the state.
Also this session, Iowa lawmakers considered a bill to create a state-regulated therapeutic psilocybin program for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Last year, the governor vetoed earlier legislation that would have allowed doctors in the state to immediately prescribe a synthetic form of psilocybin in the event of federal approval of the psychedelic substance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arguing that it “surrenders state authority to make an informed determination about classification to federal officials.”
