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Kathie Obradovich | Des Moines RegisterUpdated 15 hours ago

Have suffering Iowans gained anything?

Two state senators, one Republican and one Democratic: One voted in favor of the medical cannabis bill that passed in the final hours of the legislative session, one voted against it. Both are unhappy.

In a legislative session that tended to defy prediction, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that medical marijuana was the issue that kept lawmakers up all night as they tried to adjourn. It created odd, bipartisan political alliances as well as conflicts among lawmakers who support medical marijuana.

Illustration depicting medical marijuana.

Mark Marturello/The Register

Two of those lawmakers are Sen. Tom Greene of Burlington and Sen. Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City. Both voted in favor of the Senate’s proposal to significantly expand Iowa’s medical cannabis law. The Senate bill, which passed 45-5, would have allowed the production and distribution of medical marijuana in Iowa for more than 20 diseases or conditions.

Greene, a pharmacist and a Republican, also voted in favor of the whittled-down House version that passed the Legislature in the final hours of the session. Bolkcom, a Democrat, voted against the House bill and has called it the worst medical cannabis law in the country.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City

Associated Press

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Bolkcom said the “reefer madness” panic among House Republican and their insistence that no one should get “high” will deprive many Iowans of needed relief from illness and pain.

“It’s kind of like, you can have a baby aspirin for that, you know it won’t work, but that’s what we’re going to allow you to have,” Bolkcom said Wednesday.