Iowa Bill Seeks to Allow ‘Vaporizable’ Cannabis to State-Approved Products List

A bill to allow vaporized cannabis methods under Iowa’s medical cannabis program advanced out of a House subcommittee on Monday, the Des Moines Register reports. If passed, “vaporizable dried raw cannabis” would be added to the products available to the state’s medical cannabis patients.

Following the subcommittee meeting, Rep. Hans Wilz (R), the bill sponsor, told the Register that he wants to keep the proposal “as narrow in scope as possible” noting that “alternative things” discussed by the subcommittee “sit in a different place in legislation.”

Iowa’s medical cannabis program is among the most limited in the country and currently only allows tablets, capsules, liquids, tinctures, topicals like gels, ointments, creams, lotions, patches, and nebulizable and inhaled or vaporizable products, and suppositories.

Lucas Nelson, president of MedPharm Iowa, which owns and operates Bud & Mary’s Cannabis in the state – one of just two state-licensed medical cannabis manufacturers in Iowa – said that if the bill passes the company would commit to lowering costs for patients up to an estimated 50%.

“This lowering of the costs obviously matters for people. There’s a patient who visits us from just outside of Ottumwa. She suffers from chronic pain, like you mentioned, she can’t use insurance because insurance doesn’t cover medical cannabis, and hers, specifically, she uses these products to be present for her grandkids.” — Nelson via the Register

The number of medical cannabis patients fell slightly from 18,230 in 2023 to under 18,000 by the end of last year, according to the Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board’s 2024 report.

Another piece of legislation – Senate File 46 –  passed a subcommittee last week. That bill aims to increase the number of dispensary licenses from five to 10.