[TRANSCRIPT] Advocate Lucas Nelson Answers Questions: Gun Rights, How To Add New Conditions, Vaporization Products, More, At Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us.

My name is Lucas Nelson. I’m the General Manager for MedPharm Iowa.

We’re here today at our Windsor Heights dispensary. I wanna talk about a number of different things, from current legislation to a number of questions we’ve gotten. Really want to thank, the, Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana for letting us come onto the feed today and reach your audience and talk with everyone out there about what we’re trying to do.

So happy to have you check out a little bit, right behind us here, at our dispensary. If you haven’t been, always welcome to come by, check it out, ask our staff questions. They love talking to people from Iowa and help share information about this, this amazing program.

So we’ll come right over here to the side of our dispensary and chat a little more about why we’re here today: House File 732.

As many of you probably know, there is a bill that the Governor has sitting on her desk right now called House File 732. It’s going to make a number of big important changes for our medical cannabis program here.

So, I wanna start with exactly what does it do.

A couple main big important things. But first, and the most important, is that it replaces the 3% formulation cap with a THC gram purchase limit of 25 grams over 90 days.

So what does that mean exactly? Right now, all of our products are limited to 3% THC within those products. So for those of you who have bought our tinctures before, or seen them, what that means is only 3% of that tincture bottle can be THC. Those of you who are suffering from pain, or from cancer, or from a number of other conditions know, that THC can be very very important in helping eliminate some of that suffering and hopefully improving some of those conditions that the patients are suffering from.

With it being so limited that means people are really having to buy more and consume more to get to those doses that they need. With this cap out of the way, we won’t to worry about that and instead it will limit people on how much THC they can buy over that 90 day period. A much better way to do it. It’s the way a lot of other states do it. Importantly, another big note is that with 3% cap removed, we’ll be able to formulate a lot of different vaporization products. Those of you who are suffering from GI issues or who have very onset — quick pain, know that, that can really be tough to deal with. And so I think those vaporization products will really offer a lot of benefit, that right now is going to be tough to do, but with this cap removed, we’ll be able to.

So that’s a really big important change. The second big important change in House File 732 does, is allows physicians assistants and nurse practitioners to certify conditions. Those of you that are maybe in rural communities, or those of you that have struggled to find a doctor, this gives you other providers, other options, who may be able to certify your condition. Again, a really really important, especially in those rural areas so, we really think this will expand access to the program.

And the last thing we’ll mention, we’re here at the Windsor Heights dispensary, again, talking about what’s happening with House File 732, sitting on the Governor’s desk. Very very excited about having her sign that bill and really make a lot of improvements. We’ve mentioned the 3% cap, removing that and replacing it with the gram purchase, mentioned the new providers that would be able to certify. One of the other big changes, other big change is, reforming the pain definition. Right now it’s untreatable pain. It’s got a tough definition to understand, it’s one that I struggle with, I know that a lot of you have struggled with, that your doctors have struggled with. It eliminates that, and instead, changes it to severe or chronic pain. Again, much easier for the medical community to understand. Hopefully it will allow a lot of access into the program for those folks who may not have been able to at this point. So it does a lot of great things, there’s a couple of other things that it does that will be important, but those are some of the real main ones.

So, how can you help? How can you help make sure that the Governor knows how important this is and ultimately signs that bill. Number of different ways to get involved. Right now we’ve got a petition, there’s a link available on our website, there’s a link available on our social media on Facebook. You can find that there and join the more than 1,000 Iowans who have signed onto that petition already. We’re trying to get that number high. If you feel that this is going to benefit you, a family member, or a friend, just know that you support that medical cannabis expansion here, and improvement to the program, then we’d certainly ask you to sign that petition and add your name to it if you haven’t already.

One of the other big things we’re doing is asking people to help spread this story, help share their story about how this has helped their life. How this has improved the life of a family member. Do that by getting on social media and tweeting at the Governor, or tagging her in a post. Make your own post, make your own video and say hey, this is how it’s helped me, this is why I want to see this program expand. Maybe I’m not able to get in the program right now but I want to, I know this could be an option for me. So please Governor Reynolds we are encouraging you to sign that bill. Simple message like that will go a long long way.

You can also call the Governor’s office. That number is available on our social media website. It’s also available on the the Iowa Legislature’s website, you can find it out there. Call, register your opinion that way as well.

Again, very very important that we’re making sure that Governor Reynolds knows that this is a great bill sent down by the Legislature, that it’s a great bill that we all support and hope will be signed. If you’re sharing anything or on social media we’re asking everyone to use the hashtag #Sign732, hashtag Sign 732, so add that to your post, and hopefully you will be able to see a number of other posts from people who have made one already. So, really thank everyone who has been out there participating, signing the petition, sharing your story. We’ve got a couple weeks left here so let’s make this last final push and hopefully we’ll be there.

We did have a great question from Christina about exactly where we’re at. So as many of you know, the Iowa Legislature, made up of the House and the Senate, they’re responsible for negotiating and drafting and ultimately passing bills through each body. So in this particular instance, the House passed this bill, 732, went over to the Senate, Senate passed the exact same bill, which means that that bill now goes to the Governor’s desk. Since it happened at the end of session she has up to 30 days to sign it. So right now we’ve got about two weeks left before that time would, would elapse. Hopefully she’ll put her signature on it, we’re feeling quite confident that if she hears from patients, she hears from family members — she hears from Iowans — who would benefit from this or who have benefit or are benefiting, that she’ll really understand why it’s so important and that she’ll ultimately put her signature on that bill. So we still got some work left to do. That’s why we’re asking everyone to reach out, share your stories, sign that petition, tag the Governor, make sure she’s aware of how great this program is and how great it can be with some of these fixes.

Again here at the Windsor Heights dispensary. Thank you everyone for joining us. Another shoutout to Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana. Really appreciate you letting us come onto your social media today and letting us talk a little bit about the House File 732 and get some of that outreach we’re trying to get. My name’s Lucas Nelson, General Manager of MedPharm Iowa. Again, like we mentioned at the beginning. If you want to stop by the dispensary here in Windsor Heights, please do. Come check it out. Come meet the staff, ask them any sorts of questions. We love talking to all of you guys who have stopped by so far.

Got a couple questions I wanted to address too. David asked when will there be, or are there plans to have discussions on gun rights, and that as a veteran with PTSD, certainly wanting to get into the medical cannabis program but also had some questions about gun ownership. David, thanks for the question. So it’s a little bit of a grey area. As you know and as others may know, this whole cannabis space is a little confusing. What we do know is that you can certainly continue to own the guns that you have even if you do enter this program. Where you might have an issue or where you have to be a little bit more careful is as you’re looking to get a new concealed carry permit for instance. There can be some questions there about are you in a program or do you consume medical cannabis. Of course we always recommend answering those honestly. And then we’ve seen a little bit of question about what would happen in that situation. Would you be able to get your permit if you’re already in the program. But for those if you already own guns, it sounds like David, you’re already owning those perfectly legally, then you’re more than welcome to enter this program here. And feel free of course to reach out to our dispensary staff we can always talk with you a little bit more in depth about that one.

We got another question from Karissa who asked what is the highest legal dosage? So we got a lot of confusion I think between what’s the 3% cap mean, what’s this gram purchase limit mean? How do those two work together? All of that is actually a little bit separate from what is my dose. So, right now, your dose is your dose. That can go wherever it needs to be, whether that’s 5 mg, 10 mg, or whether that’s 150 mg. We sort of try to make sure that every person, we know every patient is different, we know that this works a little bit differently for everyone, so doses are going to vary a little bit. Right now, whatever your dose is, you can get. And we’ll work with you to get there. With this new bill in place, you’ll still be able to get to those doses, it’s actually going to be a little bit easier. You’ll have more options to get that dose. So whatever that may be, again, whether it’s 5 or 10 milligrams that you’re taking every day, whether it’s 20 or 50 or 100, you’ll be able to get there. What this law will do is really make it easier, cheaper and give you some more forms to access that dose.

Thanks for the question Karissa. Michelle asks are there ever going to be more dispensaries added. She notes that she lives far away from one, a couple hours, and that it can be not very convenient. We certainly understand that, I appreciate you even making the journey that you have so far. Right now we’re limited to those five, that’s right there in the statute. There were some bills out there during the legislative session that would have added. None of them made it as far as this House File has. I think it will be something that comes up next year for sure. And again, it’s sort of the same idea here. We’re asking people if they support House File 732 to reach out to the Governor. If you want to see more dispensaries added, reach out to your legislators, reach out to your Senators, and your House members, and say, hey, this is too far for me to travel, this is tough. And we know it can be. Don’t forget too if you’re having trouble, there is a primary caregiver option, if you have someone who may be able, who can travel a little bit easier than you, that primary care giver can get certified, sign up, purchase products, transport it back, and even help administer it as well. So if you’ve got more questions about primary care givers, please reach out, look on our website, the Department of Public Health website, and of course we’re always happy to answer questions about that as well.

Again, we agree Michelle, it’s a problem right now for a lot of Iowans who live far away from a dispensary.

Carrie had a question about some of the conditions she has and saying what are the limits this year and is it worth it to go for a card. You know Carrie, what we tell everyone is that we don’t know for certain whether or not this will work but it certainly is a great option for a lot of people. Again, that’s why everyone’s a little bit different, that’s why all those doses are a little bit different. We’ve seen some great success stories. We’ve seen people who have stopped seizures almost entirely. We’ve seen people who have been able to get back to work. We’ve seen people who have been able to decrease or even stop their opioid use. So it really does make a big difference for a lot of Iowans and hopefully it would for you. That’s why it’s so important to spend some time with our dispensary staff when you do get that card and we’ll help lock in that dose. We’ll help make product recommendations, help find what’s going to work for you. And it can be a little bit of a process to help find what’s going to work right and how it best suits your life but that’s something that we’re more than happy to do and continue to work with you on and all of our patients, very very important so we’re a little biased but yes, we think it’s absolutely worth it to go get that card and find some relief from a lot of the conditions you’re suffering from.

We got a bunch of different questions about how are new conditions are added. So wanted to run through just real quick for everyone and again, thanks for joining us, thank you to Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana, letting us hop on their Facebook and talk here from our dispensary in Windsor Heights. New conditions are added obviously by the Legislature, that’s one way, but there’s another way too. There’s a petition process. And so anyone, you, me, anyone across the state, can offer a petition for a new condition. And we already had that done with autism, we already had that done with ulcerative colitis. There will be another one coming here soon. What that process involves is filling out a form that’s on the public health website, offering some of the evidence that’s out there, some of the stories about how people can be helped, and then submitting that to the advisory board at their quarterly meetings. They’ll then review it, they’ll debate it, and then ultimately vote on it and decide if it should become a new condition or not. So, if that is something that interests you, again, we’re always happy to help put that together. You actually have the opportunity too to go in front of the advisory board and speak about it, share your story about why this condition is important to be added. So, really really nice to have that option available, and we recommend and encourage anyone who may want to see a condition added to take that opportunity and do it that way.

And then the last question we had, and we’re happy to jump on and maybe answer anything else that we see, is that when is vape coming? So, had a little bit of back and forth with the Department of Public Health and the testing lab on how these things would be tested. These things have gotten worked out, and so we have some initial tests worked out right now. We’re also waiting to see what the Governor does. Obviously that will change the types of formulations we may be able to make. We’re expecting the vape here will be available within the next month or so. It’s been a little bit of a tough rollout, but we’ll get it right once everyone is, kind of, sets the parameters for what we can do, and make that option available. So coming very soon, looking forward to having that available to everyone who may benefit from it.

Once again, just thank you all so much for paying attention, for tuning in. Thank you to Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana for letting me hop on and chat with you all today and we’ll close today by saying thanks. And please support House File 732. Reach out to the Governor, have that petition signed, let her know, share your story, and we’ll be back with you again soon.