State Board Warns: Iowa Cannabis Users Break Federal Law
Iowa’s medical cannabis program authorizes patient use at the state level but remains at odds with federal laws.
Despite state authorization, Iowa’s medical cannabis program remains illegal under federal law, leading to ongoing legal risk and public safety implications — and lawmakers still haven’t acted on repeated board recommendations to fix it.
Iowa’s own Medical Cannabidiol Board has repeatedly warned that the state’s medical cannabis program directly conflicts with federal drug law, creating legal uncertainty and potential public safety risks. Despite those formal warnings, Iowa lawmakers have taken no action to resolve the conflict, leaving patients, providers, and federally funded institutions exposed to possible federal enforcement and regulatory consequences.
Advocate Carl Olsen recently highlighted the issue again on his website, pointing to formal recommendations from the board that date back to 2019.
The problem centers on a basic legal reality: cannabis remains illegal under federal law, and Iowa has never sought the federal waiver that could protect its program.
Federal Law vs. State Policy
Federal law already provides a mechanism to address this conflict.
Here is the statute Olsen cites:
21 U.S.C. § 822(d):
(d) Waiver
The Attorney General may, by regulation, waive the requirement for registration of certain manufacturers, distributors, or dispensers if he finds it consistent with the public health and safety.
That provision allows states to request an exemption from certain federal drug-law requirements so medical cannabis programs can operate without placing patients, providers, and institutions in legal jeopardy.
Iowa has never pursued that option.
Official Board Recommendations: A Standing Recommendation Since 2019
The Medical Cannabidiol Board has not been silent on the issue. In fact, it has formally recommended pursuing a federal exemption multiple times.
From the December 31, 2024 Annual Report, Recommendation #8:
8. Seek a Federal Exemption for Iowa’s program
The Board recommends that a task force of legal experts be authorized, similar to the current board of medical experts, to assist the department in navigating the legal issues involved with requesting an exemption for Iowa’s program from necessary Federal agencies. This is related to a recommendation in the Board’s 2019 Annual Reportand the passage of HF2589 in June, 2020.
This language echoes an almost identical recommendation made five years earlier.
From the January 1, 2020 Annual Report, Recommendation #6:
6. Develop Language to Protect Schools, and Long-Term and Acute Care Facilities
Facilities that receive federal funding are hesitant to allow medical cannabidiol products to be administered and stored at the facilities due to the current scheduling of Cannabis at the federal level. There are Iowa patients within these facilities who are unable to store their medication at the facility, or have their medication administered by facility staff, because of concerns about adverse consequences for the facilities. Developing language to protect these facilities or seeking exemption for Iowa’s program from federal drug laws would benefit patients and facilities.
The concern is straightforward: hospitals, nursing homes, and schools that rely on federal funding remain wary of allowing medical cannabis on their premises because it could be interpreted as participation in federally prohibited activity.
No Legislative Response
Despite these repeated recommendations, no bill has been introduced in the 2026 Iowa Legislature to create a process for seeking a federal exemption.
Olsen summarized the issue bluntly:
“Why hasn’t anyone introduced a bill to implement this recommendation? What reason could there possibly be for authorizing federal crime and putting the public at risk?”
That question remains unanswered.
Iowa’s medical cannabidiol program continues to operate under state law, but without any formal federal protection. Patients are authorized to possess and use medical cannabis under Iowa statutes, yet the underlying federal conflict remains unresolved.
Legislative Inaction
Senate File 69 (2023)
In the 2023 session, Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee chair Brad Zaun introduced Senate File 69, which was based on the Medical Cannabidiol Board’s long-standing recommendation that the state pursue legal harmonization with federal law. A subcommittee advanced the bill. However, the full committee vote was ultimately withdrawn the same day, apparently in response to media coverage and controversy, meaning the measure did not progress further.
✔ Earlier Legislative Attempts (2019–2020)
Before that, back in 2019, the Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee — with support from both Sen. Brad Zaun (R) and Sen. Rich Taylor (D) — included language in a medical cannabis bill that would have stated “notwithstanding any federal regulation to the contrary, the use of medical cannabidiol pursuant to this chapter is not subject to federal regulation.” That was part of an amendment in Senate File 501. However, the House passed a different bill and the exemption language was not adopted in the final law.
Here’s a deep dive into the legislative history of federal exemption at the statehouse for serious policy makers: https://iowamedicalmarijuana.org/iowa/legislation2023/?
Practical Consequences
The legal uncertainty has real-world effects.
Facilities that depend on federal funding — including long-term care centers and hospitals — often refuse to store or administer medical cannabis products, even to patients who are legally authorized to use them under Iowa law.
Board members have repeatedly identified this as a barrier to patient access. Their proposed solution has been consistent: seek a federal exemption that would remove the conflict.
So far, the Legislature has not acted on that advice.
Consequences for Patients & Institutions
One real-world consequence of this state–federal conflict is already visible in other states. In 2020, the federal government withheld approximately $3.3 million in mental health grants from Maine school districts because the state’s medical marijuana law requires schools to permit students with medical cannabis certification to use their medication on campus — a policy federal agencies said made the schools ineligible for certain federal funding programs focused on student wellness and substance use prevention. This decision forced school administrators to choose between complying with state medical cannabis requirements and maintaining critical federal support for mental health services for young people, underscoring the broader risk that unresolved federal illegality poses to public health and safety when it intersects with essential community services.
Consequences Beyond Paper
An earlier WeedPress investigation illustrates how unresolved legal conflicts over cannabis law can have deep personal consequences for Iowans. In 2020, internal emails from the Iowa Department of Human Services revealed that the agency was treating possession of non-dispensary CBD — illegal under Iowa law because it remained classified as a controlled substance in Iowa at the time — as a ground for child abuse investigations, and that Iowa Code allows for the removal of children with judicial approval in such cases. This episode underscores how the gap between state medical cannabis policy and federal drug law doesn’t just create regulatory uncertainty — it can ripple into family law and child welfare decisions, potentially penalizing parents for seeking relief or using products that are legal elsewhere in the country. Weedpress reported on this story after a DHS whistleblower reached out to expose these internal emails.
The 2020 DHS emails reported by WeedPress demonstrated how mismatches between state and federal cannabis rules create confusion and real-world harm. Although hemp-derived CBD had been federally legal since 2018, Iowa law at the time treated many non-dispensary CBD products as illegal, leading DHS to consider their use in child welfare investigations. The episode showed how conflicting layers of cannabis regulation — even when federal law is more permissive — can expose Iowa families to severe consequences.
Pregnant Iowan Using CBD
Another example of how conflicting cannabis laws have real-world impacts in Iowa involves a reported 2020 case in which Iowa’s Department of Human Services (DHS) targeted a pregnant woman for failing a drug test after using CBD products, according to reporting by WeedPress. Although most CBD products were federally legal hemp derivatives by that time, Iowa law continued to treat many forms of CBD as illegal marijuana absent specific registration, leading DHS to treat the positive test as a substance use concern with implications for the woman’s parental rights and welfare case. This incident — where a mother’s use of CBD became entangled with child welfare enforcement — highlights how unresolved legal ambiguity between federal classification, state program limits, and agency action can have profound consequences for families caught in the middle of the policy gap.
An Unaddressed Legal Gap
State authorization of medical cannabis does not automatically resolve federal law.
Iowa’s own advisory board has outlined a path forward. Federal law appears to allow it. Legislative bills prove action needs to be implemented. Complacency leaves investing in the cannabis industry too risky for big institutional money. Yet Iowa’s agency approved recommendation remains unimplemented.
Until lawmakers act, Iowa patients remain caught between state permission and federal prohibition, with no clear legal protection. Patients, health-care providers, schools, and long-term care facilities are left to navigate a legal gray area that could jeopardize federal funding, professional licenses, and institutional compliance. The path to resolve the problem has been clearly identified for years. What remains unanswered is why Iowa officials continue to ignore it.
Source: Carl Olsen, Medical Cannabidiol Board Recommendations 2025
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 
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