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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — While Iowa lawmakers continue their debate on whether to make medical marijuana sales legal, families are quietly buying cannabis extract from at least two out-of-state companies.
The Des Moines Register (http://dmreg.co/1Tqbr1F ) reports that law enforcement agencies are aware of the shipments and haven't prevented them, even though their legality is debatable.
A Colorado organization has sent a total of 52 shipments of its cannabis oil through FedEx to more than two dozen Iowa residents. A California company is also shipping such oil to Iowa residents through UPS Inc., but it wouldn't say how many customers it has in the state.
The distributors say their oil isn't technically marijuana because it contains nearly none of the chemical that makes recreational users high. Federal officials disagree but haven't punished people involved in the sales.
Davenport residents Felicia and Mike Haakenson are among those who have purchased the oil in this way. They give it to their 4-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, who has epilepsy. They say the cannabis oil they've shipped in from the California company has helped her seizures, physical movements and speech.
Mike Haakenson said the couple asked legislators, the attorney general's office and the state health department if the was legal to ship the oil in from out of state, but they never received a clear answer.
Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, said last week that his office isn't in a position to advise Iowa residents on the matter.
"No one's making a ruling on it," Mike Haakenson said. "They don't want to deal with it."
Mike Haakenson said he doesn't expect to be arrested because such a move would reflect poorly on authorities. But he still wishes federal and state laws more clearly gave people the right to medical marijuana.
The Legislature passed a law in 2014 that allows people with severe epilepsy to possess cannabis oil but doesn't include a legal way for Iowa residents to distribute or produce the extract.
The Haakensons were denied a permit to possess the oil for Kaitlyn because her neurologist is in Minnesota.
"If you don't have an Iowa neurologist who supports it, you're pretty much out of luck," Felicia Haakenson said.
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Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com
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