One of State Representative Jarad Klein’s (R) legislative creations two years ago was legalizing cannabis oil to be used to treat children with epilepsy. However, while it’s legal to use with a prescription, the language in the law didn’t provide options for cultivation or distribution of the product within Iowa.

In the final weeks of the 2016 legislative session, the district 78 representative from Keota made a push to make access of the oil easier for families of patients with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and crohn’s disease. The state of Minnesota passed the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana into law in 2014, but Klein says the dispensaries rolled out last year weren’t able to cash flow due to the limited number of patients who qualify for the medicine. Under proposed legislation, Klein suggested allowing credible patients from Iowa to cross into Minnesota to purchase the cannabis oil and bring it back across the state border without the fear of prosecution by Iowa authorities.

Klein says the two parties couldn’t agree on the principles of the legislation and the bill failed in committee. He adds Public Safety Chairman Clel Baudler (R) of Greenfield has already expressed interest in the matter since the session adjourned April 29, and is working in the interim on putting a study committee together to work on language for a proposed cannabis oil bill in 2017.