Medical Marijuana

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy took action Tuesday by making marijuana a drug with medicinal purposes. The Board agreed to re-classify marijuana from a schedule one to schedule two drug.

In the first general election since the boom of the state's medical marijuana industry, cannabis supporters are making their voices heard the old-fashioned way: with money. Colorado medical marijuana business owners and advocates have made thousands of dollars in contributions to state candidates this year. Dispensary owners have teamed up to form a political action committee. And activists last month went so far as to host a fundraiser for attorney-general candidate Stan Garnett.

The latest research is proving that cannabinoids play a mitigating role in breast cancer. An urgent issue for Breast Cancer Awareness Month: the clock is ticking for the 207,000 women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year alone. Mary Jane Borden, a former marketing analyst for largest U.S. marketer of cancer chemotherapy drugs in the U.S. during the 1980s, opines on the issue.

The Colorado State Board of Health approved a program through which poor medical marijuana patients can apply to the state registry for free and not have to pay sales tax on their cannabis purchases. But the standard the board approved for determining who is poor enough to qualify for the program upset medical marijuana advocates, who said some indigent patients will still be stuck with a bill. And even some board members expressed frustration that the health department — which has received millions of dollars in application fees since the medical marijuana program began — couldn't put together a program that includes more patients.