Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for governor, has suggested Iowa should legalize recreational marijuana and adopt the same kind of regulations imposed on alcohol.
Sand described the limitations he’d seek during a town hall in Dallas County this week. “Now when I say: ‘Treat it like alcohol,’ I literally mean treat it like alcohol, so when I hear people say: ‘Well, I don’t want to smell it.’ Same. You shouldn’t be allowed to smoke it in public. A simple rule,” Sand said during a campaign event this week. “You can’t drink alcohol in public, right?”
Sand said the products should not be marketed or designed to appeal to children. “You shouldn’t be able to use colorful designs on your packages,” Sand said. “And if you’re doing gummies…they don’t need to be red and blue and green and look like gummie bears.”
Sand said state law should require labels that clearly show the potency of the cannabis products, which he says would address concerns he’s heard. “People say: ‘Well, I don’t know Rob. It’s a lot stronger than the stuff that I was smoking in the ’70s.’ To which I say: ‘I wasn’t there. Whatever you say. I believe you,” Sand said, to laughter from a crowd of over 500 in West Des Moines. “I don’t have a basis for comparison then or now. I actually haven’t used it, but when you buy a beer you can see what the alcoholic content is on the beer…You can see when you buy hard liquor what the content is on that…We can do that with marijuana as well.”
Sand has said state taxes on recreational marijuana sold by state-licensed retailers would help fill the state’s budget gap. Sand’s outline for how he’d regulate marijuana came after a man in the audience brought up the topic. “Everyone’s going to Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, but Iowa’s got the fertile farmland and we’re losing money when people buy marijuana other places. What are you going to do legalize marijuana and make our economy grow with our farmland?” the man, who did not give his name, said.
Sand replied: “I’m glad you asked. I think we should treat it the same way we treat alcohol. That seems like a no-brainer to me,” Sand said, to applause.
While Missouri and 23 other states let citizens over the age of 21 grow a limited number of marijuana plants in their own homes, Sand is not proposing that. Sand would require growers, manufacturers and retailers to obtain a state license and he’d require state permits for transporting and selling cannabis. Sand’s Republican opponent Zach Lahn does not support legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
The federal government criminalized marijauna possession and use in 1937. In the past 30 years, though, 40 states have skirted federal law and legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. Iowa lawmakers created a state-run medical marijuana program in 2017.
