The Libertarian candidate for the governor Rick Stewart opens one of his TV ads by questioning Iowa's governor. Kim Reynolds R has resisted legalizing marijuana and easing up on arrests for simple possession, according to local media.
He says something. Here I am in Illinois — why, only a few miles from the Iowa border — and they have legal cannabis. Stewart said in the spot titled Dear Kim, WEED! Stewart said that our laws in Iowa put people into rape cages because they smoked marijuana. You're going to lose your college scholarship, you're going to lose your kids, you're going to lose everything because here in Iowa we think cannabis is a gateway drug. Stewart is the co-founder of Frontier Natural Products Co-op, a cooperatively owned wholesaler of organic products based in Norway, Iowa. Stewart has released an ad calling for the end of the war on drugs. When I win, I will chase drug war criminals with a vengeance. Most of them are here in DC, stalking the halls of Congress. Stewart said in 2016 when he was running for Linn County sheriff, they wasted 1 trillion dollars and decimated three generations of black Americans.
While the governor Reynolds opposes legalizing marijuana, Democrat candidate Deidre DeJear supports legalizing and regulating cannabis like alcohol for adults 21 and older. According to a 2021 poll, 54% of adults favor legalizing weed for recreational use in Iowa, while 39% oppose it and 6% are unsure.
Although Illinois has legal cannabis and Nebraska, Minnesota and Missouri have decriminalized simple possession, Iowa continues to arrest individuals for possessing small amounts of weed. According to the Marijuana Policy Project, first-offense possession is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, one of the most severe first-offense penalties in the country. According to the data from the ACLU, Black Iowans are nearly eight times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than whites.
During the 2022 legislative session, Senators Joe Bolkcom D Janet Petersen D and Sarah Trone Garriott D proposed an amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would legalize cannabis for adults.
Michael Franken D, one of the Iowa Senate candidates, has spoken out about the federal cannabis legalization, its removal as a controlled substance and addressing incarceration for marijuana-related crimes that affect Black Iowans.
Franken told reporters in June that they view the medical use of marijuana and the recreational use of alcohol as fine and well overdue. The federal statutes put in place where revenue generated by taxing THC is used for interstate commerce like it would for anything else. Iowa's Republican Senator Chuck Grassley does not support adult-use cannabis legalization.