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Prison time for man who admits he shot at cars, apartments in Iowa City

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The man responsible for shooting at cars and apartments in Iowa City last summer will do time in a federal prison.

Twenty-one-year-old Alexander Alvarado pleaded guilty in February to unlawful use of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm. He’s been sentenced to three years in prison.

Alvarado admitted to Iowa City Police that during an eight-day period last July, he shot at several vehicles and two residences from his second-story apartment. Authorities found three guns, one of which was stolen, during a search of his apartment. They also found dozens of pills, including OxyContin and Xanax, as well as 20 grams of marijuana.

Senator Grassley touts bills passed by Senate Judiciary Committee addressing the opioid crisis

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Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the Judiciary Committee he chairs passed five bills targeting the opioid crisis late last week and five more bills on the topic are being considered in the Finance Committee.

Grassley says, “The opioid epidemic affects people from every background, rural and urban, everywhere, ruining lives and hurting families and eventually, affecting entire communities.”

State health officials say there were just over 200 opioid-related overdose deaths in Iowa last year. Grassley says those death rates are picking up dramatically in Iowa and nationwide in recent years and Congress needs to act.

“These bills are aimed at different aspects of the problem, transparency for drug companies, manufacturers and insurance companies, inpatient care services, accurate reporting systems and opioid production quotas,” he says.

A new report from the Drug Enforcement Agency predicts overdose deaths from fentanyl this year may top 70,000 nationwide, which would be a new record high. Grassley says fentanyl is prominent on his radar.

“Fentanyl would be covered by the general opioid things that are in the bills I talked about,” Grassley says. “In my sentencing reform bill, we do have massive amounts of mandatory minimum sentencing for anybody dealing with fentanyl.”

One of the bills that passed last week encourages increased participation of authorized collectors in drug take-back programs by awarding grants to states.

From California to the Carolinas to Iowa, Grassley says, “we have seen the devastating results of abusing illegal and prescription opioids, heroin or fentanyl.” Each measure, he says, will “help curb opioid abuse and its tragic consequences.”

 

Expand Iowa’s medical marijuana law, candidates say

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The Democratic candidates running for governor.

All six Democratic gubernatorial candidates support expansion of the state’s medical marijuana law.

John Norris, a long-time aide to former Governor Tom Vilsack, said Republican Governor Reynolds should respond to critics who contend cannabis products intended for medical use will be exploited as recreational drugs.

“The governor’s not leading when she needs to,” Norris said last night on IPTV. “People are suffering in this state. She’s spending all her political capital on tax cuts for millionaires. As governor, I would spend some political capital on educating Iowans about how this helps people. Let’s get over this paranoia…and get this fixed for people who need it.”

All six candidates were asked about the issue during a 90-minute “Iowa Press” forum sponsored by Iowa Public Television.

Ross Wilburn of Ames, the former mayor of Iowa City, said it’s an “over-reaction” to suggest there is a “direct line” between medical cannabis and recreational marijuana.

“There are people who are hurting now,” Wilburn said. “My mother died of cancer in 1985 when I was 20. She could have certainly benefited from medical marijuana.”

And Wilburn said his late father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, could have used medical marijuana as pain medication in the last two weeks of his life.

Cathy Glasson, a nurse from Coralville, said medical cannabis has been very effective in treating lots of very serious ailments.

“Medical cannabis is actually used to treat opioid addition,” Glasson said. “So evidence is showing that it’s actually beneficial in keeping (prescription opioids) from being a gateway drug.”

Andy McGuire, a medical doctor, said it should be doctors, not politicians, who decide which conditions can be effectively treated with cannabis.

“Doctors, looking at scientific medical literature, ought to be making those decisions,” McGuire said. “This is the problem. You don’t want to have the legislature, you don’t want to have the governor involved in this. You want to have it done by physicians, with their patients.”

Fred Hubbell, a Des Moines businessman, supports that approach, too, and called for making changes in the law.

“If we’re really committed to quality, affordable health care for all Iowans…the science is clear that there are a lot more medical illnesses and issues that medical marijuana can be actually be very beneficial for, much broader than what we allow in our state,” Hubbell said. “Other states have gone a lot broader than we have.”

Hubbell mentioned letting cannabis oils, pills and creams with a higher concentration of the drug THC be sold in the state.

Nate Boulton, a state senator from Des Moines, said the medical marijuana law must be expanded or the businesses that just won state licenses to sell cannabis products here won’t be profitable.

“We’re not going to get more providers coming into our state to invest in a medical cannabis solution if we don’t have more accessibility,” Boulton said. “We’re not going to get people who are going to come here, only to be able to offer to a small number of Iowans.”

Current state law has set up a system for allowing cannabis products to be used as treatment for a limited number of conditions. Five Iowa dispensing sites have been chosen for Iowa-produced cannabis oils, pills and creams, starting this December.

Governor to sign bill addressing opioid epidemic today in Dubuque

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Governor Kim Reynolds.

Governor Kim Reynolds will be in Dubuque this afternoon to sign legislation that seeks to address opioid addiction and reduce the number of overdose deaths in the state. Reynolds mentioned the bill in a video statement posted on Facebook.

“This 2018 legilsative session is one of accomplishments,” Reynolds said. “…We worked to save lives by passing a new law that addresses the opioid epidemic.”

Malissa Spranger, with the Mercy Turning Point Treatment Center in Dubuque, is among those who testified last October during a two-day statehouse hearing. She told legislators some patients wait for months to get into a drug treatment program.

“It’s literally like telling somebody that’s having a heart attack to come back in six weeks when your bed’s available,” Spranger said. “What we’re seeing is patients returning to their communities and, unfortunately, ending up deceased.”

Governor Reynolds will be at Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque at 3 p.m. today to sign the opioid bill into law.

Iowa will join 26 other states in forcing physicians to register prescriptions with the state’s drug monitoring program — to curb “doctor shopping” for multiple opioid prescriptions. Paper prescriptions will become a thing of the past in Iowa, too, by 2020. Pharmacists say prescriptions that are submitted electronically ensure there’s no tampering to increase the dosage or the number of pills prescribed.

The new law also contains a so-called “Good Samaritan” provision. It means those who call 911 to report someone has overdosed can’t be arrested for using drugs at the scene of the overdose.

 

‘What You Don’t See’ warns parents of unseen signals of teen drug use

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The Iowa Narcotics Officers Association has created a traveling trailer to teach parents and other adults how kids may be concealing drug use. It’s called the “What You Don’t See” project.

“The trailer is designed to portray a normal teenager’s bedroom where various forms of signage, clothing, paraphernalia and narcotics will be left in plain sight or in secret,” says association president Doug Hurley, a special agent with the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

He says parents will be shown how kids conceal drugs, even in their clothing. Lisa Moore’s son died of a heroin overdose and Moore, who is from Des Moines, is encouraging parents across the state to tour the trailer and get their child in treatment immediately if they discover their kid is using opioids.

“Reach out and get your child some help before it’s too late,” Moore says. “You’re rather they hate you for two years, if they’re made, as opposed to hating yourself when they’re six feet under.”

Doug Hurley

People involved in treatment programs as well as law enforcement officers will be present to answer questions from people who tour the trailer. This weekend, parole officers from central Iowa will be the first group to tour it. Des Moines Police Officer Shawna Isaac says a website’s been created to show where the traveling exhibit will be.

“We are hoping to get this trailer out to as many events as possible, from community gatherings to county fairs to open houses and more,” Isaac says.

The “What You Don’t See” trailer will be parked on the fairgrounds during the Iowa State Fair. It’s for adults only. No one under the age of 18 will be allowed to tour it.

Learn more at the “What You Don’t See” initiative.

 

 

Legislature unanimously backs opioid policy bill

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Senator Thomas Green.

The Iowa House has given final approval to the legislature’s policy responses to the opioid epidemic. In an effort to curb “doctor shopping,” physicians will be required to register prescriptions with the state’s drug monitoring program within 24 hours.

Senator Tom Greene, a pharmacist from Burlington, said 26 other states already have that requirement. “And these states have shown large reductions in opioid prescriptions,” Greene said yesterday during Senate debate of the plan.

In addition, handwritten prescriptions will become a thing of the past. Representative John Forbes, a pharmacist in Urbandale, said having prescriptions submitted electronically will “definitely have a big impact.”

“What happens with paper prescriptions is sometimes they get altered,” Forbes said. “…Most common alteration on a prescription is they try to either change the quantity that the physician wrote or they try to change the strength of the drug.”

Today, only 10 to 15 percent of opioid prescriptions in Iowa are done electronically. Representative Dave Heaton of Mount Pleasant said he’s hoping the “continuing education” requirements in the bill for doctors will encourage restraint.

“There’s no need to hand a person a jug of pills that’ll provide opioid treatment for 30 days after a person has maybe had some surgery or some other medical treatment,” Heaton said. “…Remember, after five or six days (of opioid use), the tendency to become an addict begins to grow.”

Heaton expressed disappointment that the bill did not include limits on the number of opioid pills doctors may prescribe and he suggested that may be on legislators’ to-do list next year. Representative Chuck Isenhart of Dubuque said he’ll keep lobbying to legalize needle exchange programs.

“Hepatitis C is a growing problem in great part due to the increasing use of injectable drugs, both opioids and methamphetamines by Iowans,” Isenhart said, “especially in those under 30.”

Preliminary data indicates more than 200 deaths last year in Iowa were connected to opioid abuse. The bill won unanimous approval in the Senate yesterday and the House today. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law.

House Republican leaders pressured to expand Iowa’s medical cannabis program

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Advocates for medical marijuana are calling on the Iowa House to expand state law so the potency of the cannabis oil, pills and creams that’ll be sold here is increased and more patients may legally buy Iowa-made cannabis products.

“I have waited patiently for the last four years for my disease to be covered and it is still not under the list of covered conditions,” Katie Krug of Grimes, who has ulcerative colitis, said during a statehouse news conference. “The current system is broken and it needs to be fixed.”

Nearly every member of the Iowa Senate is willing to take steps to expand the law, but the top Republican in the Iowa House opposes action this year. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer has said if a medical board that begins meeting this month makes recommendations, legislators can take action in early 2019 — shortly after cannabis products go on sale in Iowa on December 1.

Tyler Rice of Cedar Falls, a former police officer who suffers from PTSD, said cannabis oil helps him — but Rice and others who suffer from PTSD won’t be able to buy Iowa-made cannabis oil because the condition isn’t covered under the current state law.

“As someone who has lived with PTSD and know what it feels like to live with that and then get the relief from medical cannabis, it’s just life saving,” he told Radio Iowa. “It’s just unbelievable.”

Lucas Nelson, an executive with the company that landed the sole state license to produce cannabis products here, hosted today’s news conference.

To deny these folks the treatment that this program was supposed to offer, it’s inhumane,” he said. “It’s unjust and it’s not showing any compassion.”

Nelson told reporters his company will comply fully with the law, but will continue to be an advocate for patients who aren’t served by the law’s restrictions.

Another push to expand Iowa’s medical marijuana law

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The business with the only state license to manufacture marijuana for medical use is planning a news conference at the state capitol today, hoping to convince lawmakers to let more Iowans use cannabis products.

Senators from both sides of the aisle favor the move, but House leaders are against changing the law which limits use to about 15 medical conditions.

Senator Tom Greene, a Republican from Burlington who is a pharmacist, supports a law that would let cannabis oil, pills or creams be used as treatment whenever a doctor thinks it might be useful.

“I think it behooves every one of us here in the Senate to contact our representatives who serve our same districts in the House and tell them that 80 percent of Iowans want us to move on medical cannabis,” Greene said.

Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, said there’s been a reduction in opioid overdose deaths in states that have legalized marijuana for broader medical use.

“We’re raging incrementalists here, how we approach these issues, but at some point it’s time to step up and look around the country, see what’s working and take some votes around here on some of this stuff,” Bolkcom said.

House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, last week said lawmakers should wait until an advisory board reviews the new state law and makes recommendations later this year. Cannabis products will be sold from five state-licensed “dispensaries” starting December 1.

House Speaker wants to stick with ‘the plan’ on medical marijuana

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Linda Upmeyer (file photo)

The top Republican in the Iowa House is making it clear she opposes any attempt to expand Iowa’s medical marijuana law.

Earlier this week a senate committee approved a bill to remove the limit on the potency of the cannabis oil, pills or creams that will be sold in Iowa later this year. The bill would also let many more Iowans get medical cannabis if a doctor says it could help their condition.

House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, says she wants to stick with last year’s agreement which set up a system for growing, producing and selling medical marijuana in Iowa.

“Actually the thing that got our members to an agreement last year was the fact that we would set up an advisory board and then, instead of legislators who have no real knowledge of health care and treatment plans and that sort of thing, we’d be taking the recommendations of a board of physicians and people who understand this topic,” Upmeyer says.

That board is scheduled to hold its first meeting in May. December 1 is the first day anyone in Iowa may legally buy cannabis products from the five state-licensed dispensaries. Upmeyer notes the 2019 legislature starts soon after, in early January.

“I think we’ll be back in time to make changes if that’s the recommendation of the board and so I think we should stay with the plan,” Upmeyer says.

Companies that have gotten the state licenses for growing, making and selling cannabis products in Iowa say the current law’s restrictions mean there won’t be enough customers to make the program economically viable.

Senate panel advances medical marijuana expansion

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A committee in the Iowa Senate has voted to expand Iowa’s medical marijuana law, but the move faces firm opposition in the Iowa House.

Critics say current state restrictions make it difficult for the companies that won state licenses to make and sell cannabis oil, creams and pills to stay in business. The bill that cleared the Senate Ways and Means Committee Monday afternoon would get rid of a limit on the amount of the “THC” chemical allowed in cannabis products. Dane Schumann, a lobbyist for MedPharm Iowa, said the change is “crucial” for the success of the company.

“With that THC cap in place at three percent as it is, it’s going to be extremely difficult for MedPharm to treat the patients that the legislature has asked us to treat,” he said, “particularly those with severe and chronic pain ad many cancer patients that are experiencing pain as well.”

Peter Komendowski of the Partnership for a Drug-free Iowa opposes the idea of increasing THC levels in cannabis products.

“It is the open door, the Trojan Horse that establishes all of the basis for legalizing marijuana use,” Komandowski said. “…I am very hard-pressed to find anybody in the medical community, mental health treatment that says we should rush to market with a product that has not been thoroughly tested and evaluated and approved by the FDA.”

Last year legislators voted to set up a state-licensed system for growing, producing and selling cannabis products in Iowa, but the cannabis may only be used as treatment for 15 specific medical conditions. Bruce Beeston, who represents the Veterans National Recovery Center, told the senate committee most veterans would like to see the cannabis oil, pills and cream available as treatment for post traumatic stress.

“I know several hundred of them who have been treating themselves for 40 years and doing a great job with it,” Beeston said. “We’d love to see it be legalized, come up with a way that they could get it in a way other than smoking it.”

House Speaker Linda Upmeyer has made it clear this year that she opposes expanding Iowa’s medical marijuana law. Upmeyer says lawmakers should wait for a panel of experts that will review the law starting in May and report their findings to the legislature.