Last week the Iowa Senate passed a bill that would legalize medical marijuana.

It came down to a primarily party-line vote.  District 10 State Senator Jake Chapman says he was in favor of an amendment to the bill that would have changed medical marijuana from a schedule one substance, to a schedule two.

“Schedule one means currently there’s no medical benefit.  If we could get it reclassified as a schedule two, that would allow us to do research studies and we could actually use it for medical benefit.”

Senator Chapman says right now, he doesn’t feel it’s the right time for states to make the decision on whether or not it should be legal. He says with a new president in less than two years, it’s possible they could start enforcing federal law and it would not be good for the state to have rules in place that contradict that.

“Really, there’s a responsible approach that we can be taking and I believe that’s the responsible approach, to reclassify it so research can be done and we can properly regulate and distribute and all those things that are necessary.  I don’t think we should put the cart before the horse here.”

The bill now heads to the Republican led House, where it is not expected to pass.

We’ll have more with Senator Chapman on today’s Let’s Talk Dallas County during the 9am, noon and 5pm hours on AM 1310 KDLS.