Will Idaho legalize medical marijuana? State lawmakers open discussion

Yahoo

17-03-2025

Jeremy Kitzhaber speaks to the Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee to advocate for medical marijuana. He previously served in the U.S. Air Force as a civil engineer and first sergeant. He has stage four cancer, which he developed while transporting radioactive materials in the military. In the blue bag to his right, he stores opioids, anti-anxiety medication and Narcan. (Photo by Mia Maldonado/Idaho Capital Sun)
Jeremy Kitzhaber, a U.S. Air Force veteran, held up a blue lunch bag to a committee of Idaho lawmakers on Monday which he uses to store the drugs meant to soothe his pain, including hydrocodone, morphine and oxycodone.
Kitzhaber has a rare type of stage four cancer that he developed while transporting radioactive and hazardous materials in the military. He can take those strong opioids at any point in the day — in addition to the drugs he takes to keep his cancer from growing and manage his bowel and anxiety. However, the one drug he cannot legally take is marijuana.
Idaho has some of the strictest laws against any kind of marijuana usage, but an informational hearing held in the Idaho House Health and Welfare Committee opened the discussion for Kitzhaber to advocate for a bill to legalize medical marijuana for Idahoans living with chronic pain and answer lawmakers' questions about what legalizing marijuana would look like in Idaho.
Kitzhaber has been working on legislation to legalize marijuana for six years, and this year, Reps. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, and Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d'Alene, named House Bill 401, or the 'Sergeant Kitzhaber Medical Cannabis Act,' after him. The sponsors introduced it as a personal bill, meaning it has no chance of advancing this session and is intended to send a message.
Unique to most of its neighboring states, marijuana is recreationally and medically illegal in Idaho.
During the 2025 legislative session alone, lawmakers passed at least two pieces of legislation aimed to restrict marijuana usage in Idaho. This includes a bill signed by the governor and set to take effect July 1 to implement a $300 minimum fine for individuals found possessing less than three ounces marijuana. Another piece of legislation passed in both chambers is a proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution that, if approved by voters, would make it so that only the Idaho Legislature has the power to legalize marijuana and other narcotics.
House Bill 401 is modeled after Utah's legislation, Rubel told the committee, who said Idaho lawmakers should at some point consider this type of legislation.
The bill would move marijuana from a schedule 1 drug to a schedule 2 controlled substance. It would allow medical practitioners to give medical cannabis cards to patients who are at least 21 years old and diagnosed with qualifying conditions such as cancer, ALS, AIDS, Crohn's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other debilitating illnesses. The card would be valid for up to one year, and renewal must be sought after.
Under the bill, individuals with medical cannabis cards would not be subject to prosecution for certain amounts of marijuana possession.
'The bill does not legalize cannabis, it only decriminalizes it,' Kitzhaber said.
Rep. Rob Beiswenger, R-Horseshoe Bend, asked Kitzhaber how the bill addresses preventing the smell of marijuana from reaching the public. Kitzhaber said it would be illegal to use medical marijuana in public, and users who violate the policy once would lose their card.
Kitzhaber has gone through 150 rounds of cancer treatment and eight different types. His monthly treatment and medicine costs $17,000, he said. He's tried marijuana in states where it is legal, and he said it helped him sleep. It is safer and less expensive than the opioids he takes now, he said.
Allowing medical marijuana would help him and other veterans with similar conditions, he told the committee, but Kitzhaber said he does not risk using it in Idaho because it would put his veteran benefits at risk.
'I have an exemplary military career. I don't have a criminal record, and I don't want one for something like this,' Kitzhaber said.
This article was first published by the Idaho Capital Sun, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: [e-mail].