Illustrations throughout by Lani Krull/Little Village
Some bills die quietly in the Iowa Legislature. HF 2206 did this year. It attracted minimal attention among lawmakers when it was introduced on Jan. 29, even though the bill had 15 House members as sponsors. It drew even less attention outside the Capitol Building, despite the fact it would have done something polling suggests most Iowans want: legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
HF 2206 was introduced and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. That was it, nothing else happened. Compared to HF 2206, HF 442 — the bill to legalize recreational marijuana during the 2023 session of the legislature — almost looks successful. Almost.
HF 442 had more than twice as many sponsors as HF 2206, and it almost had a subcommittee hearing. But the hearing didn’t happen and the bill died. Still, HF 442 did attract attention when it was introduced in February 2023.
House Democrats held a news conference that was covered by major Iowa media outlets when they introduced the bill.
“This issue is ready for prime time in the state of Iowa,” Rep. Jennifer Konfrst, then the House Minority Leader, said at the news conference.
It wasn’t the first time a bill to legalize recreational marijuana had been introduced. In 2019, Joe Bolkcom, the Democrat who represented Iowa City in the state Senate from 1999 until his retirement in 2022, introduced a bill to treat marijuana the same as alcohol, making it legal but subject to state and local regulation. Bolkcom knew the bill wouldn’t pass, since Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the governor’s office, but he wanted to get a serious discussion started.
“I think as long as Republicans are in charge of state government, the chances of us ending marijuana prohibition are about zero,” he said at his news conference announcing the bill in February 2019.
Responding to Bolkcom’s bill, then-Sen. Brad Zaun, the Urbandale Republican who chaired the Judiciary Committee, said, “I’m not open-minded to recreational marijuana in the state of Iowa.”
The bill was assigned to Zaun’s committee. It died.
Just before Bolkcom introduced his bill in 2019, Little Village published a letter to the editor from the senator in which he explained why it was time for a change.
“By legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana to Iowa adults, we can refocus our criminal justice system on serious crime and expand substance abuse treatment programs,” he wrote.
“We can also capture our state’s share of the businesses, jobs, revenue and commerce created by regulating marijuana like alcohol.”
“It’s time to face facts,” Bolkcom continued. “In Iowa, marijuana is available to about anyone that seeks it. Iowans objectively know that it’s less toxic, less addictive and less lethal than the alcohol that is available at every Hy-Vee, Casey’s and Kum and Go.”
All of those arguments remain relevant seven years later (although Kum and Go is now Maverik), and the chance that recreational marijuana will soon become legal in Iowa remains zero.
“It’s a partisan issue among legislators,” Bolkcom said, speaking to Little Village last month.
The Iowa Republican Party’s official platform states, “We oppose legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.” That plank comes right after one stating, “We support drug testing for welfare, food stamps and Medicaid recipients.”
Since Republicans took control of both chambers of the legislature in 2017, they’ve been dismissive of legislation introduced by Democrats in general, and have shown no interest in the bills on recreational marijuana Democrats have introduced. No Republican has signed on as a co-sponsor of any of those bills.
Bolkcom said that when he first started talking about the possibility of treating marijuana like alcohol during his Senate years, his older Republican colleagues “couldn’t wrap their heads around it.”
“They said it would have to wait for younger Republicans to replace them,” he recalled.
A change in attitude has yet to happen in Des Moines, even as states neighboring Iowa legalized recreational marijuana. In May 2019, three months after Bolkcom introduced his bill, the Illinois Legislature legalized it. In 2022, voters in Missouri approved an amendment to the state constitution legalizing it. The following year, the Minnesota Legislature made it legal.
Retail sales of marijuana, both medicinal and recreational, at Illinois’ licensed dispensaries totaled $1.5 billion in 2025. For fiscal year 2025, which ran from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, the state collected $281.3 million in taxes from those sales. Missouri also reported sales of approximately $1.5 billion in 2025, and $255 million collected in taxes. The state-licensed dispensaries in Minnesota didn’t start selling recreational marijuana until September last year, but the state had $31.7 million in retail sales between then and the end of December.
Even in the states bordering Iowa where recreational marijuana remains illegal, there have been some changes.
In 2020, voters in South Dakota approved a constitutional amendment legalizing recreational marijuana, but the following year, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that the amendment was improperly drafted and therefore invalid. Pro-legalization groups tried again in 2022 and 2024 with ballot initiatives instead of a constitutional amendment, but lost both times.
Nebraska still outlaws recreational marijuana, but last July the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska’s Tribal Council voted unanimously to create “the first fully legal and regulated medical and adult-use cannabis system” in the state.
In addition to establishing the tribe’s own medical marijuana program, the new law allows adults 21 or older on tribal lands to purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis for recreational purposes.
In its statement on the vote, the Tribal Council cited “Nebraska’s slow and uncertain rollout of its voter-approved [in 2024] medical cannabis program” and said its law established “clear rules, strong protections, and a responsible timeline.”
“The Omaha Tribe is not waiting on broken systems to deliver,” Omaha Tribal Attorney General John Cartier said after the vote. “We are asserting our sovereign right to govern, protect our community, and build a sustainable economy that reflects our values.”
In Wisconsin, the state’s two largest cities, Milwaukee and Madison, have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Instead of being arrested, in most cases you get a ticket and a fine that can be as low as $1.
The first states to legalize recreational marijuana were Colorado and Washington. In 2012, voters in both states approved ballot measures to legalize use for adults 21 and over, and set up regulatory systems for growing and selling. Since then, 22 other states, two U.S. territories and the District of Columbia have also legalized recreational use for adults.
Iowa Republican leaders may not have changed their opinions on recreational marijuana since other states began legalizing it, but other Iowans have. An Iowa Poll conducted in January 2018 found that only 38 percent of respondents were in favor of legalization, while 58 percent were against it. One year later, opinions had shifted.
In 2019, the Iowa Poll showed an even split on legalization, 48 percent for it, 48 percent against it, 4 percent undecided. In March 2020, the Iowa Poll found majority support for legalization for the first time, with 53 percent in favor. The following year, it was 54 percent in favor.
In September 2022, Democratic leaders in the Iowa House cited that 54 percent figure when they announced that legalizing the use of recreational marijuana for adults would be one of their top four priorities in the 2023 legislative session.
Along with legalization, the other top priorities Democratic House leaders announced ahead of the 2022 election were defending the right to an abortion, increasing school funding and stopping Gov. Reynolds’ plan to create a school voucher system. All four priorities received majority support in polls, but that didn’t help Democrats in the election. They lost four seats in the Iowa House.
(It’s probably unnecessary to point out that with the Republicans still in charge of the legislature and Reynolds winning reelection in 2022, Iowa now has one of the country’s strictest abortion bans, school funding hasn’t kept up with inflation and the governor’s voucher program not only exists, but continues to grow.)
The House Democrats followed through on their announcement that legalization would be a top priority in 2023. Unlike 2019, when no other Democrat joined Bolkcom as a sponsor for his bill, this time Democrats were united behind their bill. Or at least, as united as Democrats get. Thirty-one of the House’s 36 Democrats signed on as sponsors of HF 442.
That show of unity didn’t stop HF 442 from meeting the same fate as Bolkcom’s bill.
HF 442 and this year’s bill, HF 2206, would have created a regulatory framework for the retail sale of recreational marijuana to adults 21 and older at state-licensed dispensaries. The state would collect a 10 percent excise tax on retail sales, and county governments would have the option of imposing a 1 percent surcharge on sales.
Both bills specified that 35 percent of the excise tax collected by the state would be deposited in a community reinvestment fund, 32.5 percent would go to mental health services and substance abuse prevention programs, and the remaining 32.5 percent would go to a local public safety fund.
The bills also give county boards of supervisors the authority to prevent the establishment of a dispensary in their county, and gives citizens a mechanism to overturn such a decision with a ballot measure.
Both bills lessened the penalties for various marijuana-related offenses, and allowed for people with convictions for simple marijuana possession to have those convictions expunged in most cases. Iowa currently has a limited expungement program for misdemeanor possession conviction.
Bolkcom’s bill also had an expungement provision. Erasing prior convictions for what would no longer be an offense if recreational use is legalized is important to advocates of legalization — not only as a matter of general fairness, but even more importantly, as a means of addressing the racist ways marijuana laws have been enforced since they were first introduced over a century ago.
“The enforcement of marijuana prohibition has been grossly unequal. Even though Black and white Iowans use marijuana at the same rate, Black Iowans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession,” Bolkcom wrote in his 2019 letter on legalization. “A law that cannot be equally enforced is blatantly unfair and erodes trust in our justice system.”
A 2020 report by the ACLU documented just how unequal enforcement has been in Iowa. Its analysis of data on arrests for marijuana possession in all 50 states found that Iowa had one of the worst racial disparity problems in the country. Nationwide, a Black person was 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana than a white person, according to the report. In Iowa, a Black person was 7.26 times more likely to be arrested.
Only Montana, Kentucky, Illinois and West Virginia had worse racial disparities in arrests for marijuana possession.
Even if HF 2206 had somehow miraculously risen from the dead and been passed by the Iowa Legislature this year, it wouldn’t have mattered. Gov. Reynolds would veto it. She has been very clear about her opposition to legalizing marijuana. But it’s possible that next year Iowa will have a governor with a different attitude.
Deidre DeJear, Reynolds’ Democratic opponent in the 2022 election, was the first major party candidate for Iowa governor to come out in favor of legalization.
“We know that a majority of Iowans want to see recreational cannabis in the state,” DeJear said at an Iowa City campaign event in July 2022. “We know that a majority of Iowans want to see extended access to medical cannabis in the state. We also know last year, over the course of eight to nine months, Iowans went to Illinois and spent $26 million. And that wasn’t on shoes.”
“And we did not get any benefit from it. So, it is time that we not only legalize it in this state, but we also create some regulations around it because we know that it is happening.”
Rob Sand, this year’s Democratic candidate for governor, called legalization “a top priority” in a written statement responding to questions from Little Village.
“After a decade of one-party control and reckless budget practices, Iowa is now facing a $1.4 billion budget hole,” Sand said. “A great way to help fill that hole would be to legalize adult-use cannabis and tax and regulate it like we do alcohol. This would help generate new revenue, keep our tax dollars in Iowa instead of crossing into neighboring states where cannabis is legal, and support Iowa farmers. We should not be using our tax dollars to throw people in prison to pay for three hots and a cot for using cannabis in 2026. As governor, legalizing adult-use cannabis would be a top priority.”
Little Village emailed questions about legalization to the campaigns of all five Republicans running for governor. None replied.
Regardless of who wins the governor’s race, Joe Bolkcom is pessimistic about the chances of Iowa legalizing recreational marijuana in the near future. Republicans will almost certainly retain control of the legislature, but that’s not the only reason for his pessimism.
Legislators only engage on difficult issues when they feel pressure from constituents, Bolkcom explained. It’s never been easy to organize people in Iowa to bring that sort of pressure when it comes to legalizing marijuana. And he thinks the success of Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota in creating retail markets may make it harder.
“It’s just easier for people to drive across the border and buy what they want.”
This article was originally published in Little Village’s April 2026 issue.
