Nebraska Legislature Advances First Medical Cannabis Bill

For the first time, Nebraska lawmakers have advanced legislation tied to medical cannabis, moving a bill aimed at funding and basic operations for the state’s Medical Cannabis Commission to the next round of debate.

LB1235 was introduced by the General Affairs Committee on behalf of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen. In its original form, the bill was designed to help the commission get up and running, according to committee Chairman Sen. Rick Holdcroft.

“Provides funding so that they can hire a staff and get paid, it will give them a registry so they can start registering patients to receive and also caregivers and the medical personnel who will recommend, it will establish a seed to sale program that will track essentially from the seed so we can make sure that it cuts down on any black-markets,” Holdcroft said.

But advocates said the bill initially drew significant opposition because of concerns it weakened patient protections. Crista Eggers with Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said that while 75 percent of feedback was positive, 25 percent was negative and led to the removal of patient protections.

“This gives all the authority the medical cannabis commission, and while we would have hoped and would have liked to be dealing with a commission that is honoring the will of the people, that is taking public comment and public feedback into consideration, that’s not what weve seen,” Eggers said.

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