Nebraska Medical Marijuana Regulators Approve Emergency Rules Banning Flower Access For Patients

*“To disallow by regulation what is clearly allowed by statute is a slap in
the face to the patients and families who need this medicine and the voters
of Nebraska who approved it by an overwhelming majority.”*

*By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner*

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday approved emergency
regulations to begin accepting medical cannabis applications as soon as
Gov. Jim Pillen (R) gives his final green light.

State law requires him to do so by Tuesday.

The emergency regulations, unveiled for the first time minutes before the
10 a.m. meeting, largely mirror a legislative proposal that lawmakers
stalled on last month. The regulations would take effect for up to 90 days,
pending Pillen’s approval. The two medical cannabis-related laws that
voters approved mandate that applications must start being accepted no
later than July 1.

Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna, an addiction prevention specialist
through Heartland Family Service, affirmed that commissioners want public
feedback on the emergency regulations through July 15, to inform future,
formal regulations.

Public comments may be submitted to lcc.frontdesk@nebraska.gov, the
repository for the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, which will forward
the messages onto the state’s new Medical Cannabis Commission.

“The input that the public provides on these emergency regulations will
help us immediately begin drafting the regular regulations,” Mueting said
Thursday.

*Emergency regulations process*

Dr. Monica Oldenburg, an anesthesiologist who chairs the commission, will
send a letter to Pillen relaying the emergency regulations and stating that
the “failure” to adopt them by the deadline “would force Nebraskans to seek
medical cannabis or similar products from unregulated and potentially
harmful sources.”

Pillen’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the
emergency rules.

Licensing of new establishments must begin by October 1, according to the
laws. The emergency regulations would allow licenses for, at minimum,
cultivators, product manufacturers, dispensaries and transporters, and
someone could be awarded only one type of license.

Justification for emergency regulations under state law can include
“imminent peril” to public health, safety or welfare.

Mueting and Oldenburg will head up a subcommittee to work on the
regulations in the meantime.

Commissioners also voted 4–0 to enter a legal partnership with the Nebraska
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Pillen’s Policy Research
Office, which allows the commission to contract with DHHS for “legal
services.”

*Dispensary restrictions*

Legislative Bill 677, which fell 10 votes short of the 33 votes needed to
change a voter-approved law last month, 23–22, would have provided
additional guardrails around the ballot measures that voters overwhelmingly
approved in November. Up to 30 dispensaries would have been allowed under
that bill, up to 10 in each congressional district.

Under the emergency regulations, no more than one dispensary would be
allowed in each of the state’s 12 District Court Judicial
Districts. Douglas County (Omaha) and Lancaster County (Lincoln) are the
only counties that occupy a single district. Multiple medical cannabis
advocates asked the commission to reconsider that specific restriction.

No dispensary could located within 1,000 feet of any school, daycare,
church or hospital. At least 51 percent of an applicant’s business or
organization would need to have resided in Nebraska and be a U.S. citizen
for at least the past four years. Applicants also would need to pay to
submit two legible sets of fingerprints to the FBI and the Nebraska State
Patrol for a criminal background check.

*Qualifying conditions and allowable products*

Unlike LB 677, the emergency regulations do not specify qualifying medical
conditions. LB 677 would have outlined 15 conditions eligible for the
medicine. That list excluded post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nebraskans in November overwhelmingly legalized up to five ounces with the
recommendation of a health care practitioner.

The emergency regulations would require that a recommendation (from any
provider nationwide) specify the product being recommended, the recommended
dosage and potency, the number of doses, the directions for use and the
name of the patient.

The regulations would allow dispensaries to sell:

- Oral tablets, capsules or tinctures.
- Non-sugarcoated gelatinous cubes, gelatinous rectangular cuboids or
lozenges in a cube or rectangular cuboid shape.
- Gels, oils, creams or other topical preparations
- Suppositories.
- Transdermal patches.
- Liquids or oils for administration using a nebulizer or inhaler.

Dispensaries could not sell raw plant or flower, food or drinks with
cannabis infused into it (edibles), any products containing artificial or
natural flavoring or coloring and any products administered by smoking,
combustion or vaping.

LB 677 would have mandated testing of all products before they could be
sold, one of the strictest testing regimes in the country. However, without
a legislative change, the commission lacks the explicit authority to
regulate testing under the medical cannabis laws. Instead, the emergency
regulations say products “may” be submitted for testing or research for
development purposes.

Packaging would need to be able to show it had been tampered with,
child-resistant, resealable and protected from contamination.

Similar to 2024 restrictions on vaping products, cannabis products could
not depict cartoon-like fictional characters or mimic characters primarily
aimed at entertaining minors, trademarks or trade dress or products that
imitate or mimic products primarily marketed to minors, symbols primarily
used to market products to minors or the images and likenesses of
celebrities.

Shari Lawlor of Valley told the commission that her 32-year-old daughter,
Brooke, has faced severe seizures for the past 31 years but “nothing in
modern medicine has helped her,” including brain surgery in 2024.

Shari Lawlor said her daughter has 11 bottles of medications and takes
“handfuls” of pills.

“They’re going to kill her. If it’s not one organ, it’s another,” Lawlor
said. “I would just like the option to have complete access for the
patients, and that’s only by letting all different products on the market.”

*Pharmacist concerns*

Jim Wilson, a clinical pharmacist speaking on behalf of the Nebraska
Pharmacists Association, said he has seen positives and negatives of
cannabis. He asked the commission to seek input from pharmacists because of
possible side effects with other drug interactions.

Wilson advocated for adding medical cannabis to the state’s prescription
drug monitoring program used for other medications, which LB 677 would have
done, too.

“We are not interested in the politics or any particular party or any of
that,” Wilson told the commission. “We’re interested in the patient and
what might happen to them.”

State Sen. John Cavanaugh (D) of Omaha, who helped advocate for LB 677 in
the most recent legislative session, said the commission has no legal
authority to restrict the forms of cannabis available to patients.

“To disallow by regulation what is clearly allowed by statute is a slap in
the face to the patients and families who need this medicine and the voters
of Nebraska who approved it by an overwhelming majority,” he said in a text.

State Sen. Ben Hansen (R) of Blair, who introduced LB 677, had no immediate
reaction.

*‘A long ways to go’*

Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the
campaign that ushered the laws through the 2024 election, said the ballot
measures clearly legalized medical cannabis in all forms, including flower.
She said it’s also unclear where completed applications should be sent.

Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Eggers said there are good
components to the regulations and that she viewed Thursday’s meeting as
productive, while it had some drawbacks. She said that includes the
commission voicing an intention to listen to the public and seek feedback.

“Today was a positive day, and I believe that we are moving in a forward
direction,” Eggers said. “We’re not there. There’s a long ways to go. But a
good foundation today.”

Bailey, who chairs the Liquor Control Commission, told Eggers that he and
other commissioners had seen the regulations about 12 hours before
Thursday’s meeting and hope to tie down and clear up the regulations more
about the regulations over the next month.

“We’re asking for public feedback such that these things could be made
whole,” Bailey said. “The best we have right now is what’s in here.”

The eventual formal regulations the commission advances this summer must
include at least 30 days notice of what’s being considered before a public
hearing.

The commission set its next meeting for 1 p.m. August 4, with a location to
be determined. If there are no meetings before then, the likely public
hearing on the more lasting regulations would be in September.
------------------------------

*The Open Meetings Act*

Gov. Jim Pillen (R) appointed Lorelle Mueting of Gretna and Dr. Monica
Oldenburg of Lincoln as the at-large members of the Nebraska Medical
Cannabis Commission. They join the three governor-appointed members of the
Liquor Control Commission: Bruce Bailey of Lincoln, retired District Court
Judge J. Michael Coffey of Omaha and Kim Lowe of Kearney.

This was the first meeting for Mueting and Coffey, whom Pillen appointed
last week. Pillen did not reappoint Commissioner Harry Hoch, Jr., to
Coffey’s seat, even though he applied for reappointment February 2. Three
other people applied for the seat.

Hoch withdrew his reappointment application May 20 at the Governor’s
Office’s request for more “cannabis experience,” he told the Nebraska
Examiner.

State law requires commissions to publish rules or regulations on a
commission website, but the Medical Cannabis Commission does not yet have
one.

It costs $70,000 to create a website through a specific state vendor, but
commissioners can’t collect fees or levy any taxes on medical cannabis and
thus have no funds available, unless they “borrow” funds from the Liquor
Control Commission.

The medical cannabis commissioners also don’t have separate state emails or
a set state address or phone number.

Asked by commissioners how to remedy that situation, or if they would
violate state law without a website, Assistant Attorney General Benjamin
Swanson said: “I understand that that’s the position that you’re in. I
unfortunately can’t—I don’t have any information for you on how to fix that
problem.”

The commission entered closed session multiple times Thursday, often to
discuss regulations and/or pending and potential litigation against the
commission.

Commissioners did not state whether a closed session was “clearly
necessary” for “the protection of the public interest” or “prevention of
needless injury to an individual, if such individual has not requested a
public meting” before any of the three times, as required under the Open
Meetings Act.

Asked by the Nebraska Examiner whether it was for either of those
overarching reasons, Bo Botelho, chief legal officer of the Nebraska
Department of Health and Human Services, who is now working with the
Medical Cannabis Commission, said, “No.”

*This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.*

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*Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.*

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Banning Flower Access For Patients appeared first on Marijuana Moment.