Nebraska Regulators Approve State’s First Medical Cannabis Cultivators

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission on Tuesday approved the state’s
first two medical cannabis cultivator license applications, Nebraska Public
Media reports. The approvals were given to Nancy Laughlin-Wagner, on behalf
of Midwest Cultivators Group, and Patrick Thomas.

The approval will allow each to receive an offer of licensure to cultivate
up to 1,250 flowering cannabis plants for medical purposes. The limit was
included as part of the emergency regulations signed by Gov. Jim Pillen (R)
last month – the first step in setting up the state’s medical cannabis
program. Those regulations only permit up to four licensed cultivators in
the state.

The approved applications were one of four randomly reviewed by the
commission. The other two applications were rejected by the commission –
including one submitted by Crista Eggers, the executive director for
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which led the successful ballot
initiative that enacted the medical cannabis reforms.

During the commission meeting, Eggers said that she hopes “the individuals
that receive these licenses are good people that have every intention of
providing good medicine to the people of this state that so desperately
need it.”

“I do hope that we see some transparency with a matrix and things,” she
said during her remarks, “so that all applications, all licensed
applicants, have that information to go forward, so that they know how they
scored.”

Denied applicants can appeal the commission’s decision until October 23.

The commission had missed the statutory deadline of October 1 to begin
issuing industry licenses after the resignation of two commissioners led to
a slowdown of the process.