Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — Three similar legislative proposals introduced Wednesday seek to help implement the voter-enacted legalization and regulation of medical cannabis in Nebraska by later this year.
The legislation, introduced by State Sens. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, Ben Hansen of Blair and Terrell McKinney of Omaha, would create registry programs and further stipulate the licensing and regulatory duties of the new Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission.
All three would allow Nebraskans, after receiving a written recommendation from a health care practitioner for medical cannabis, to apply for a registry card, identifying them as a qualified patient. The registry would similarly apply to registered caregivers, such as for minors.
The bills, which are all structurally similar with some key differences, are: Legislative Bill 651 (Conrad), LB 677 (Hansen) and LB 705 (McKinney).
“The time is long overdue that Nebraskans in need of care have access to that care,” Conrad told reporters.
“I think we’re in a little bit of a unique position, where a lot of other states have already gone this direction,” Hansen said. “We have the ability to see what has worked well for others and what hasn’t.”
Without further state law changes, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission must establish criteria to accept or deny applications for registered cannabis establishments by July 1. Licenses could then be granted as early as Oct. 1.
Conrad, Hansen and McKinney would delay the start of licensing slightly, to give commissioners more time to work on the new regulations. Applications could instead be filed beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
A fourth proposal
A fourth bill, LB 483 from freshman State Sen. Jared Storm of David City, would limit legal medical cannabis to 300 milligrams of delta-9 THC, the compound in the cannabis plant most commonly associated with getting a person high.
LB 483 would also limit “permissible” cannabis to the form of pills or liquid tinctures, which are concentrated herbal extracts.
With about 28,350 milligrams per ounce, Storm’s bill would reduce legalization to about 0.21% of what 71% of voters authorized less than three months ago. About 67% of Nebraska voters also supported the second measure, to regulate medical cannabis. Storm’s legislative district of Butler, Colfax and Saunders Counties approved both measures.
Storm declined to comment on his bill.
‘Best interest at heart’
Conrad said some patients seeking medical cannabis can’t take pills because of their conditions. She said she drafted her bill with advocates from the recent medical marijuana campaign for “one of the most expansive bills possible to effectuate the will of the people as swiftly as possible.”
She said she and Hansen are committed to enacting the will of the people.
“When and if those negotiations happen, I want to make sure to have their best interest at heart and in the room,” Conrad said.
Hansen said enacting the will of the people is important to him after multiple years around the issue, including working with former State Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, a former lead member of the medical cannabis efforts. A 2021 bill from Wishart fell two votes short of advancing.
“It’s my kind of somewhat conservative-Libertarian-leaning stance about is it the government’s right to deny you a natural or a different form of medication to help with a condition as opposed to pharmaceutical medications,” Hansen said. “That’s what the people, I think, wanted as well, just the option to use it if they could.”
The cannabis ballot measures continue to be challenged in court, with one lawsuit being appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court and another against multiple state officials and the campaign in Lancaster County District Court.
Gov. Jim Pillen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers have questioned the constitutionality of the measures under federal law, which they argue bans marijuana because the drug is classified as a Schedule I drug, defined as having no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
Conrad, however, said that opposition is a “political opinion” that is odd when compared with the wide latitude authorized in the U.S. Constitution for states’ rights. The Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign has made similar arguments, pointing to dozens of other states with medical cannabis programs under the 10th Amendment.
Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission
Under the regulatory bills from McKinney, Conrad and Hansen, all three would prohibit a patient, caregiver or other licensed officials under the law from being arrested, prosecuted or penalized for following the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act or Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act.
Medical cannabis would be legalized for all patients in all three bills, up to 5 ounces.
Conrad and McKinney would allow a health care practitioner to write a recommendation for a greater amount, depending on a patient’s needs.
The bills from Conrad and McKinney would set up a confidential patient and caregiver registry in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Hansen’s bill would put a registry as part of the new Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, with an application fee of up to $45.
All three regulatory bills would maintain membership on the new commission as the members of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission and the authority of the governor to appoint up to two more commissioners.
The new commission also would have an executive director, who could be the same person across the liquor and medical cannabis commissions.
Under the proposed laws, commissioners could not have conflicts of interest for cannabis sales or licensing, in addition to existing conflict of interest laws governing liquor sales and licensing.
The Nebraska Department of Revenue, DHHS, Nebraska Department of Agriculture and the Medical Cannabis Commission would all collaborate to execute the new laws, too.
The new bills include language about cultivating and transporting cannabis in Nebraska.
Proposed restrictions to use
The laws voters passed do not supersede or replace prohibitions on using or possessing cannabis in the following situations:
- While undertaking any task that would constitute negligence or professional malpractice because of cannabis use (including driving or while at work).
- On K-12 postsecondary school grounds, including on school buses or in vans.
- In any jail, adult or juvenile correctional facility or a youth rehabilitation and treatment center.
- At any child care facility or home day care.
In some circumstances, minor patients or workers could use or access their medical cannabis at schools or in child care, foster care or health care facilities. Those places could impose “reasonable restrictions” but could not “unreasonably limit” the patient’s access to the medicine.
However, if allowing cannabis would risk financial penalties or loss of a license under federal law or regulations, cannabis could still be banned.
Smoking cannabis or inhaling cannabis would also remain illegal if it could be inhaled by a nonpatient minor child or is used in a public place, other than with an aerosol inhaler.
Employers would not be required to permit or accommodate cannabis possession or use or and could restrict use of the drug under all three bills. Drug-testing and drug-free work policies could still be enforced.
McKinney’s bill would specifically prohibit employers from discriminating against a qualified patient or registered caregiver in hiring, firing or other conditions of employment unless the employee used cannabis during work hours and the usage impaired job performance or safety. Employers would need to provide reasonable accommodations under McKinney’s approach.
Insurance and Medicaid plans would not be required to cover the costs of cannabis in the versions from Hansen and Conrad. Insurance coverage is not specified in McKinney’s bill.
Licensing requirements
All three bills would establish more specific licensing requirements, similar to alcohol establishments now, with set fees, license types or business tiers.
Conrad would create five license types: cultivator, dispensary, products manufacturer, testing facility and vertical (for an “integrated” medical cannabis business). Hansen would allow one additional type for transporters.
Vertical licenses, which would include other licenses for businesses, would be limited across congressional districts. All licenses would also be limited in the number issued, except transporters.
Instead of “vertical” licenses, McKinney would add a patient delivery license and set up three tiers of businesses — microbusinesses, small businesses and large-scale operators.
Social equity and justice
McKinney’s bill would stipulate that beginning on Jan. 1 for licensing applications, only “social equity applicants” could apply. He would reserve more than half of all licenses for people who have lived in areas impacted by state and federal marijuana possession and distribution laws or who were themselves disproportionately harmed by the country’s “war on drugs.”
Such applicants would be eligible for mentorship and financial assistance in new programs proposed through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
Other applicants could apply beginning April 1, 2026.
The bill also offers resentencing or the automatic erasure and expungement of criminal wrongdoing for certain marijuana-related offenses.
McKinney said his goal in LB 705 is to have a conversation about equity and justice, particularly for people who have been harmed in the past.
“It’s cool to legalize it, but I want to make sure that those that have been negatively affected and disproportionately affected by marijuana laws and cannabis laws have an opportunity to take advantage of the law change,” McKinney said.
‘The will of the people’
Hansen said many factors went into his bill, such as the ballot measure and what voters approved, possible economic benefits and “what we can with live with as a Legislature.”
“I don’t think we should pass the bill or do this because we’re going to make money,” Hansen said. “It’s because it’s what the people wanted, and it’s right for our state.”
Sales taxes are not applied to medicines in Nebraska, but McKinney, Conrad and Hansen would redefine “medical cannabis” to make it subject to state and local sales taxes.
Storm’s bill doesn’t include that change, meaning it would not be taxed under LB 483.
McKinney would tax cannabis at the statewide 5.5 cents per $1 purchase, before local taxes. Hansen and Conrad are seeking a 4-cent state sales tax rate per $1 purchase, before local taxes.
Revenue from sales taxes would be funneled back into the program under the proposals from McKinney and Conrad. Hansen’s bill would redirect the cannabis tax revenues toward property tax relief.
Because voters enacted the measures at the ballot box, lawmakers would need 33 votes in the 49-member Legislature to amend, narrow or reapl any related legislation under the Nebraska Constitution.
Conrad said that means patients and advocates already have a “fail-safe plan” because if lawmakers don’t get 33 votes, the measures are self-enacting and will take effect anyway.
“Our hope is that we’re going to work as fast and as hard as possible to make sure that they can get access to the care that they need,” Conrad said. “But if the Legislature stands in the way of that, the will of the people will prevail.”