Politics
Nebraska Governor Pushes Officials To Enact Medical Marijuana Cultivation Cap
“Leaving the cultivators without a limit would increase [the] likelihood of an overabundance of cannabis product that creates an unregulated, unintended black-market supply.”
By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner
The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission will cap cultivators for the new medicine to grow no more than 1,250 flowering plants at one time, adding a limit that the governor had requested.
Gov. Jim Pillen (R), in a Thursday letter to the five-member commission, said while he appreciated commissioners’ work to “ensure the cannabis industry is properly regulated,” he would not sign new emergency regulations the commission approved September 2 without the group setting a limit on how many plants cannabis cultivators grow.
“Leaving the cultivators without a limit would increase [the] likelihood of an overabundance of cannabis product that creates an unregulated, unintended black-market supply,” Pillen wrote.
He continued: “If an inclusion of plant population limits for permitted cultivators can be included, I will support the remainder of the proposed emergency regulations to go into effect.”
Last week, the commission said it would license only four medical cannabis cultivators. The first round of cultivator applications meeting the new regulations are due by September 23. Licensing must begin by October 1.
Placeholder limits expanded
The Medical Cannabis Commission built its discussion on top of a placeholder draft put forward by Bo Botelho, the general counsel for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services who is advising the commission pursuant to an inter-agency agreement.
DHHS has opposed medical cannabis in the past, which is why advocates sought and ultimately won voter approval to house the new Medical Cannabis Commission elsewhere, that being the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission.
Botelho said he worked backward from Missouri’s plant limits, noting the neighboring state grows plants for recreational and medicinal use. He proposed a much more stringent limit than allowed in the neighboring Show-Me State.
He had proposed the following placeholder limits:
- Indoor facilities: 200 flowering plants.
- Outdoor facilities: 500 flowering plants.
- Greenhouse facilities: 300 flowering plants.
- A combination of the three types: 200 flowering plants.
“The numbers that I came to isn’t the result of any real math,” Botelho said. “I just put some numbers in there to start with.”
Commissioner Bruce Bailey of Lincoln led a push to increase the number of plants allowed. He noted some plants might be lost to crop failure while others might not meet new commission testing requirements. Bailey said he also wanted to be sure there was enough supply for Nebraska patients.
Four of Nebraska’s six bordering states have legal medical cannabis programs, with the percentage of residents in those states using the programs as follows: Iowa, 0.55 percent; Colorado, 1.05 percent; South Dakota, 1.26 percent; and Missouri, 1.95 percent, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
Using a rough ratio of one plant serving every two patients, Bailey and other commissioners worked toward serving approximately 1 percent of the state, or a prospective 20,000 Nebraskans.
Meeting patient demand
Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna, an addiction prevention specialist with Heartland Family Service, said Nebraska also might not have 20,000 patients “right off the bat,” and joined with Commissioner Kim Lowe of Kearney, voicing an intent to review the numbers in the future.
Mueting said that in the limited time between Pillen’s Thursday decision not to sign on and the commission’s “emergency” Monday meeting, she had researched that 2,000 indoor plants might be able to produce enough tinctures for 2,300 patients each year.
“I don’t know how all this translates into plants, because, again…how much flower a plant can produce depends on how it’s grown, how it’s cultivated,” Mueting said.
Rather than set specific limits for indoor, outdoor or greenhouse facilities, Bailey proposed the 1,250 plant limit, no matter the type of facility. That would mean that with a total of four cultivators, there could be 5,000 active plants at once with two harvests anticipated annually, meeting the 10,000 plant goal.
Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the nonprofit that led the successful 2024 petition campaign, said the commission was going to “starve” a program before it could start.
“On your hands will be the blood of the patients in the state,” she said.
Lia Post of Springfield, who has complex regional pain syndrome, again urged the commission to see her and other Nebraskans as patients.
“My illness doesn’t change at state lines,” Post said. “I guarantee you I’m going to use cannabis instead of opioids or benzodiazepines or sedatives or ketamine, and if the most offensive thing I can do is cuss at you or tell you what a bunch of idiots you are, freedom of speech has gone to hell in Nebraska.”
The Medical Cannabis Commission is scheduled to meet next at 1 p.m. on September 30.
What would the latest medical cannabis emergency regulations mean?
If approved, the latest set of emergency medical cannabis regulations would replace an earlier set that would expire by September 28. The new set would be in effect for a new 90-day period.
The latest regulations would establish a “Recommending Health Care Practitioner Directory” and also make Nebraska’s program essentially a low-THC variety.
Under the regulations, patients or caregivers could purchase up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis in a 30-day period, which is about 142 grams. Of that, patients could purchase no more than 5 grams of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the same dispensary within a 90-day period. Delta-9 THC is the part of cannabis most associated with a “high.”
The amended regulations would maintain a limit of up to 12 medical cannabis dispensaries statewide arranged by judicial district. That would mean one dispensary each in Douglas County (584,526 residents), Lancaster County (322,608 residents), Sarpy/Cass Counties (217,202 residents) and Buffalo/Hall Counties (112,979 residents), according to 2020 census data.
The rules would still prohibit dispensaries from selling smoking or vaping products and edibles of any kind. While the earlier rules would have allowed the sale of non-sugarcoated gelatinous cubes, the revised rules would not. Oral tablets with a “thin layer” of flavoring to make the products swallowable would now be allowed.
Under current law, a patient or qualified caregiver with a recommendation from any health care practitioner can legally possess up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis, in any form. But no licenses have yet been issued, so cannabis can’t legally be purchased in Nebraska yet.
This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
