Politics
Nebraska Medical Marijuana Commission ‘Struggling’ As It Seeks ‘Creative’ Solutions To Funding Challenges
“We’re working as hard as we can to get things to you that meet the statutes.”
By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner
Frustrations are boiling over for the members of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission as they seek “creative” solutions due to a lack of state funding to get started, which has complicated the need to pay staff, purchase software and create a robust regulatory system for the drug.
Commissioners were blunt at their third official meeting Monday, saying that without the statutory authority to set or collect fees and no funding to hire new staff or inspectors, the process of crafting formal rules and regulations has been difficult.
The board this summer approved temporary regulations, including licensing criteria, which took effect in late July and are in place through September 28. Those guidelines can be extended for one 90-day period, if needed.
The commission has until October 1 to approve the state’s first registered cannabis establishments, such as cultivators, manufacturers, transporters or dispensaries, according to state law.
Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna said plainly Monday, “We’re struggling,” and she said she knows the pace of progress can frustrate the public. She thanked those who submitted comments on the temporary regulations by July 15 and said commissioners continue to read those comments and do the work. She said commissioners are trying to build a new industry “from the ground up.”
“We’re essentially five commission members trying to do our best,” Mueting said Monday. “We’re working as hard as we can to get things to you that meet the statutes. Thank you for your patience with us.”
Regulatory scope and limitations
Those laws are the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act and the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, both of which voters approved in November. The first law authorizes health care practitioners to recommend that Nebraska patients legally possess up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis. The second law created the new regulatory commission.
The commission’s temporary regulations stipulate what products registered medical cannabis establishments could produce or sell, but they do not regulate or change the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act, Mueting and Commissioner Bruce Bailey of Lincoln confirmed.
“The law that was passed by the residents of Nebraska did not limit what the use of that plant was,” Bailey said Monday.
The temporary regulations prohibit the legal in-state selling, for example, of medical cannabis flower and products that could be smoked or vaped, as well as edibles or other products containing flavoring. However, Nebraska patients and caregivers with a health care practitioner’s recommendation could still legally possess up to 5 ounces of such products.
Those regulations also prohibit no more than one dispensary in each of the state’s 12 Nebraska District Court Judicial Districts.
‘Addendums, agendas or apathy’
Multiple Nebraskans urged the commission to reconsider the temporary regulation’s restrictions ahead of releasing more permanent regulations later this year.
Denise Wegener of Omaha told the commission she has Stiff Person Syndrome, a rare autoimmune neurological disorder that most commonly causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms. She said cycles of healing can be different for each person.
“It’s not just one body,” Wegener said.
She described getting a “cocktail” of valium treatments that put her in “fight-or-flight mode,” while cannabis inhalation might lead to more instant relief.
Multiple veterans, including Brad Balak of Elkhorn, who said he had earned multiple Purple Hearts from deployments, said post-traumatic stress disorder in the middle of the night is another example. Balak asked what the acceptable time frame is for someone to suffer before they should get relief.
Balak and others said the public already spoke, “yet some of those trusted to enact their will have responded not with clarity and kind, but with addendums, agendas or apathy.”
“Engaging with so many of us takes time and effort, but it is required of your position, as this is a job in the public service sector,” Balak testified. “Anything less would be doing a disservice and dishonor to the positions in which you serve.”
Other Nebraskans, including Morgan Ryan and Shannon Coryell, both of Omaha, said banning flavored medical cannabis seemed unnecessary or “cruel” considering the plethora of flavored medications that exist.
Ryan, while speaking, set down five bottles and one pill box to illustrate.
Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the 2024 campaign that sought the legalization of medical cannabis, said that instead of building a medical cannabis program, commissioners were “building a wall around it.” She added that, to many, the wall looks intentional and that commissioners must do better.
“You do not get to reinterpret, slow walk or water down this process to conform to personal or political biases,” Eggers said.
Flavoring, smoking and pregnancy
While not present at Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Monica Oldenburg of Lincoln, an anesthesiologist, had Mueting read Oldenburg’s research she had gathered on flavoring, smoking and the effects of marijuana on pregnancy.
Oldenburg wrote that public health decisions must be made while weighing risks and benefits to all Nebraskans. She explained a flavoring ban is meant to protect children and wrote that, similar to findings on tobacco and smoking, “it’s clear that the harm outweighs the potential benefit.”
The research Oldenburg collected has not yet been made publicly available, but commissioners said they plan to publish those findings and citations. Mueting has voiced similar concerns about flavoring and smoking, as has Gov. Jim Pillen (R), who appointed both women to the five-member board.
Oldenburg suggested the commission also consider guidelines for physicians who write marijuana recommendations, such as whether to ask all women of childbearing age whether they are pregnant before writing a recommendation or whether practitioners in these cases should offer a pregnancy test first.
The commission “exclusively” has the power to regulate the possession, manufacture, distribution, delivery and dispensing of medical cannabis by registered cannabis establishments.
Seed-to-sale software
Mueting and Bailey offered another sobering frustration: the desire for seed-to-sale tracking technology that Bailey described as “absolutely a necessity.” Mueting said other states that started without such software are changing course.
“I think this is something that this commission is pretty in unison about,” Mueting said.
Mueting said she has looked at cannabis programs in Iowa, Georgia, Utah and Hawaii in her independent work and that she’s talked with the Cannabis Regulators Association. She said she’s also connected with Nebraska procurement officials on how the commission might be able to request information from seed-to-sale operators in other states.
A seed-to-sale system could annually cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bailey said, in addition to initial conversations on how to merge some Medical Cannabis Commission software with the Liquor Control Commission that Bailey chairs.
Mueting said the commission might try having licensees pay seed-to-sale vendors directly for the ability to use the software, instead of paying the commission, which a national regulator indicated no other state has been able to do. Mueting said Nebraska wants to at least try, given the commission’s limited options.
Under state law, the three gubernatorially appointed members of the Liquor Control Commission automatically serve on the Medical Cannabis Commission, plus up to two at-large appointees.
What comes next
The lack of legislatively appropriated Medical Cannabis Commission funding spilled over Tuesday into a meeting of the Liquor Control Commission. There, commissioners approved a roughly $108 payment for newspaper public notices the Medical Cannabis Commission needed for two June meetings.
State lawmakers this spring did not give the Medical Cannabis Commission any funds. Instead, state senators gave the Liquor Control Commission an extra $30,000 this year to be used to reimburse staff who might take on additional duties because of the new regulatory laws.
Bailey has made clear his hesitation and caution before using Liquor Control Commission funds, saying Tuesday there would be “a lot more study” about paying any larger bills.
Mueting will be the point person to negotiate with her colleagues on the Liquor Control Commission on a joint agency agreement to more clearly define how the agencies could share funds, staff or other resources. There is no timeline for when that agreement would be drafted or approved.
Bailey voiced his support for vertical or horizontal licensing, meaning that someone could possess different types of medical cannabis licenses or possess multiple licenses across different geographic parts of the state.
He added that he hopes the Medical Cannabis Commission can have updated rules for public review before the next commission meeting. Bailey said he also hopes licensing might be able to move in phases, such as with cultivators first.
The Medical Cannabis Commission is scheduled to meet next at 1 p.m. on September 2.
This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.
