Members of the Health and Human Services Committee voted Tuesday to advance a bill that would give doctors immunity from lawsuits if they recommend medical marijuana as a treatment. But some senators expressed doubt that the bill will advance in the full Legislature.
Committee Chairman Sen. Brian Hardin called the bill a Trojan horse, and several members agreed that the bill might be followed by legislation allowing for recreational marijuana. Others said the bill is too broad, concerned that medical practitioners could be immune from lawsuits if they prescribe medical marijuana. The bill does include a stipulation that doctors are only immune if they operate in good faith and within the law to not cause harm to their patients.
But Sen. Ben Hansen argued that the bill is a drop in the bucket of necessary legal frameworks necessary for medical marijuana. Hansen filed a very similar bill one year ago, which would have set up regulations for medical marijuana, but it didn’t pass. Sen. John Cavanaugh has prioritized this year’s iteration of the bill, which he filed himself, in an effort to give it a greater chance of making it to the full legislature for a vote.
Sen. Glen Meyer agreed, noting that many cancer patients and parents of children with painful illnesses are eager for more protections around medical marijuana use.
Nebraskans voted in 2024 to legalize medical marijuana, but the law has yet to be implemented because the state has been slow to build the legal framework necessary to permit regulation and sales of it.
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