Medical Cannabis Commission approves emergency regulations, begins process to make them permanent

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission approved a set of emergency regulations for the medical marijuana industry as it nears the Oct. 1 deadline to begin granting registrations to cultivators, manufacturers, transporters and dispensaries.

Two versions of regulations were presented and published on the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission's website prior to the Cannabis Commission’s Tuesday afternoon’s meeting.

The commission approved Version A, with a few small changes from what was published online. The 46-page document outlines the application process for cultivators, manufacturers, transporters and dispensaries to receive licenses and limits how many of each can be approved.

The regulations allow one dispensary license in each of the state's 12 District Court Judicial Districts, the same as in the first draft of emergency regulations approved in June. The new regulations also provide pesticide, foreign matter and microbial standards for quality assurance testing. Raw plant material and products infused with Delta-8 or Delta-10 remain banned.

Commissioners made a few changes to Version A before approving it, including increasing the cultivator licenses from two to four, and adding a subsequent application time period, with details from Section 3.06 of Version B.

The commission also added oral tablets with or without flavored coating to the list of allowable medical cannabis products.

Commissioners debated whether vaping should be allowed, with Bruce Bailey advocating for its inclusion in the new regulations. He said it can provide more immediate relief for symptoms than other methods.

“Vaping effects within one to three minutes. If you do some other orals, it's two to three hours,” he said. “That's not what you need when that child is sitting there and needing something else.”

Commission chair Dr. Monica Oldenburg disagreed.

“There is no medical society out there, FDA, CDC, American Lung Association, American Society of Anesthesia, nobody will say that vaping is medicine,” she said. “And when I've talked to every physician that I know and I ask them this, they really do look at me like I have three heads, like I'm making a funny joke.”

Vaping was included in Version B of the draft regulations, but remains unallowable in what was approved.

During a public comment period, testifiers shared their concerns with the proposed restrictions.

Denise Wegener, who said she has been using medical cannabis illegally for the last two years, said she is worried about the way the commission is limiting the ways in which cannabis can be consumed.

“I'm starting to have some symptoms where my chest begins to constrict because of my muscle spasms and because of my disorder, and it doesn't feel great, but the quickest way to alleviate that is to either smoke or vape the plant, and the quicker I can get that into my system, the faster it can alleviate some of my symptoms,” she said.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana executive director Krista Eggers criticized the rulemaking process and Gov. Jim Pillen’s influence on the commission.

“The fact that we're leaning on DHHS, an agency that has opposed medical cannabis in its entirety from the very beginning, is very concerning,” she said. “It's clear you're taking advice and guidance on rulemaking influencing outcomes of this program, as well as the governor's policy office, who are dragging in the same anti cannabis narrative that patients and families have been dealing with for over a decade.”

The emergency regulations approved Tuesday will require Pillen’s signature to go into effect for 90 days.

The new regulations were also moved forward in the formal promulgation process, which would allow them to become permanent. That process requires a public hearing at least 30 days following the proposal. Then, the rules need the approval of Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Pillen before it can be filed with the Secretary of State. The regulations would become law five days later.

However, an opinion editorial written by Hilgers and U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts in March warned that more legal problems await, even if the Nebraska Supreme Court rules the petition process used to put the medical marijuana initiative on the ballot was legal – a case currently pending.