Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission approves emergency regulations
By Brian Beach 
, Reporter Nebraska Public Media
June 26, 2025, 4 p.m. ·
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The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission approved emergency regulations on marijuana dispensaries, cultivators, product manufacturers and transporters at its second-ever meeting Thursday morning.
The regulations include a prohibition on raw plant material like flower, products that can be smoked or vaped, products containing flavoring or coloring and cannabis-infused foods and drinks.
Crista Eggers, who leads the advocacy group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said the regulations amount to a de facto ban on marijuana for some patients.
“This will clearly prohibit access to a necessary form of medicine that patients will need,” she said. “A cancer patient, for instance, who is suffering from wasting syndrome and cannot keep anything down, they need the ability to vaporize or inhale cannabis to relieve their symptoms.”
The regulations only allow one dispensary in each of the state’s 12 district court judicial districts. That means big cities like Omaha and Lincoln could only have one medical marijuana dispensary each.
Medical cannabis dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers and transporters cannot be located within 1,000 feet of schools, daycares, churches or hospitals.
The regulations do not include details about who counts as a qualified patient to receive medical cannabis.
The emergency guidelines are required by law to be enacted by next Tuesday, after voters passed Initiative 438 last November.
That initiative enshrined Nebraska Revised Statute 71-24,111 which states the Medical Cannabis Commission shall, “no later than July 1, 2025, establish criteria to accept or deny applications for registrations, including adopting, promulgating, and enforcing reasonable rules, regulations, and eligibility standards for such registrations.”
State law requires 30 days’ notice before a public hearing on proposed guidelines, which would not be enough time for the commission to meet its July 1 deadline. Instead, commission chair Dr. Monica Oldenburg sent a letter to Gov. Jim Pillen requesting the adoption of emergency regulations.
“Without these regulations, establishments will not be able to submit applications nor will the commission be able to review said applications to determine eligibility to dispense, manufacture, cultivate or transport under the Act,” she wrote. “Failure to do so would force Nebraskans to seek medical cannabis or similar products from the unregulated and potentially harmful sources.”
The commission gave members of the public until July 15 to email their feedback on the regulations to lcc.frontdesk@nebraska.gov.
Oldenburg said there will be another public hearing for people to comment on the permanent regulations before they take effect.
Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Swanson explained the emergency rule-making process to the commission during its meeting Thursday.
“These rules then remain in effect for 90 calendar days but can be renewed for a second 90 calendar day period,” he said. “Once approved, the emergency rule or regulation must be filed with Secretary of State and then published on the Commission's website.”
That left the commission with additional unanswered questions, since it does not have the ability to collect funds.
“We don't have a website,” Commissioner Bruce Bailey said. “The state has one vendor we have to use to create a website. It’s $70,000. It's a flat fee... Not having any money, how can you publish onto a website?”
Swanson said he was unable to answer. Commissioner Lorelle Mueting then followed up with a question of her own.
“If we enact emergency regulations and don’t have a website to publish them on, then what?” she asked. “Are we in violation of the law?”
Swanson said the question would have to be resolved in a closed executive session, since his response would be classified as legal advice.
The commission received critical feedback from the public over the regulations, particularly over the types of products that can be sold at medical marijuana dispensaries.
“This is simply not what the people passed. It is not what people support. It is not what Nebraskans need,” said medical marijuana advocate Morgan Ryan. “Barring natural flavoring is really interesting to me, because that seems like just making suffering people suffer more, which is wild.”
Troy Burgess, who operates a medical cannabis dispensary in Oklahoma, cautioned Nebraska to learn from Oklahoma’s mistakes.
He said the lack of a limit on how many cultivators can operate could create a “wild west” system, while the 12-dispensary limit could be too strict.
“We want to give accurate companies licenses to operate with the state, but there has to be enough licenses to service the state adequately,” he said. “It would be like having one place sell alcohol in Lincoln. It wouldn't work. It's unreasonable.”
And Eggers said more details need to be provided for how to apply for a license, given the lack of a medical cannabis commission website.
“To meet the July 1 deadline that is set forth in statute 438, these rules and regulations need to outline how an individual goes about applying for a license,” Eggers said. “It does not seem to speak to that whatsoever.”
The regulations list the required information for a license applicant, such as their name and address, a statement asserting the applicant doesn’t have a disqualifying conviction and the location for which the license is requested. There are no additional details on the application process.
“The best we have right now is what's in here that lays out the information required that you'll have to do for application,” said Commissioner Bailey in response to Eggers. “That will be tied down, hopefully in the next month, so it'll be much clearer.”
After Tuesday, the next deadline for the commission is October 1, when it is required to “begin granting registrations to applicants that meet eligibility standards and other requirements established by the commission.”
The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission is made up of the three members on the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission – Bruce Bailey, Kim Lowe and J. Michael Coffee, who was appointed to the commission by Gov. Pillen last week.
It also includes two additional members appointed by the governor – Dr. Monica Oldenburg and Lorelle Mueting. Both faced a heated confirmation hearing over their past opposition to medical marijuana legalization and were later approved on the floor of the Legislature.
More on the debate over medical marijuana in Nebraska:
Getting into the weeds on medical marijuana in Nebraska, proposed legislative changes
Nebraska Legislature fails to advance medical marijuana regulations
Verdict of medical cannabis trial may affect those with criminal convictions
Nebraskans voted along long-held political divides, county analysis shows