Medical marijuana regulation stalls in Nebraska Legislature committee

By Brian Beach , Reporter Nebraska Public Media

17 de Abril de 2025 a las 16:00 ·

Marijuana being cultivated for sale at Sedgwick, Colorado's dispensary. (Photo: Bill Kelly/Nebraska Public Media News)

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A bill to regulate medical cannabis in Nebraska faced a significant setback Thursday afternoon.

During an executive session in the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee, senators failed to advance LB677, which regulates medical marijuana.

The legislation comes on the heels of initiatives to legalize and regulate the substance, which both passed in November with more than two-thirds of the vote.

Initiative 437 legalizes the use of up to five ounces of marijuana for medical purposes by qualified patients.

Initiative 438 allows the Legislature to create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to regulate the medical marijuana industry in the state and repeals the current penalties in place for use and distribution of cannabis for medical purposes.

The Legislature has the power to amend laws passed by initiative, but it takes votes from two-thirds of senators on final reading, instead of the usual simple majority.

The General Affairs Committee considered an amendment to LB677 Thursday that would prohibit the sale and use of marijuana flowers and leaves and remove post-traumatic stress disorder from a list of ailments for which the substance can be prescribed. The amendment seemed to have the support of Sen. Rick Holdcroft, the committee’s chair, and other conservative senators.

But Sen. John Cavanaugh said he could not support the amendment.

“The proposed amendment went too far against the will of the people by banning people's ability to possess the plant itself for medical purposes,” he said after the session. “The ballot initiative clearly states that people have a right to possess the plant. And I think that the list of ailments was critically flawed in that it didn't include PTSD, which I think is an ailment that clearly should be included.”

No one made a motion to vote on the proposed amendment, so no vote was taken.

Other senators seemed to be “no” votes on any medical marijuana bill regardless of amendments.

Sen. Jared Storm said he would rather the committee wait until a pending case from Attorney General Mike Hilgers against medical marijuana petition circulators is decided later this year. Passing legislation now, he argued, could interfere with the case. Storm said a brief from Hilgers would be published sometime in the next 10 days and he encouraged senators to read it.

After more than a half hour of discussion, senators voted 5-3 against advancing the unamended bill.

Cavanaugh, who was among those voting to advance the bill, said the result won’t make medical cannabis illegal, but rather, inaccessible.

“People I'm concerned about are people who it's a little bit harder for them to get a doctor's note in a system where there's not a process for that, and the people who can't purchase it because you'd have to go to a state where it is legal,” he said.

However, he said the bill is not necessarily over this session, and he may support another amendment from Sen. Ben Hansen that has yet to be introduced.