“It moves us closer to the day patients can speak openly with their doctors and families like mine can finally see the relief our loved ones have waited so long for.”
By Juan Salinas II, Nebraska Examiner
The Nebraska Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee advanced a bill onto the floor that explicitly protects physicians who recommend medical cannabis to patients.
The committee on Tuesday voted 5-2 to advance Legislative Bill 933 from State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha. The measure would grant medical practitioners immunity from civil, criminal or disciplinary action for stating that, in the provider’s professional opinion, a patient is likely to receive therapeutic benefit or symptom relief from using cannabis for a medical condition.
State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering, the committee chair, and State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln were the two senators who voted no. Hardin argued the bill might be a Trojan horse. Ballard questioned whether the bill was needed.
The committee amended the bill to emphasize that a health care practitioner could still be “subject to civil penalty or disciplinary action” for not properly evaluating the medical condition of a patient.
Tuesday’s vote was the latest in a years-long saga over medical cannabis in the state as Nebraska officials have slowed the implementation of two voter-passed laws.
Nebraskans voted overwhelmingly to legalize possession of up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis with any health care practitioner’s recommendation in 2024. The law took effect late that year. Patients or caregivers following the state law are immune from state or local criminal penalties. Voters separately created the regulatory Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, which will eventually license in-state dispensaries, allowing legal sales of the drug in the Cornhusker State.
Over the past 15 months, lawmakers and advocates say they are not aware of any in-state providers who have recommended medical cannabis, partially because of concerns about liability and potential risks to licensure, some have said.
Cavanaugh’s bill borrows language from last year’s LB 677 from State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair. Hansen’s more expansive medical cannabis bill sought to give more structure to the Medical Cannabis Commission, including funding. The more comprehensive measure failed, falling short of the 33 votes needed to alter a state law passed by ballot measure.
Nebraska also was left off a nearly annual congressional effort to protect states with medical cannabis programs, typically a noncontroversial addition to a federal spending bill that protects 47 other states with at least some form of medical cannabis laws.
Crista Eggers of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group that led two 2024 ballot measures on medical cannabis, said the proposal is a “foundational protection that every medical cannabis program in the country provides so doctors can care for patients without fear.”
“Without it, Nebraska risks having a program that fails to function… Advancing LB 933 through committee is only the first step,” Eggers said. “It moves us closer to the day patients can speak openly with their doctors and families like mine can finally see the relief our loved ones have waited so long for.”
Now, it’s up to the speaker, John Arch of La Vista, to schedule it. The idea that the bill received bipartisan committee support could increase the pressure on Arch to let the bill reach the floor. Arch’s office said Tuesday that it was too soon for the speaker to set a timeline since the bill just came out of committee.
This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.
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