Neb.: Upcoming hearing on gutting patient protections!

“Parents of sick children should not be at the Capitol for the 13th session in a row after voters passed medical cannabis, just fighting to keep the rights.” 

 — Crista Eggers, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana

The Nebraska General Affairs Committee is fast-tracking a devastating bill, LB 1235, which would gut the voter-enacted Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act and give more power to a hostile commission. 

LB 1235 has been scheduled for a hearing next Monday, February 2, at 1:30 pm in Room 1023 of the Nebraska Legislature. 

If you live in Nebraska, you can also submit comments online. Click on "Submit Comments Online for LB1235" under “history.”

General Affairs Chair Richard Holdcroft told KETV, “All we're doing is giving the means by which the commission can carry out its duties. This provides them with the ability to collect fees, to hire people, to organize themselves going forward."

But that’s not true! Under Initiative 437, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act, patients can possess and use cannabis with a simple  recommendation from a practitioner licensed in any state. LB 1235 would require all patients, caregivers, and practitioners to register with the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, which would have no deadline to act. Every Nebraskan who is using medical cannabis legally now would be re-criminalized unless and until the Commission opens a registry and issues them an ID card.

Only Nebraska practitioners could certify patients, and they would have to pay the state up to $150 every two years to do so, in addition to other burdens. 

LB 1235 would also give the Commission the power to set rules for I-437. The Commission has abused its power over I-438 by capping cultivation at an absurdly low plant number and banning the sale of medical cannabis forms the initiatives allow — including flower, smoking, edibles, and vaporization. 

Seventy-one percent of Nebraskans approved I-437. 

If you live in Nebraska, let the committee know: Voters demand they leave the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act intact! Requiring registration and giving a hostile commission power to gut patient protections is outrageous and unacceptable.  

Spread the word and make sure the Legislature doesn’t take away patients’ hard-won  legal protections!