{"id":47615,"date":"2021-05-10T04:23:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T12:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/nebraska-medical-marijuana-bill-will-go-before-full-legislature-this-week\/"},"modified":"2021-05-10T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T21:45:36","slug":"nebraska-medical-marijuana-bill-will-go-before-full-legislature-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/nebraska-medical-marijuana-bill-will-go-before-full-legislature-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska Medical Marijuana Bill Will Go Before Full Legislature This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Nebraska legislature is taking up a bill to legalize medical marijuana this week\u2014the latest in a string of conservative states to consider the reform move recently.<\/p>\n

Sen. Anna Wishart (D), sponsor of the legislation, announced that it will \u201cbe debated by the full legislature\u201d on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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Just heard, my bill to legalize medical cannabis, LB 474 will be debated by the full legislature on Wednesday, May 12 at 9am! Carrying the voices of Colton and all the patients who would benefit from this plant based medicine with me. \"💚\" pic.twitter.com\/S7gZRyaJ45<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Senator Anna Wishart (@NebraskaAnna) May 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This comes four months after the bill<\/a> was introduced. It was approved in the Judiciary Committee in March<\/a>, where it was subject to amendments.<\/p>\n

The measure would allow patients with certain qualifying conditions to purchase and possess up to two and a half ounces of cannabis from licensed dispensaries. It would not allow patients to smoke marijuana, however.<\/p>\n

While the bill originally would have generally allowed patients to access marijuana for any condition that the plant may treat, it was revised<\/a> in committee to include a specific list of 17 qualifying conditions, including cancer, Crohn\u2019s disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV\/AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.<\/p>\n

Passing in the GOP-controlled unicameral body is expected to be challenging, as lawmakers will likely have to overcome a filibuster with at least 33 votes for cloture. If they accomplish that, a vote could then take place to approve the reform bill itself.<\/p>\n

But while the legislation as currently amended might prove to be difficult, it\u2019s possible that legislators could accept additional changes and reach a compromise that makes the proposal more palatable to reform opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that proponents for medical cannabis are willing to see compromises on the bill if that means getting something done,\u201d Jared Moffat, state campaigns manager for the national Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n

Wishart and Sen. Adam Morfeld (D) have been consistent champions of cannabis reform, and while this bill is a fairly limited proposal to legalize medical marijuana, the pair announced in December that they\u2019re working to\u00a0put the question of legalization for adult use<\/a>\u00a0before voters in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2014
\nMarijuana Moment is already tracking more than 1,100 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills<\/a> in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters<\/a> pledging at least $25\/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don\u2019t miss any developments.<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nLearn more about our marijuana bill tracker<\/a> and become a supporter on Patreon<\/a> to get access.
\n\u2014<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Their campaign\u2014Nebraskans for Medical Cannabis\u2014is separately collecting signatures for\u00a0a medical cannabis legalization measure<\/a>\u00a0that they hope to place on the 2022 ballot as well.<\/p>\n

The group qualified a measure to legalize medical marijuana for last year\u2019s ballot. But the state Supreme Court\u00a0shut it down following a single-subject challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Judiciary hearing, Chairman Steve Lathrop (R) said that he voted in favor of the medical cannabis legalization bill partly because he feels it would be a better alternative compared to the measure that could be placed on the ballot.<\/p>\n

If activists do collect enough signatures to qualify either the medical or recreational cannabis measure, they will still likely face a challenge at the polls, as midterms generally see lower turnout as compared to presidential election years.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s possible that the continuing momentum for reform via the ballot could spur lawmakers to potentially pass medical cannabis legislation such as Wishart\u2019s bill in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) is an adamant opponent of marijuana reform, so it seems likely he would veto any medical cannabis bill that lawmakers sent to his desk. Overriding a gubernatorial veto would require 30 votes, meaning at least some members of his own party would have to move to reject the governor\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

Under last year\u2019s blocked Nebraska medical cannabis initiative, physicians would have been able to recommend cannabis to patients suffering from debilitating medical conditions, and those patients would then have been allowed to possess, purchase and \u201cdiscreetly\u201d cultivate marijuana for personal use.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Nebraska\u2019s attorney general said in an opinion in 2019 that efforts to legalize medical marijuana in the state\u00a0would be preempted by federal law<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cwould be, therefore, unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Alabama Governor Hopes To Sign Medical Marijuana Bill After Reviewing Its Provisions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Nebraska Medical Marijuana Bill Will Go Before Full Legislature This Week<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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The Nebraska legislature is taking up a bill to legalize medical marijuana this week\u2014the latest in a string of conservative states to consider the reform move recently. Sen. Anna Wishart (D), sponsor of the legislation, announced that it will \u201cbe debated by the full legislature\u201d on Wednesday. Just heard, myContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":47616,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47617,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47615\/revisions\/47617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}