Tag: medical marijuana

Nebraska Medical Marijuana Regulators Approve Emergency Rules Banning Flower Access For Patients

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday approved emergency regulations to begin accepting medical cannabis applications as soon as Gov. Jim Pillen (R) gives his final green light.

State law requires him to do so by Tuesday.

The emergency regulations, unveiled for the first time minutes before the 10 a.m. meeting, largely mirror a legislative proposal that lawmakers stalled on last month. The regulations would take effect for up to 90 days, pending Pillen’s approval. The two medical cannabis-related laws that voters approved mandate that applications must start being accepted no later than July 1.

Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna, an addiction prevention specialist through Heartland Family Service, affirmed that commissioners want public feedback on the emergency regulations through July 15, to inform future, formal regulations.

Public comments may be submitted to lcc.frontdesk@nebraska.gov, the repository for the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, which will forward the messages onto the state’s new Medical Cannabis Commission.

“The input that the public provides on these emergency regulations will help us immediately begin drafting the regular regulations,” Mueting said Thursday.

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Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission Proposal Will ‘Destroy Patient Access,’ Advocates Say

It’s unclear what requirements the state commission to regulate medical cannabis in Nebraska might enact to license such operations by this fall, ahead of a deadline next week for detailing the criteria for applications.

The Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission has until July 1 to write licensing criteria under state law. But as commissioners gear up for their next meeting Thursday, the first with all five commissioners, they have indicated they will consider adopting draft or emergency criteria to accept or deny licensing applications after July 1.

Licensing must begin by October 1, the same time any other requirements for medical cannabis must be enacted, according to a pair of laws that voters overwhelmingly approved in a pair of November ballot measures.

However, with just hours until the next commission meeting, there is no specific indication of what criteria the board will consider.

Also on the agenda is a legal “memorandum of agreement” to help with future rulemaking involving the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Gov. Jim Pillen’s (R) Policy Research Office, the policy lobbying arm of the state’s chief executive.

No draft rules or regulations, including licensing criteria, have yet been made public.

Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which has led medical cannabis ballot measures since 2020, said she’s faced a lack of transparency and been unable to reach the commission or have questions answered in recent weeks, leaving many advocates “extremely frustrated.”

“I didn’t know we could be more frustrated than what we have been previously, but there just seems to be a new layer added every single day,” Eggers said Tuesday.

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U.S. House Approves Amendment Allowing VA Doctors to Recommend Medical Cannabis to Veterans

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved an amendment that would allow Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physicians to recommend medical marijuana to veterans in states where it’s legal.

The measure, introduced by Representatives Brian Mast (R-FL) and Dave Joyce (R-OH), was adopted as part of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3944). The overall bill is expected to receive a final vote on the House floor soon.

The amendment would prohibit the VA from using federal funds to enforce a longstanding policy that prevents VA doctors from assisting patients with enrolling in state-approved medical marijuana programs. Under current rules, VA physicians are barred from discussing or filling out the necessary paperwork for veterans to access legal marijuana, even in the 39 states that allow its use for medical purposes.

The amendment states:

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Directive 1315 as it relates to:

(1) the policy stating that ‘VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program’;

(2) the directive for the ‘Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management’ to ensure that ‘medical facility Directors are aware that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from recommending, making referrals to or completing paperwork for Veteran participation in State marijuana programs’; and

(3) the directive for the ‘VA Medical Facility Director’ to ensure that ‘VA facility staff are aware of the following’ ‘[t]he prohibition recommending, making referrals to or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in State-approved marijuana programs.

Two bills have been filed this year in the House that would take a similar approach in easing access to medical cannabis for veterans, the Veterans Cannabis Use for Safe Healing Act and the Veterans Equal Access Act, filed by Rep. Gregory Steube (R-FL) and Brian Mast (R-FL).

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Missouri Marijuana Officials Are Reviewing Rules On Purchase Limits For Medical Patients

Cannabis advocacy organizations are sounding the alarm about guidance from state regulators limiting how much medical marijuana patients can purchase from licensed dispensaries.

By law, dispensaries are required to track how much medical marijuana patients buy so they don’t exceed their limit.

According to a FAQ that was added earlier this year to the website of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the state’s cannabis regulatory agency, if patients reach their limit they are not legally allowed to buy marijuana like as a recreational consumer.

“…patient ID card holders are not allowed to purchase as a consumer in a licensed dispensary,” the website states. “These regulations help ensure patients and consumers stay within their allowed possession limits.”

In general, medical patients are limited to a 6-ounce allotment of dried, unprocessed marijuana every 30 days. Recreational consumers are allowed to purchase up to 3 ounces every day—but can’t possess more than 3 ounces.

The state is prohibited by law from tracking the purchases of people who don’t have patient ID cards without their permission.

Andrew Mullins, executive director of the Missouri Marijuana Trade Association, sent a letter to leaders of the Division of Cannabis Regulation in April claiming the policy is unconstitutional.

“We believe that DCR’s interpretation that a Missourian must either be an adult-use consumer or a medical patient is neither good public policy nor a constitutionally sound interpretation,” he wrote.

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Texas Governor Signs Bill To Significantly Expand State’s Medical Marijuana Program

The governor of Texas has approved a bill to to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program.

As advocates and stakeholders await the fate of a separate measure banning consumable hemp products, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Saturday signed into law the medical cannabis legislation from Rep. Ken King (R).

The new law will expand the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.

The measure additionally allows patients to access a wider range of cannabis product types—including patches, lotions, suppositories, approved inhalers, nebulizers and vaping devices.

And, it mandates that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) increase the number of medical cannabis business licenses from the current three to 15. It further allows dispensaries to open satellite locations.

Before moving to the governor’s desk, House lawmakers had rejected Senate changes to the bill, which largely scaled back the scope of the proposed expansion to the medical marijuana program.

The version passed by the House last month would have extended the currently limited list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, glaucoma, TBI, spinal neuropathy, Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease and degenerative disc disease.

It would also have allowed military veterans to become registered cannabis patients for any medical condition—and authorized the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to further expand the list of qualifying conditions.

But those provisions were removed in the Senate State Affairs Committee before the bill reached the floor of that chamber.

Rep. Tom Oliverson (R) suggested there was an agreement around adding chronic pain with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), the presiding officer of the Senate. While Patrick disputed the characterization of their conversation, the lieutenant governor and lawmakers ultimately reached a deal to reinsert the condition into the bill with an amendment that passed on the Senate floor, among others.

Whereas the Senate version had said that chronic pain patients could only access medical cannabis if they had first tried opioids for 90 days, the final version crafted by the conference committee does not contain such a stipulation. And, under the agreement, TBI is being added back in as a new qualifying condition as well.

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Texas medical marijuana companies spent big on Republican lobbyists to push THC ban

Gov. Greg Abbott has a choice when it comes to banning hemp-derived delta-8 and delta-9 THC products: listen to hundreds of thousands of Texans who enjoy them or a handful of powerful Republican lobbyists working for marijuana investors.

Abbott is in the crossfire of a cannabis civil war. Medical marijuana and retail hemp companies are fighting over who can legally get people high. The standoff is typical Texas politics, with the medical marijuana companies hiring former aides to Abbott and Lt. Gov Dan Patrick to lobby for them, and the hemp industry relying on public pressure.

The Texas Legislature authorized medical marijuana in 2017 for a tiny number of patients. Three medical cannabis companies have spent millions complying with the Texas Compassionate Use Program to legally sell products with THC, the ingredient in marijuana that makes you high. They expected exclusivity. Since then, lawmakers have steadily expanded TCUP to treat more conditions, adding people with chronic pain this year.

In 2021, cannabis-focused venture capital firm AFI Capital Partners led a $21 million Series B investment in Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation. The company supplied 77% of the medical cannabis consumed in 2022, the latest full-year data available in an annual Texas Department of Public Safety TCUP analysis.

The investment had horrible timing. In 2019, federal and state lawmakers legalized hemp, a type of cannabis with low levels of THC. Hemp entrepreneurs figured out how to concentrate the THC, and today, the hemp industry primarily sells edibles containing enough THC to get you stoned.

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Florida Lawmakers Pass Bill To Revoke Medical Marijuana Cards From People With Drug Convictions, Sending It To DeSantis’s Desk

Lawmakers in Florida are sending legislation to the governor’s desk that would revoke state medical marijuana registrations of people convicted of certain drug crimes.

On Monday, both the House and Senate signed off on a compromise version of SB 2514, a broad bill that touches on cancer, dentistry and other health-related matters. It also contains a provision that would force the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted or plead either guilty or no contest to criminal drug charges.

On Monday, both legislative chambers approved a compromise committee’s revised version of the bill and sent the measure to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Language in the latest version is slightly different than what the Senate approved earlier this year. It says that a patient or caregiver would have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a state drug crime. The suspension would remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition.

DOH officials would have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Authorities would be required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The revised language appears to eliminate an earlier restriction that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use. The new version focuses more specifically on production and distribution.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers would have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That would involve submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it would impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

Notably, lawmakers defeated several proposals to expand the medical cannabis program during this year’s regular legislation session—including by allowing home cultivation, adding new qualifying conditions, protecting employment and parental rights of patients and letting military veterans register for free.

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Alabama Judge Will Hear Lawsuit From Parents Over State’s Medical Marijuana Delays

A judge will hold a hearing later this month in a lawsuit filed by parents of children potentially eligible to receive medical cannabis under Alabama’s long-delayed program.

The five parents—Dustin Chandler, Cristina Cain, Catherine Hall, Megan Jackson and Kari Forsyth—want the court to require the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) to establish a patient registry for medical cannabis, citing delays in access to the program.

“Plaintiffs also bring this petition in their individual capacities because they have suffered specific injuries as a result of the Commissioner’s failure to establish the patient and caregiver registry and seek to vindicate their own private rights,” the parents claimed in the lawsuit. The are also suing “in the name of the State of Alabama to uphold the Compassion Act’s requirement.”

The commission argued in a motion to dismiss filed in May that the lawsuit lacks standing and asks the AMCC to take steps already taken or beyond its control.

“The Commission applauds the early advocacy of those among the Petitioners who supported passage of the [Compassion Act]. Regretfully, it appears the Petitioners have been misinformed about the status of the Patient Registry and why it has not yet been populated with the names of eligible patients,” counsel for AMCC wrote in the motion.

The plaintiffs said in their filing that each child “has a condition that is treatable with medical cannabis” but does not provide any further details.

The AMCC states in the motion that a patient registry has, in fact, been established and is being maintained at a significant expense. But according to the motion to dismiss, no patients are currently registered because physicians cannot be certified until certain licensing requirements for cultivators, processors, transporters and dispensaries are met.

According to the AMCC’s filing, rules established by the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners (BME) dictate that physician certification is dependent on issuing at least one license in each of the licensing categories, or to one integrated facility.

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Texas Lawmakers Pass Medical Marijuana Program Expansion Bill, Sending It To The Governor’s Desk

Texas lawmakers have passed a bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program, sending it to the governor.

Just days after the legislation from Rep. Ken King (R) advanced through the Senate, with amendments that watered down the original House proposal, bicameral negotiators worked out a compromise over the weekend and then each chamber gave final approval on Sunday.

The measure now heads to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to potentially be signed into law.

The final version of the bill—which cleared the House on a 138-1 vote and the Senate by a vote of 31-0—would expand the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.

The measure would additionally allow patients to access a wider range of cannabis product types—including patches, lotions, suppositories, approved inhalers, nebulizers and vaping devices.

And, it would mandate that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) increase the number of medical cannabis business licenses from the current three to 15. It would further allow dispensaries to open satellite locations.

House lawmakers on Friday had rejected the Senate’s changes to the bill, which largely scaled back the scope of the proposed expansion to the medical marijuana program.

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Kentucky Governor Launches Medical Marijuana Dispensary Map Ahead Of Market Launch And Waives Patient Renewal Fees

The governor of Kentucky has announced a new online directory that lets people see where medical cannabis dispensaries will be opening near them—and he signed an executive order to waive renewal fees for patients who get their cards this year so that they don’t get charged again before retailers open.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) shared a series of developments as the state prepares for the rollout of its medical cannabis program that he signed into law in 2023.

“Since taking office, we’ve been committed to providing access to health care and creating safe communities for all Kentuckians,” he said. “One of our priorities was securing medical cannabis for Kentuckians suffering from cancer, from PTSD, from chronic pain and other conditions.”

Beshear emphasized that the state has been working to deliver access to patients “at the earliest possible date,” and that involved expediting the licensing process. The governor in January also ceremonially awarded the commonwealth’s first medical marijuana cards.

A majority of approved licensees have been inspected and approved, the governor said, adding that “there’s going to be a dispensary point for all patients.” And to that end, the state’s Office of Medical Cannabis has created an interactive map for patients to find their nearest dispensary

“None of these dispensaries are open yet, but you can go ahead and see where the dispensaries will be located so that you can make plans, when they’re open, how you’re going to secure your medical cannabis,” the governor said.

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