Advocates, Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission continue to clash over agency’s  direction

LINCOLN — The tension between voters and the appointed members of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission has not faded in the year since the commission issued its first licenses.

A public hearing on the commission’s latest proposed changes to its rules and regulations is Thursday. However, some concern extends further, into the role of the Nebraska Legislature and how far lawmakers should step in regarding the voter-approved medical cannabis laws, such as around testing.

The commission first began its work in June 2025 and licensed the first cultivators in October 2025. Now, the first cultivator is close to harvest: MahāMotā Cultivation near Raymond.

‘Don’t want to be sitting on our hands’

Garrett Elting, a cultivation systems manager at MahāMotā, told the commissioners last month that the company was roughly four to six weeks away from harvest. However, Elting said, the organization has no pathway to lab testing, and no product manufacturers or transporters are licensed in the state.

Elting said storage could be needed for months, which also has drawbacks.

“With the storage we have degradation of the biomass, and we’re going to be losing terpenes and cannabinoids the longer it is stored,” Elting told the commission. “We’re kind of wondering: What happens there?”

He added that MahāMotā didn’t want to lose out on the quality of product for future use.

“Since we are so close to harvest and so close to these storage timeframes, we don’t want to be sitting on our hands,” Elting said.

Public can weigh in on Nebraska medical cannabis regulations Thursday

Under state law, the commission has no authority to license or oversee state testing facilities. Though the Nebraska Legislature had the opportunity in two legislative sessions to step in since the 2024 public vote to legalize and regulate medical cannabis, it so far hasn’t. The delay in 2025 also delayed legislation to authorize fees until new legislation passed in April.

Part of the delay, too, was over the continued legal fight over the validity of the laws voters approved. Those two cases played out in Lancaster County District Court, and advocates won both times, but opponents, including Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers’ office, appealed.

The Nebraska Supreme Court unanimously upheld the advocates’ success in early September.

A hearing on the commission’s proposal to add fees is Thursday, beginning at 1 p.m. in Lincoln. Commissioners have said they won’t proceed with more licensing until they can assess fees.

‘Far too long’

Crista Eggers, the leader of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which led the 2024 ballot measures, told commissioners it’s been about 10 years since she started showing up at the Legislature and more than 2,500 days since advocates first began petitioning for the ballot in 2020.

Eggers, whose 11-year-old son, Colton, has had “thousands upon thousands upon thousands of seizures” in that time, said the delays are “horrific,” especially for the children impacted. At this point, she said, the delays feel intentional.

“Those parents have spent countless nights, over and over and over, praying as their children lay before them, hoping they will wake up,” Eggers said.

“My God, 10 years of my life I have shown up. That is far too long,” Eggers continued. “I would not wish one moment of any of these patients’ or parents’ or caregivers’ lives to be part of yours for a moment. I am begging you to think about what it feels like month after month that we wait.”

‘We’re making progress’

Eggers and other longtime advocates have repeatedly criticized the commissioners for not moving faster to get medicine into patients’ hands. The consistent criticism led two commissioners, Commissioner Jim Elworth of Nebraska City and Commissioner J. Michael Coffey of Omaha, to defend their positions and timing of work last month.

Elworth noted no commission meeting happened until June 2025, shortly before Coffey was appointed. Then, the commission was “blown up” when two commissioners were forced to resign in September 2025 over federal indictment of the former director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. The commissioners were not implicated, but they had split duties between both commissions, as dictated by state law.

“We’re starting at square one at that point,” Elworth said. “Nothing had gotten done. We were the first to admit it.”

By then, the commission had already approved an initial set of regulations and, in early October 2025, they licensed their first cultivators. In November, Elworth and Commissioner Bud Synhorst of Lincoln filled the two vacancies from months before.

The chair of the commission, Dr. Monica Oldenburg of Lincoln, then resigned in February 2026. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has not replaced her.

Elworth said it was finally in April that the Legislature gave the commission more funding. Pillen and state lawmakers had said they could free up funds last year. It wasn’t enough.

“It was only then that we were able to hire staff, procure office space — for goodness’ sake, to buy a printer, or a chair,” Elworth said last month. “At that point, despite all this upheaval, all this uncertainty, throughout that time period we have promulgated temporary regulations that are now permanent.”

He added: “We are protecting this process. It’s going to be a good process. We have dealt with major issues. We’re making progress; we continue to make progress.”

Last month, the commission also hired Brett Long as its first executive director. Long brings experience from the Nebraska Department of Revenue, particularly in charitable gaming and skilled gaming regulated services. He also previously worked in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, including behavioral health and substance use initiatives.

“We believe this combination of regulatory compliance data and state government experience makes him a strong fit to help the commission continue developing and implementing Nebraska’s medical cannabis regulatory program,” Commissioner Lorelle Mueting of Gretna, interim commission chair, said last month.

Mueting this summer had described building a new regulatory agency as “much like constructing a house.”

‘We’re trying to do our best’

Coffey, a retired Douglas County District Court judge, said last month that he takes oaths “very seriously,” including his time in the U.S. Army before being deployed to Vietnam, when he passed the state bar, his service as a district judge between 1998 and 2023, and now on state regulatory commissions.

“I truly believe I’ve tried to live up to those oaths,” Coffey said.

Other than meeting with Pillen for the interview, Coffey said he doesn’t know the governor. And of Hilgers, Coffey said he “wouldn’t know him if he walked in here.” 

Coffey said he’s never received directives or orders from anyone.

“Whatever you want to hold against us in the way we’re conducting this commission’s business, is us. It’s not anybody else, and I wanted to make that clear,” Coffey said. “We continually hear that we’re taking orders from the governor, the AG, and that’s just not true.”

He added: “I just want people to understand that I think we’re trying to do our best.”

The commission’s next regular meeting is 1 p.m. Oct. 19 at the State Office Building in Lincoln.