Last November, when Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved a pair of medical marijuana initiatives, the fate of those measures was unclear because of a pending legal challenge. But a subsequent ruling rejected that challenge, allowing authorized patients to possess up to five ounces of marijuana, a change that took effect last month. The decision also cleared the way for state licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries, which could start operating next year.
Initiative 437, which passed by a whopping 42-point margin, eliminated criminal penalties for marijuana possession by patients with a recommendation from a "health care practitioner." To meet that requirement, a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner must state that, in his professional judgment, "the potential benefits of cannabis outweigh the potential harms for the alleviation of a patient's medical condition, its symptoms, or side effects of the condition's treatment." The initiative does not specify which medical conditions can be treated with cannabis.
