A Native American tribe is on track to be the first to offer medical cannabis in Nebraska despite statewide MMJ legalization in 2024 – and opposition from the state’s governor, who has threatened to cut off tobacco revenue if the Omaha Tribe goes forward.
But the Omaha Tribe is undeterred and is moving forward with what could soon be the first medical cannabis dispensary and testing facility in the state, Nebraska Public Media reported.
The tribe is on track to open a dispensary “by the end of 2026,” NPM reported.
And amid both the state’s glacial pace to regulate MMJ – and state and federal restrictions – there’s still no timetable for state-regulated MMJ sales in Nebraska.
How a Native tribe is moving faster than Nebraska medical marijuana
The Omaha Tribe voted to legalize both adult-use cannabis and medical marijuana last July, just the latest example of a tribal government moving more quickly and decisively than statewide legislatures.
At the time, the tribe said that its unanimous approval of cannabis reform was partially in response to the “slow and uncertain rollout” of MMJ in the state.
Though Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana in November 2024, there’s still no access – nor any regulated production – following what critics have said is organized resistance from state politicians, including Gov. Jim Pillen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers.
Last fall, both Pillen and Hilgers threw cold water on the idea of tribal access in Nebraska.
“There’s not going to be Nebraskans going into the Omaha Tribe and buying recreational marijuana,” Pillen said last year, as Nebraska Public Media reported. “We’ll take whatever steps it is to keep our state in the values and keep that from happening.”
And the state went further, telling Omaha Tribe Attorney General John Cartier that the state would refuse to negotiate on a tribal tobacco compact if the tribe didn’t drop its cannabis plans.
Nebraska Native tribe is switching tobacco pennies for cannabis dollars
The tax compact allows the tribe to collect a certain amount of revenue on tobacco products sold on the reservation. But as Cartier told NPM, the benefit of revenue from regulated cannabis far outweighs the cost of lost tobacco tax money.
“While that would be hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from the tobacco tax compact side, we’re talking millions, tens of millions of dollars in revenue from the medical cannabis side,” Cartier told NPM.
“There’s also something to be said for instead of working in the tobacco industry, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, shifting to specifically medical cannabis, which heals people and gives them the relief they need,” he added, according to NPM.
In addition to resistance from Pillen, who refused to sign a bill allowing the state to license cannabis cultivators without a strict plant limit, there’s speculation that federal lawmakers are opening Nebraska cannabis to risk before the program can even begin.
Nebraska was not included in a list of states protected from Justice Department raids in a federal budget rider signed by President Donald Trump in January that guards state-legal medical marijuana operators from federal raids
