Nebraska lawmakers have advanced medical cannabis-related legislation for the first time, moving a bill aimed at funding and basic operations of the state’s Medical Cannabis Commission to the next round of discussion.

LB1235 was introduced by the General Affairs Committee on behalf of the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission at the request of Governor Jim Peelen. In its original form, the bill was designed to help the commission get started, according to committee chairman Sen. Rick Holdcroft.

“It’s providing funding so they can hire staff and get paid, it’ll give them a registry so they can start registering patients and caregivers and medical staff to make referrals, it’ll set up a seed sales program that will track mostly from seed so we can make sure it cuts down on any black markets,” Holdcroft said.

But advocates said the bill initially drew significant opposition because of concerns it would weaken patient protections. Christa Eggers of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said that while 75 percent of the feedback was positive, 25 percent were negative and resulted in the removal of patient protections.

“It gives full authority to the medical cannabis commission, and while we would have hoped and would have liked to have a commission that follows the will of the people, that takes into account public comment and public feedback, we haven’t seen that,” Eggers said.