Is weed legal in Nebraska?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is not legal in Nebraska. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties)

Subsection (14) makes possessing one ounce or less of marijuana an infraction on a first offense (rising to a Class IV misdemeanor and then a Class IIIA misdemeanor for later offenses), and (12)-(13) punish larger amounts as a Class III misdemeanor or a Class IV felony. No subsection exempts an adult's personal recreational possession, use, or purchase.

A first offense for an ounce or less is an infraction in Nebraska, and a second and a third climb into misdemeanor territory, so the same conduct costs more each time. No subsection carves out an adult holding cannabis for personal use.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in Nebraska, serving patients the program registers. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,105: Cannabis and cannabis accessories; use, possession, and acquisition; not an offense under state or local law; not subject to Uniform Controlled Substances Act; when)

This section and Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,108: Registered cannabis establishment; conduct relating to cannabis for medical purposes; not an offense under state law; not subject to Uniform Controlled Substances Act; when both use the undifferentiated term 'cannabis' for what a qualified patient may use and a registered establishment may dispense, and this section protects use for 'a medical condition, its symptoms, or side effects of the condition's treatment' without naming or limiting to specific conditions or a low-THC or CBD-only product form.

The act names no list of qualifying conditions and no product form, so the word it protects is cannabis and nothing narrower. A qualified patient's protection reaches use, possession and acquisition of an allowable amount, and it is written as a shield from prosecution rather than as a permit.

Hemp-derived products

Nebraska permits the sale of hemp-derived products that meet its definition of hemp. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 2-503: Terms, defined (Nebraska Hemp Farming Act))

'Hemp shall be considered an agricultural commodity. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, hemp shall not be considered a controlled substance under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act.' This is the register's only source for this question and states no further sale-specific restriction -- packaging, licensing, or age -- on a hemp product meeting the 0.3% delta-9 THC definition.

Nebraska counts hemp as an agricultural commodity, which puts it outside the controlled substance act that carries the marijuana penalties. The section cited says nothing about packaging, a license or an age check, so none of that is recorded here.

Home cultivation

Nebraska allows nobody to grow cannabis at home. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties)

N.D.C.C.-style definitions in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-401: Terms, defined(22) state that '"Production" includes the manufacture, planting, cultivation, or harvesting of a controlled substance,' and that section's own annotations record that '[u]nder subsection (22) of this section, the term manufacture includes cultivating marijuana,' citing State v. Havlat, and that the personal-use exception to 'manufacture' 'applies to only "preparation" and "compounding"... but does not apply to the "production"' of a controlled substance, citing State v. Bossow. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,105: Cannabis and cannabis accessories; use, possession, and acquisition; not an offense under state or local law; not subject to Uniform Controlled Substances Act; when, the register's first-listed source for this question, protects only a qualified patient's or caregiver's use, possession, and acquisition of cannabis -- it does not mention cultivation.

The protection a patient holds says nothing about growing, so it stops at what a dispensary hands over. Nebraska's courts have read cultivation into the word manufacture, and the personal-use exception there reaches preparing and compounding alone.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as Nebraska states it: Allowable amount of cannabis means up to five ounces of cannabis. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,104: Terms, defined (Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act))

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,105: Cannabis and cannabis accessories; use, possession, and acquisition; not an offense under state or local law; not subject to Uniform Controlled Substances Act; when confirms a qualified patient or caregiver may 'use, possess, and acquire an allowable amount of cannabis' without committing an offense. Outside this registered-patient allowance, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties(12)-(14) makes any possession of marijuana at least an infraction (one ounce or less), a Class III misdemeanor (more than one ounce up to one pound), or a Class IV felony (more than one pound).

On buying, Nebraska states: Allowable amount of cannabis means up to five ounces of cannabis. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,104: Terms, defined (Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act))

The same definition excludes 'the weight of any other ingredient combined with cannabis as part of topical or oral administrations, food, drink, or other preparations' from the five-ounce figure. Outside this registered-patient allowance, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties(1) makes it unlawful for any person to manufacture, distribute, deliver, or dispense marijuana, or possess it with that intent, regardless of amount.

Five ounces answers both questions here, so the amount you may hold and the amount you may obtain are one number. The weight of anything mixed with cannabis in a food, a drink or a topical does not count toward it.

Minimum age

There is no recreational channel in Nebraska, so no recreational age applies. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties)

Null because there is no adult-use channel under this section's marijuana possession penalties, so no age applies.

Nebraska sets no minimum age for a patient. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,104: Terms, defined (Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act))

'Qualified patient means: ... (b) An individual younger than eighteen years of age with a written recommendation from a health care practitioner and with the written permission of a legal guardian or parent with authority to make health care decisions for the individual.' No provision states an age below which a minor may not qualify at all; subdivision (4)(b) defines the caregiver as that legal guardian or parent, or a person the guardian or parent designates.

Nebraska writes a patient under 18 into the definition of a qualified patient rather than setting a floor beneath it. That route needs a practitioner's written recommendation and the written permission of a parent or guardian with authority over health care decisions, and the caregiver is that adult or a person they name.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed medical dispensary. (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,108: Registered cannabis establishment; conduct relating to cannabis for medical purposes; not an offense under state law; not subject to Uniform Controlled Substances Act; when)

This is the register's only source for this question. It authorizes 'a registered cannabis establishment, its employees, and its agents to possess, manufacture, distribute, deliver, and dispense cannabis for medical purposes' -- the medical-dispensary channel. 'Deliver' and 'distribute' here echo the Uniform Controlled Substances Act's own general prohibition on 'manufacture, distribute, deliver, dispense' in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-416: Prohibited acts; violations; penalties(1)(a) rather than naming a distinct home-delivery service, and Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-401: Terms, defined(12) (not among this question's registered sources) defines 'Deliver' broadly as 'the actual, constructive, or attempted transfer from one person to another,' so licensed-delivery is not recorded as a separate channel. The hemp source is not among the register's listed sources for this question, so no hemp-cbd-retailer channel is recorded either.

The counter is a registered cannabis establishment, the only body Nebraska's act lets possess, make and dispense cannabis for medical purposes. That section also uses the word deliver, but it carries the controlled substance act's broad sense of a transfer rather than a service that drives to your house.

Nebraska licenses somewhere to buy, and this site does not yet hold a record for any location here. The state publishes its list in a form this site cannot yet read.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.