A Nebraska lawmaker is pushing for a change in the state’s drug laws that he says are outdated, according to a report in the Lincoln Journal Star. Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha has introduced two bills that would adjust penalties for some drug possession and distribution offenses. At a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Wayne said current laws were putting people who were not involved in the distribution of drugs in prison for trafficking and creating overcrowding in state prisons and county jails.

Two Nebraska state senators will lead a newly formed campaign committee, Nebraskans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, for the purpose of running a 2020 ballot initiative to reform marijuana laws in Nebraska.

The committee, lead by Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld, both of Lincoln, filed its initial paperwork with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission on Thursday morning.

According to a release, the hope of the committee is to "prioritize the right for Nebraskans to use marijuana for medical purposes."

Word to the wise, or rather, to this woman arrested after advertising illicit weed business on Snapchat: don’t do this.

A woman arrested after advertising illicit weed business on Snapchat reminds us that very few things are private anymore.

In the age of social media, anybody can be, for lack of better terms, anything. A pseudo-celebrity, a faux-model, or even an unspecified ‘entrepreneur’.

Apparently, it has even facilitated the transition to becoming a bottom of the barrel weed dealer.

Scientific evidence confirming the medicinal properties of cannabis is getting harder and harder to ignore, and even conservative, Republican-dominated states are beginning to show support for medical marijuana.

This week, Republican legislators in Tennessee proposed a bill to legalize oil-based medical marijuana, and on the very same day a Nebraska state senator proposed a ballot measure to let the state vote on allowing medical cannabis.

A Nebraska-based company signed Thursday the first contract to supply US-grown hemp fiber to a sustainable apparel company, according to an investor close to the deal. 

Bastcore, LLC, purchases raw hemp grown by US farmers and has a proprietary process for converting hemp stalks into commercial materials, for textiles, composites, and energy production. 

"This fiber supply contract marks a historic milestone in the U.S. Hemp Industry, and particularly for American-made hemp textiles, since the passage of the 2014 Farm Bill," Bastcore CEO John Lupien said in an announcement obtained by Business Insider.

Sure, it's the pun of all puns, but the marijuana industry really is growing like a weed. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, the North American legal-cannabis market saw sales increase by 34% in 2016 to $6.9 billion, and they're liable to grow by an average of 26% a year through 2021. That's a nearly $22 billion market up for grabs, and investors certainly want a piece of that pie.

By Joseph Misulonas - Everyone knows one of the most common side effects from smoking marijuana is getting the "

Like one of the ghostlike baseball players of "Field of Dreams," researcher Ismail Dweikat strode through the rows of 9-foot-high sorghum in search of an unusual field in farm country.

Behind a thick screen of green stalks lay a research plot that’s been three years in the making in Nebraska.

“Can you smell it?” asked Dweikat as he stepped into a 30-by-60-foot field of cannabis.

Not just any cannabis, but the state’s first test plot of industrial hemp, a cousin of marijuana that has none of the properties to get someone high, but plenty of uses that might translate into an alternative cash crop for the state’s farmers.

“Corn is king in Nebraska — no one is going to give up corn for hemp — but at least hemp would give you a third option,” Dweikat said.

A federal appellate panel on Wednesday blocked the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma from challenging Colorado’s marijuana legalization law, saying their claims should be directed to the U.S. Supreme Court—a venue that has already refused to hear their fight.

While the tension between state and federal laws has created a difficult situation for cannabis users, there’s another factor that is complicating the changing attitude towards weed: hospitals. Though it isn’t legally mandated, many hospitals won’t allow people who use weed to be placed on organ transplant waiting lists.