By Aaron Sanderford, Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The Republican attorneys general of Nebraska, Indiana and Louisiana filed a lawsuit headed into Memorial Day weekend to stop the Trump Justice Department’s order reclassifying marijuana as a less harmful drug.
The lawsuit, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit combined with a similar lawsuit by marijuana opponent Smart Approaches to Marijuana, argues the Trump administration circumvented its regular rulemaking process.
The AGs argue the push to skip typical public notice and comment periods put the validity of the change at risk and write that the move to reclassify marijuana also might violate a 1967 international treaty on handling narcotics.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers had no immediate comment through a spokeswoman Wednesday, but he has said many in Nebraska law enforcement disagree with the president’s push to change how the feds classify marijuana.
The lawsuit questions the federal government’s workaround, which essentially makes it the middle man, purchasing the medicine from growers, adding a nominal fee and selling it back to satisfy treaty requirements.
Hilgers has argued that loosening federal restrictions on marijuana as a Schedule I drug like LSD and heroin to a Schedule III drug alongside Tylenol with codeine could make it easier to push for recreational legalization.
Hilgers and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a former two-term governor, have argued against the legality of two medical cannabis laws Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved in 2024. Nearly all states have approved some form of the drug.
Part of their objection: President Donald Trump’s move could make legal arguments against medical marijuana more difficult as Nebraska’s Medical Cannabis Commission inches toward getting growers going for the medicine.
Another issue mentioned in the filing: Taxes land differently on more loosely regulated Schedule III drugs, which could make growing the medicine cheaper in states that have legalized medical cannabis.
Advocates for medical marijuana have criticized Hilgers and Ricketts for resisting what more than two-thirds of Nebraskans approved and have argued publicly that their continued resistance could lead to broader legalization efforts.
Crista Eggers of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the organization that led the successful 2024 ballot issue, said Wednesday that she and other advocates of the medicine figured this was coming.
Hilgers faces Democrat Jocelyn Brasher, a former assistant attorney general, in the Nov. 3 general election.
“Nebraskans should be outraged that taxpayer resources are being spent to challenge the Trump administration’s medical cannabis reform on an issue voters overwhelmingly approved at the ballot box,” Brasher said in a statement. “Mike Hilgers is … interfering with decisions that families, patients and doctors have already made clear they support.”
This story was originally produced by Nebraska Examiner, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Oklahoma Voice, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
