What this page is, and is not
This page counts days between dated public steps. A day count is arithmetic. It is not a finding that anyone broke a rule, missed a deadline, or acted in bad faith. The law does name two dates, shown below, and we set the record beside them. Whether either date was legally met is a question for the law and for lawyers, and the section “What the law says” lists what we could not settle. This page does not urge a lawsuit, a vote, or anything else.
The clock
| From the vote | Days |
|---|---|
| Vote to the Commission’s first meeting (June 9, 2025) | 216 days |
| Vote to the initiative’s first deadline (July 1, 2025) | 238 days |
| Vote to the first emergency rules approved (June 26, 2025) | 233 days |
| Vote to the initiative’s second deadline (Oct 1, 2025) | 330 days |
| Vote to the first cultivator approval in our archive (Oct 7, 2025) | 336 days |
| Vote to the Governor’s approval of LB1235 (April 7, 2026) | 518 days |
| Vote to the Supreme Court ruling (Sept 4, 2026) | 668 days |
| Vote to today (Oct 10, 2026) | 704 days |
Days are computed from the dates in the table below by build_delay_analysis.py, counting calendar days from November 5, 2024. Each row is a step with a day in its source. Steps we could only date to a month are in the “month only” box.
Every dated step
| Date | Days since vote | Days since previous step | What happened | Decided by | Source | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 5, 2024 | 0 | — | Voters pass Initiatives 437 and 438 (71% and 67%). | Nebraska voters | our dates lesson; petition texts, Secretary of State | primary record |
| May 16, 2025 | 192 | 192 | Governor’s office announces the Oldenburg and Mueting appointments. | Gov. Jim Pillen | Draft Sept 14 Commission minutes, Commissioner Elworth’s account (not approved by the Commission) | draft minutes, unapproved |
| May 22, 2025 | 198 | 6 | General Affairs Committee deadlocks 4–4 on the Mueting confirmation. | Legislature, committee | Five People, No Ballot, citing committee coverage | secondary source |
| May 27, 2025 | 203 | 5 | Committee advances her 5–3. | Legislature, committee | same | secondary source |
| May 30, 2025 | 206 | 3 | Full Legislature confirms her, 27–16. | Legislature | same | secondary source |
| Jun 9, 2025 | 216 | 10 | Commission’s first meeting, per the Commission’s later minutes. The Commission’s current public calendar does not list it. | Commission | June 26, 2025 minutes (approve “minutes from June 9”); draft Sept 14 minutes (“inaugural meeting”) | draft minutes, unapproved |
| Jun 26, 2025 | 233 | 17 | Commission approves emergency regulations “to meet the statutory deadline.” Per an Assistant Attorney General at that meeting, emergency rules take effect on the Governor’s approval and last 90 days, renewable once. | Commission | Commission minutes, June 26, 2025, items 7–8 (archived in the tracker) | primary record |
| Jun 29, 2025 | 236 | 3 | The Governor signs the emergency regulations adopted June 26. His news release, dated July 1, 2025, says: “Rules are required today (July 1) for the Commission to be able to accept or deny applications for registration. The rules, presented to Gov. Pillen following the meeting, were signed on Sunday, June 29, after his review.” | Gov. Pillen | Governor's news release, July 1, 2025, governor.nebraska.gov, read on the site 2026-10-12 | primary record |
| Jul 1, 2025 | 238 | — | Deadline in the initiative text: the Commission shall, “no later than July 1, 2025, establish criteria to accept or deny applications for registrations, including adopting, promulgating, and enforcing reasonable rules, regulations, and eligibility standards.” (Sec. 6(1)) | Initiative 438 | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,111(1), read 2026-10-10; same words in the Initiative 438 petition text, Sec. 6(1) | initiative text |
| Sep 2, 2025 | 301 | 65 | Commission adopts amended emergency regulations (cultivator license cap raised from two to four) and sets the cultivator application window for September 4–23, 2025. Commissioners Bailey, Lowe and Oldenburg are named as the scoring team. | Commission | Commission minutes, Sept 2, 2025 (as archived in the tracker) | primary record |
| Sep 29, 2025 | 328 | 27 | Commissioners Bailey and Lowe resign from the Liquor Control Commission, which by statute ends their seats here. They were two of the three named scorers. | Commissioners | Commission minutes, Sept 30, 2025 (as archived in the tracker) | primary record |
| Oct 1, 2025 | 330 | — | Deadline in the initiative text: the Commission shall, “no later than October 1, 2025, begin granting registrations to applicants that meet eligibility standards.” (Sec. 6(2)) | Initiative 438 | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,111(2), read 2026-10-10; same words in the Initiative 438 petition text, Sec. 6(2) | initiative text |
| Oct 7, 2025 | 336 | 8 | Commission approves offers of cultivator licenses to Midwest Cultivators Group and Patrick Thomas (the MahāMotā holder, per our tracker); two other applicants denied. Denial letters and the two licenses are dated October 8. First cultivator approval in our archive. | Commission | Commission minutes, Oct 7, 2025 (as archived in the tracker); Feb 2, 2026 minutes, item 10, for the Oct 8 issue date | primary record |
| Oct 15, 2025 | 344 | 8 | Public hearing on the formal (permanent) regulations; the Nov 3 minutes record 590 comments. | Commission | Oct 7 and Nov 3, 2025 minutes (archived in the tracker) | primary record |
| Nov 3, 2025 | 363 | 19 | Commission keeps its draft permanent rules unchanged. Permanent rules need a public hearing and Attorney General and Governor sign-off. | Commission | Nebraska Public Media, as cited on our dates lesson | secondary source |
| Nov 17, 2025 | 377 | 14 | Synhorst and Elworth appointed to the Liquor Control Commission, which seats them here. | Gov. Jim Pillen | Nebraska Examiner, 2025-11-17, as cited on our dates lesson | secondary source |
| Dec 2, 2025 | 392 | 15 | Two cultivator applications denied. | Commission | MCC transparency tracker, Dec 2 minutes | primary record |
| Jan 5, 2026 | 426 | 34 | KRL Med approved for a cultivator license; Silver Ghost Solutions denied. | Commission | tracker, Jan 5 minutes | primary record |
| Feb 2, 2026 | 454 | 28 | Chair Oldenburg resigns, effective that day; Mueting presides from then. (The Nebraska Examiner reported February 3; see the box below.) | Commission | tracker, Feb 2 minutes | primary record |
| Feb 2, 2026 | 454 | 0 | Meadowlark Medicinals approved for a cultivator license; Blue Ember Ventures denied. | Commission | tracker, Feb 2 minutes | primary record |
| Apr 1, 2026 | 512 | 58 | LB1235 (introduced by the General Affairs Committee January 21, 2026 (Holdcroft, chairperson; Andersen, Clouse, DeKay, Storm); changes the Liquor Control Act and the Medical Cannabis Regulation Act) passes Final Reading with the Emergency Clause, 46–2 (the history prints “46-2*-1”), is signed by the President, and is presented to the Governor, all on April 1. As introduced, the bill also let the Commission set a schedule of fees by rule, with no fee over $50,000 (Sec. 8), and required initial registration applicants to submit fingerprints for a national criminal history record check (Sec. 9). We have read the introduced text, not the enacted text. | Legislature | Legislature bill history, LB1235, Journal pp. 1449, 1451, 1454, read 2026-10-10; LB1235 introduced text, Secs. 6–9, read 2026-10-11 | primary record |
| Apr 7, 2026 | 518 | 6 | Governor approves LB1235. A committee amendment had removed the patient registry (per our dates lesson, citing the Unicameral Update). | Gov. Pillen | Legislature bill history, LB1235, Journal p. 1529, read 2026-10-10 | primary record |
| Apr 8, 2026 | 519 | 1 | Operative date of LB1235’s changes to the Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, which now runs §§ 71-24,106 to 71-24,114. One new section, § 71-24,114, creates the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission Cash Fund, made up of transfers from the Legislature and the fees, gifts and grants the Commission collects. | Legislature (LB1235) | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-24,106 and § 71-24,114, source line “Laws 2026, LB1235” and “Operative Date: April 8, 2026,” read 2026-10-11 | primary record |
| Apr 13, 2026 | 524 | 5 | At a Commission meeting a citizen testifies that 524 days have passed since the vote. Checked: Nov 5, 2024 to Apr 13, 2026 is 524 days. | Public comment | tracker, Apr 13 transcript | primary record |
| Apr 17, 2026 | 528 | 4 | LB933, the bill protecting practitioners who sign a recommendation, is indefinitely postponed, along with every other bill not otherwise disposed of, on the motion of Sen. M. Cavanaugh at the end of session. Not a vote on LB933 alone. | Legislature | Legislature bill history and Journal p. 1713, read 2026-10-11 | primary record |
| Jul 6, 2026 | 608 | 80 | The Secretary of State’s rules site lists Title 238 (Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission), Chapter 1, Registered Cannabis Establishments, with an effective date of 7/6/2026. This is the chapter that holds the application, license and patient-sale rules. | Secretary of State | rules.nebraska.gov, Title 238, read 2026-10-12 | primary record |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 668 | 60 | Nebraska Supreme Court rules in Kuehn v. Evnen; the last challenge to the petitions is cleared. | Nebraska Supreme Court | our case study; 322 Neb. 161 | primary record |
| Sep 14, 2026 | 678 | 10 | Manufacturing-license application window closes. Same afternoon, a Commission meeting. The draft minutes report ten manufacturer applications pending and four cultivator licenses approved so far. | Commission | dates lesson; draft Sept 14 minutes (not approved) | draft minutes, unapproved |
| Oct 15, 2026 | in 5 days | — | Upcoming. Public hearing on proposed fee regulations, 1–4 p.m.; written comments through 11:59 p.m. | Commission | draft Sept 14 minutes (not approved); confirm on mcc.nebraska.gov | draft minutes, unapproved |
“Primary record” means the Legislature’s or the Commission’s own document. “Secondary” means a news report or one of our pages that cites one. “Draft minutes” means the September 14, 2026 draft, which every page marks “These minutes have not been approved by the commission.” Until those are approved, we treat anything only they say as unconfirmed.
What the law says
Initiative 438 created the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, now codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 71-24,106 to 71-24,114. The initiative’s six sections are §§ 71-24,106 to 71-24,111; LB1235 (2026) added three more, effective April 8, 2026. Section 71-24,111, “Commission; powers and duties,” lists what the Commission “shall” do. Two items carry dates. We read them in the petition text on the Secretary of State’s site and again, word for word, in the statute on the Legislature’s site (§ 71-24,111, read October 10, 2026). The wording matches, and the statute’s source line lists only “Initiative Law 2024, No. 438, § 6,” with no later amending act, so LB1235 (2026) did not change these two sentences.
“(1) No later than July 1, 2025, establish criteria to accept or deny applications for registrations, including adopting, promulgating, and enforcing reasonable rules, regulations, and eligibility standards for such registrations; (2) No later than October 1, 2025, begin granting registrations to applicants that meet eligibility standards and other requirements established by the commission.”
Section 4(3) makes the three Liquor Control Commission members ex officio members, “serving terms and receiving appointment in the same manner as provided in section 53-105.” Section 4(4) lets the Governor appoint two more, subject to confirmation by a majority of the Legislature, for six-year terms.
Set beside the record, in days:
- July 1, 2025 deadline. On June 26, 2025, five days earlier, the Commission approved emergency regulations “to meet the statutory deadline” (June 26 minutes). An Assistant Attorney General told the Commission that emergency rules take effect on the Governor’s approval. The Governor’s news release (July 1, 2025, read October 12, 2026) says he signed them on Sunday, June 29, 2025, two days before July 1.
- October 1, 2025 deadline. The cultivator application window ran September 4–23, 2025 (set at the September 2 meeting), and the first cultivator approvals in our archive are October 7, 2025, six days after October 1 and 14 days after the window closed. The two licenses are dated October 8, seven days after. Two things happened in the days just before: two commissioners (Bailey and Lowe) resigned from the Liquor Control Commission on September 29, 2025, which ended their seats here (the September 30 minutes), and Commissioner Elworth’s account (draft minutes, not approved) describes the Liquor Control Commission as disrupted in August and September 2025 by federal indictments.
The Act says “registrations.” The Commission’s minutes say “licenses.” We treat them as the same thing and have not confirmed it.
Why this is not a finding: (1) Whether emergency rules that took effect on the Governor’s approval satisfy “establish criteria” by July 1 depends on the approval and effective dates. The Governor’s release gives the signing as June 29; we have not seen the Secretary of State’s filing, so the filing and effective dates are not confirmed. (2) What “begin granting registrations” requires is a legal reading. (3) Whether a deadline in a voter-approved statute can be enforced, and by whom, is for a lawyer. (4) The companion Initiative 437, which governs patients, is three sections long (§§ 71-24,103 to 71-24,105; § 71-24,103 is the short title) and contains no deadline in any of them.
The reasons that have been given
A day count says nothing about why. Two accounts are on the record, from opposite sides, and neither is our finding.
The Commission’s account. At its September 14, 2026 meeting, Commissioner Elworth gave a timeline (draft minutes, not approved): the initiative created the Commission but gave it no office or meeting space; its administrative needs were met through the Liquor Control Commission and the Governor’s appointment process until June 2025; the Governor’s appointees needed legislative confirmation before the Commission could write rules; the Liquor Control Commission was disrupted in August and September 2025 by federal indictments and the resulting vacancies; Synhorst and Elworth were appointed in November 2025; the Chair resigned in February 2026; funding was appropriated in April 2026, after which the first hire was made.
The officials’ stated doubts about the law. When the initiatives took effect in December 2024, Gov. Pillen and Attorney General Hilgers said they believed “serious issues remain regarding the validity of these [ballot measure] petitions under federal law and the Nebraska Constitution” (quoted on our dates lesson). Litigation over the petitions lasted until the Supreme Court ruled, 7–0, on September 4, 2026.
We print both and take neither side. Some of these steps were outside the Commission’s control, and some were not, and which is which is for readers and for the law.
Where the record is thin
Steps we could only date to a month and left out of the day counts: the initiatives taking effect (December 2024); the Oldenburg appointment (April 2025, per the Nebraska Examiner); the Governor’s approval of the emergency rules, which the June 26 minutes say makes them effective (signed June 29, 2025 per the Governor’s release; the Secretary of State’s filing is not yet read, so the filing and effective dates are not confirmed). A third pointer: the Secretary of State’s file name for the first set is “Emergency Regulations 238 NAC 1 (effective through 9-28-25)” (we have the file name, not the file; the link returned “Page not found” on October 12). Ninety days ending September 28 would start June 30, 2025, an inference we have not checked against the filing. Two further pointers, neither of them the approval itself: at the August 4, 2025 meeting Commissioner Bailey said he understood the emergency regulations to expire at the end of September 2025, which, on a 90-day clock, would put their start near July 1; and the September 30, 2025 minutes say the second set, approved September 8, was signed by the Governor and ran through December 7, 2025.
Resignation date. The Commission’s February 2 minutes say Chair Oldenburg resigned effective that day. The Nebraska Examiner reported February 3. We use the minutes. One day apart, not resolved.
June 9, 2025. The Commission’s later minutes refer to a meeting that day. Its public calendar does not list one. The row rests on those later documents.
Cultivator approvals. The four licensees, by the dates in our archive: Midwest Cultivators and MahāMotā (offers Oct 7, 2025; licenses issued Oct 8), KRL Med (Jan 5, 2026), Meadowlark Medicinals (Feb 2, 2026). We matched “Patrick Thomas” to MahāMotā from our tracker, not from a license document. Not read: the licenses themselves, or whether anything earlier than Oct 7, 2025 was approved.
LB1235. The Legislature’s history (read October 10, 2026) gives April 1, 2026 for passage on Final Reading, 46–2, with the Emergency Clause (Journal p. 1449). Our dates lesson said April 2 until it was corrected the same day. The 2026 Legislative Journal (read October 11, 2026) shows the General Affairs Committee reporting LB1235 to General File with amendment AM2178 (p. 773), the vote to dispense with reading at large on April 1 at 44 ayes, 2 nays, 2 present and not voting, 1 excused (p. 1448), and the Final Reading roll call on p. 1449. The roll call (read October 12, 2026) lists, under “Voting in the negative, 2,” Conrad and Sorrentino, each marked with an asterisk that the Journal explains as “Present Not Voting at the time of the recorded vote (Rule 6, Sec. 9).” The “-1” is Senator Hunt, excused. We have not read Rule 6, Sec. 9, so we do not say how the Legislature counts a senator marked that way, and we give no reason for either senator’s vote. The Legislature’s Recorded Votes page for LB1235 lists the earlier votes: March 4, 2026, General File, amendment AM2178 (General Affairs), 40–0–6, and advance to Enrollment and Review Initial, 40–0–6; March 12, 2026, Select File, amendment AM2524 (Holdcroft), 41–0–5; April 1, 2026, Final Reading, 46–2–0. Two entries dated April 17 say provisions of LB1128 and LB1085 were amended into LB1235 by AM2178 (the General Affairs Committee amendment), with Journal page 0, after the Governor approved it. We do not know why they are dated then.
Patients. The step the vote existed for. We found no published count of practitioner recommendations or patients, and no date when a first patient could lawfully obtain a recommendation. “Not zero. Not found.” Reported in April 2026 as none; not rechecked.
The permanent rules. The Secretary of State’s rules site lists Chapter 1 as effective 7/6/2026 (read October 12, 2026). We have not read, from the primary documents, the dates of the Attorney General’s review and the Governor’s sign-off on that version, or the filing date. Press coverage found in search (not yet opened by us) says the Attorney General cleared them June 30, 2026 and the Governor signed them July 1, 2026. A hearing on proposed fee regulations is set for October 15, 2026.
Other figures given as testimony. A speaker said 3,517 days had passed since she first went to the Legislature to advocate for her son. We did not compute or check it. It is her figure.
The law itself. Read October 10–11, 2026 on the Legislature’s site: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 53-105 and § 53-106 (the Governor appoints the three Liquor Control members, with legislative confirmation, six-year staggered terms, removal for cause after a hearing) and § 71-24,111(1)–(2) (the two dates above), plus the text of LB1235. Also read: § 71-24,109(6), which sets an annual salary of $12,500 for each member of the Commission, and § 71-24,114 (the Cash Fund). Also read, October 12: § 71-24,104 (definitions) and § 71-24,105 (a qualified patient’s use, possession and acquisition of up to five ounces is not an offense under state or local law), the patient side of Initiative 437; neither contains a date, a registry or a duty on the Commission. § 71-24,104 shows a 2025 amendment (Laws 2025, LB1, § 1); we do not know what it changed. Also read: § 71-24,103, which only names the Act and says it covers §§ 71-24,103 to 71-24,105. Not read: what LB1235 changed in the Commission’s membership section (§ 71-24,109); how an appointment made between sessions is confirmed.
How this was checked
Dates come from the Commission’s own archived minutes (June 26, Oct 7, Nov 3 and Dec 2, 2025; Jan 5, Feb 2 and Apr 13, 2026), the Legislature’s bill history (LB933, Journal p. 1713), and the sources our other pages cite; each row says which. Day counts are computed by code from those dates and were spot-checked against the 524-day figure a citizen gave on April 13, 2026. The September 14, 2026 draft minutes were received October 9, 2026 and are unapproved. We have not asked the Governor’s office, the Commission, or the Legislature to review this page.
See also: Nebraska medical cannabis: the dates · Five People, No Ballot · MCC transparency tracker · Three Bills, Three Committees