Nebraska's governor signs emergency medical marijuana regulations after forcing cultivation cap, the US attack on the Venezuelan drug boat is now raising even more questions, and more.

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Marijuana Policy

Missouri Initiatives Would Let Marijuana and Intoxicating Hemp Products Be Treated Like Alcohol and Tobacco. Hemp industry leaders and advocates have filed four initiatives that would repeal the state's voter-approved constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana and replace it with regulations like those surrounding alcohol and tobacco.

All four versions would replace the current legalization scheme with language instructing state lawmakers to create regulations that are "no more burdensome than what we already have for alcohol and tobacco," said Eapen Thampy, a longtime hemp lobbyist who filed the petitions.

And all four versions would remove criminal penalties for possessing too much marijuana, retain current taxes for at least the next decade, and allow businesses to seek licenses to sell marijuana and hemp products similar to those for alcohol and tobacco.

Under the current law, marijuana licenses are limited and tightly regulated, but intoxicating hemp products can be sold without a license. Legislators have tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to ban those hemp products.

"Legislative efforts to ban hemp products allow the illegal market to flourish," said Gary Wiegert, a retired St. Louis City police sergeant. "Regulating these products and preserving legal access to the market ensures public safety by allowing business owners to serve the consumer market instead."

If and when the initiatives are approved for circulation, Missourians for a Single Market will need to gather 170,215 valid voter signatures for each one to qualify for the November 2026 ballot. They will have until May 3, 2026 to do so.

Medical Marijuana

Nebraska Governor Signs New Emergency Medical Marijuana Rules After Regulators Place Caps on Commercial Grows. After earlier balking because proposed regulations were not restrictive enough for him, Gov. Jim Pullen (R) has signed emergency regulations that will allow the state's voter-approved medical marijuana program to begin moving toward actually providing medical marijuana to patients.

Pillen had rejected an earlier version of the emergency regulations because they did not include caps on the number of plants commercial operators can grow. Now, they do. Growers will be limited to cultivating 1,250 plants at a time, an amount advocates say is insufficient to meet patient needs.

The state Medical Cannabis Commission was charged with drafting the regulations, and after Pillen's initial rejection, the commission met Monday and approved the cultivation limits. Pillen signed the emergency regs on Tuesday.

But Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, the group behind last year's successful initiative, is not happy.

"Today the governor, alongside his allies on the Commission, executed the collapse of Nebraska's medical cannabis program," said Crista Eggers, the group's director. "Constructing barriers at every step, ensuring patients are denied relief, families are left suffering, and the will of the people is shredded. This betrayal will not be forgotten."

Foreign Policy

Alleged Venezuelan Drug Boat Had Turned Back Before US Military Sank It, Killing 11, American Officials Say. Unnamed "American officials familiar with the matter" told the New York Times Wednesday that a Venezuelan boat attacked and destroyed by the US military last week had changed course and appeared to have turned back toward Venezuela before the attack started, casting further doubt on any legal rationale for the deadly attack that left 11 Venezuelan civilians dead.

The people onboard the boat had apparently noticed a military aircraft stalking them, officials said.

President Trump announced the attack last week, saying the boat was transporting drugs "heading to the United States" and claimed the people onboard were part of Tren de Aragua, a middling Venezuelan criminal gang the Trump administration has designed a "narco-terrorist" organization. But his administration has provided no evidence to back his claims.

Legal experts who earlier told the Times that summarily killing low-level drug smugglers as if they were wartime combatants was a crime said the new revelations only strengthen their case.

While the administration has not provided a detailed legal rationale to justify the attack, it has vaguely claimed that it has the right to use lethal force in "self-defense" to fend off illicit drug imports.

But that claim is weak, legal specialists said, and made even weaker by the fact that the boat had already turned back before it was attacked.

"If someone is retreating, where’s the 'imminent threat' then?" said Rear Adm. Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002. "Where's the 'self-defense'? They are gone if they ever existed -- which I don't think they did."

"I would be interested if they could come up for any legal basis for what they did. If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the US through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away," said Rear Adm. James E. McPherson, the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006 who later served in the first Trump administration in several prominent civilian military roles, including general counsel of the Army.