The vast majority of medical cannabis states provide explicit protections for health care providers who issue written certifications or recommend cannabis. Most of these laws are strikingly similar to LB 933, explicitly providing that practitioners cannot be subjected to any penalty, including arrest, prosecution, or disciplinary proceeding, or denial of any right or privilege for recommending medical cannabis. Some include exceptions for if the doctor violates the standard of care.

Only Nebraska and Vermont lack explicit legal protections for certifying health care practitioners. Nebraska’s law was enacted by voters after the state Supreme Court ruled that a 2020 effort was multiple subjects. Protections were likely omitted to avoid risking a similar ruling. 

Vermont had legal protections in its original medical cannabis law. However, when the law was re-codified to combine it with adult-use legalization, the provision appears to have been inadvertently omitted. That said, Vermont also doesn’t rely on doctors recommending cannabis, they simply state that the patient has a qualifying condition.

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