Nebraska Medical Marijuana Activists Need 12,000 More Signatures By Wednesday’s Deadline To Put Legalization On The Ballot

Nebraska activists are making a final push to put a pair of medical marijuana legalization initiatives on the November ballot, urging voters to add their names to petitions with just two days left to collect about 12,000 signatures before a turn-in deadline.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) said last month that they needed about 30,000 more signatures to secure ballot placement. Now, with just two days before a submission deadline on Wednesday, the amount still needed is a little less than half that—so the task seems steep.

The campaign had prioritized meeting a requirement to gather signatures from at least five percent of voters in a minimum of 38 counties across the state, and activists previously said they were successful to that end. Now it’s down to the total statewide count, as they need 87,000 valid signatures for each of the two measures.

There are at least a dozen locations across the state where people can sign the petitions on Monday.

“We’re calling on all Nebraskans like you to go sign, and then reach out to 10 neighbors, coworkers, family members or friends and tell them to sign,” NMM said in an email blast to supporters on Monday.

“Come find one of our volunteers at Wine, Beer and Spirits stores in Lincoln, Omaha, and Grand Island, today and tomorrow during their open hours to sign,” the campaign said. “We’re counting on you to help us cross the finish line.”

NMM has worked to put medical cannabis on the ballot for two prior election cycles, only to come short due to setbacks such as the loss of critical funding in the last election cycle and intervention by the state Supreme Court in the prior attempt.

The first of the two current ballot initiatives from the campaign would require lawmakers to codify protections for doctors who recommend cannabis and patients who purchase and possess it. The patient-focused measure says that its aim is to “enact a statute that makes penalties inapplicable under state and local law for the use, possession, and acquisition of limited quantities of cannabis for medical purposes by a qualified patient with a written recommendation from a health care practitioner, and for a caregiver to assist a qualified patient in these activities.”

The other initiative would create a new a Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to provide “necessary registration and regulation of persons that possess, manufacture, distribute, deliver, and dispense cannabis for medical purposes.”

While the campaign has faced setbacks in past election cycles, advocates got an early start on signature gathering this round. In addition to meeting the county-based threshold, activists must generally collect signatures from at least seven percent of registered voters statewide to qualify for the ballot.

Volunteers have been filling out petitions since last July, about two months after turning in the pair of complementary legalization initiatives to the secretary of state’s office.

Gov. Jim Pillen (R) has already voiced opposition to the reform effort, saying last September that legalization “poses demonstrated harms to our children,” and that medical cannabis should only be accessible if its approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Eggers told Marijuana Moment at the time that the governor’s argument is a “cop out,” and she says the campaign will let voters decide for themselves.

“We can’t stop until we get that done. That’s where we’re at, and that’s how our campaign feels,” she said. “We just keep showing up. And the reason we have to do that is because there is no option.”

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One of NMM’s earlier campaigns gathered enough signatures for ballot placement in 2020, but the measure was invalidated by the state Supreme Court following a single-subject challenge. Supporters then came up short on signatures for revised petitions in 2022 due in large part to the loss of funding after one of their key donors died in a plane crash.

Nebraska lawmakers, including campaign co-chair Sen. Anna Wishart (D), have also attempted to enact the reform legislatively, but cannabis bills have consistently stalled out in the conservative legislature.

Wishart’s medical cannabis bill received a hearing in the unicameral Judiciary Committee last year, but it did not advance. She attributed the inaction to changes in committee membership. An earlier version of the measure ultimately stalled out in the GOP-controlled legislature amid a filibuster that supporters could not overcome.

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