{"id":49843,"date":"2021-09-08T07:02:39","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T15:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/09\/08\/nebraska-activists-submit-two-medical-marijuana-initiatives-for-2022-ballot\/"},"modified":"2021-09-08T13:45:45","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T21:45:45","slug":"nebraska-activists-submit-two-medical-marijuana-initiatives-for-2022-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/09\/08\/nebraska-activists-submit-two-medical-marijuana-initiatives-for-2022-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Nebraska Activists Submit Two Medical Marijuana Initiatives For 2022 Ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Nebraska marijuana activists announced on Wednesday that they have turned in a pair of complementary initiatives to legalize medical cannabis<\/a> that they hope to place on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n

The advocacy group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana says it expects the secretary of state\u2019s office to sign off on the language of the measures by the end of the month, after which point activists will be cleared to begin collecting the roughly 250,000 signatures required to qualify each of the initiatives. They will have until July 7, 2022 to turn in enough valid submissions.<\/p>\n

This is the group\u2019s second time pursuing the ballot for cannabis reform. While they collected enough signatures to qualify a medical marijuana legalization measure for the 2020 ballot, the state Supreme Court invalidated it<\/a> because it violated the single-subject rule for citizen initiatives.<\/p>\n

Activists aren\u2019t taking any chances this round. The campaign\u2014which is being led by a coalition of families, patients and lawmakers\u2014deliberately chose to take a bifurcated approach with the complementary proposals to the reform to avoid such a legal challenge.<\/p>\n

One of the initiatives would direct the legislature to pass a bill establishing legal protections for patients and doctors around cannabis, while the other would require lawmakers to pass legislation allowing private companies to produce and sell medical marijuana products. The text has not been released yet, but the campaign says it intends to post the full measures after the state formally approves their language.<\/p>\n

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A\u00a0separate effort in the legislature this session<\/a>\u00a0stalled when supporters failed to muster enough votes to overcome a GOP-led filibuster.<\/p>\n

Jared Moffat, campaigns manager for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which is helping to coordinate the state effort, told Marijuana Moment that his group is \u201creally happy to see this campaign moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable how much public support there is for medical cannabis in Nebraska despite extreme opposition from some Republican politicians in the state,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has to be credited to the families and patient advocates who have steadily made the case for compassion to their neighbors through years of educating and organizing. The politicians aren\u2019t listening to these parents and suffering patients, but I think the voters certainly will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two politicians who are evidently listening, however, are Sens. Anna Wishart (D) and Adam Morfeld (D). The two lawmakers are working with Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, and both have championed reform legislation in the legislature.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking and senseless that politicians are standing in the way of families and patients who desperately need safe, legal access to medical cannabis,\u201d Morfeld said<\/a> in a press release. \u201cBut we will not stop fighting for them. We hope that every Nebraskan will stand with us and help our campaign succeed by getting involved and supporting the effort however they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senators announced in December that they would also work to put the question of legalizing marijuana for adult use before voters in 2022<\/a>. But it\u2019s not clear if a recreational measure is still in the works or not at this point.<\/p>\n

Crista Eggers, signature drive director for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, told Marijuana Moment in June that the plan was to\u00a0\u201chit the ground running on a mass scale\u201d<\/a> beginning this summer to gather signatures.<\/p>\n

The group previously floated the idea of adding a short constitutional amendment into the mix that would simply declare people \u201cin the state of Nebraska shall have the right to cannabis in all its forms for medical purposes.\u201d But that plan was shelved in favor of the new twin measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,\u201d Eggers said on Wednesday. \u201cThe current policy doesn\u2019t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we\u2019re going to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nebraska\u2019s attorney general said in an opinion in 2019 that efforts to legalize medical marijuana legislatively in the state\u00a0would be preempted by federal law<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cwould be, therefore, unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under last year\u2019s blocked Nebraska medical cannabis initiative, physicians would have been able to recommend cannabis to patients suffering from debilitating medical conditions, and those patients would then have been allowed to possess, purchase and \u201cdiscreetly\u201d cultivate marijuana for personal use.<\/p>\n

When\u00a0Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana<\/a>\u00a0qualified that measure for the ballot\u2014only to be thwarted by the court\u2014they submitted nearly 200,000 signatures.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to 2022, Nebraska isn\u2019t the only state where voters could see cannabis reform on the ballot.<\/p>\n

Ohio activists recently cleared a final hurdle to begin collecting signatures for a 2022 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n

Missouri voters may see a multiple marijuana initiatives on the state\u2019s ballot next year<\/a>, with a new group filing an adult-use legalization proposal late last month that could compete with separate reform measures that are already in the works<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arkansas advocates are collecting signatures to\u00a0place adult-use marijuana legalization on the ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Activists in Idaho are working to advance separate measures to legalize possession of recreational marijuana and to create a system of legal medical cannabis sales. State officials recently cleared activists to begin collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0for a revised initiative to legalize possession of marijuana that they hope to place before voters on the 2022 ballot. Meanwhile, a separate\u00a0campaign to legalize medical cannabis in the state<\/a>\u00a0is also underway, with advocates actively collecting signatures to qualify that measure for next year\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n

Maryland\u2019s House speaker has pledged that lawmakers will pass legislation to put the question of marijuana legalization before voters<\/a>\u00a0as a referendum on the 2022 ballot. She\u2019s formed a cannabis working group to assess the best way to structure the reform.<\/p>\n

After a House-passed bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana in North Dakota was\u00a0rejected by the Senate in March<\/a>, some senators hatched a plan to\u00a0advance the issue by referring it to voters on the 2022 ballot<\/a>. While their resolution advanced through a key committee, the full Senate blocked it. However, activists with the group\u00a0North Dakota Cannabis Caucus are collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0to qualify a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma advocates\u00a0are pushing two separate initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to legalize marijuana for adult use and overhaul the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n

South Dakota activists recently\u00a0filed four separate legalization measures<\/a>\u00a0with the state Legislative Research Council\u2014the first step toward putting the issue before voters next year if the state Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that overturned the\u00a0legal cannabis measure that voters approved<\/a>\u00a0last November.<\/p>\n

Wyoming\u2019s attorney general recently issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to\u00a0legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession<\/a>, freeing up activists to collect signatures to qualify for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n

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Marijuana Legalization Doesn\u2019t Lead To Increased Youth Use, American Medical Association Study Finds<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The post Nebraska Activists Submit Two Medical Marijuana Initiatives For 2022 Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Nebraska marijuana activists announced on Wednesday that they have turned in a pair of complementary initiatives to legalize medical cannabis that they hope to place on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot. The advocacy group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana says it expects the secretary of state\u2019s office to sign off on theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49844,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49843\/revisions\/49844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}