The Republican governor of Nebraska is partnering with a chapter of the nation\u2019s leading marijuana prohibitionist group to run ads urging residents to oppose cannabis reform in the state.<\/p>\n
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) was featured in a 30-second ad that was paid for by SAM Nebraska, an affiliate of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, and which began airing on local TV stations last week. He argues that marijuana doesn\u2019t have medical value and that the industry is using the issue as a Trojan horse to ultimately get adult-use legalization enacted.<\/p>\n
This comes as pro-legalization advocates step up their reform push by circulating a pair of medical cannabis reform initiatives that they hope to put before voters on the 2022 ballot<\/a>. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has until July to collect 87,000 valid signatures to qualify each of their complementary measures.<\/p>\n Ricketts apparently wants to get ahead of the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana is word choice,\u201d the governor said in the new ad<\/a>. \u201cDoctors can\u2019t prescribe it and pharmacists can\u2019t provide it because it\u2019s not medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToday the marijuana industry has set its sights on Nebraska. And the real goal is the legalization of recreational marijuana across the state,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen what happens when progressive politics trump science and common sense. That can\u2019t happen. It\u2019s up to us to protect our kids and defend our communities. Big Marijuana\u2019s way is the wrong way for Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n While the ad ignores the political reality that there\u2019s strong bipartisan support for medical cannabis, the governor\u2019s talking points are at least more tempered than his remarks in May, when he said marijuana \u201cis a dangerous drug that will impact our kids\u201d and \u201cif you legalize marijuana, you\u2019re gonna kill your kids.\u201d<\/p>\n State Sen. Adam Morfeld (D), a cochair of the pro-reform group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, blasted Ricketts for \u201crunning $500,000 in anti medical marijuana ads across the state,\u201d tweeting that he supposes the governor is taking steps to make the 2022 election \u201cbe a referendum on marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick google search results on Pete: pic.twitter.com\/MCM5HN20vr<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 State Senator Adam Morfeld (@Adam_Morfeld) December 5, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Morfeld told Marijuana Moment that \u201cno amount of money will change the fact that over 70 percent of Nebraskans from across the political spectrum support the legalization of medical marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n I suppose he is setting up the 2022 General Election is going to be a referendum on marijuana.<\/p>\n \u2014 State Senator Adam Morfeld (@Adam_Morfeld) December 5, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Sen. Anna Wishart (D), who is also cochair of the group, said in a statement that there\u2019s \u201cno amount of negative advertising or dark money spent in opposition to our campaign that outweighs the grassroots support of this issue from Nebraskans across our state who come from all walks of life and every political party.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThose of you who care about this issue, keep your chins up; we will not stop our efforts until we have a safe, compassionate and common sense medical cannabis system in our state,\u201d she said. \u201cNow let\u2019s go collect some signatures!\u201d<\/p>\n SAM Executive Vice President Luke Niforatos confirmed to Marijuana Moment that the organization\u2019s Nebraska affiliate is spending<\/a> in the six figures for the ad campaign, which also features two separate spots featuring medical and law enforcement professionals raising concerns about cannabis.<\/p>\n A political consulting company, making ad buys and the fcc files them in their “Political Files”. But as long as you check the box on a NAB form, it’s nananabooboo\u2026 doesn’t count. pic.twitter.com\/eAG2AwuGv2<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 TimmyPowershell (@TimmySQL) December 5, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which is behind the two reform ballot initiatives, sent an email blast to supporters about the new opposition ads.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these ads make you angry, they should. The content is dishonest and disrespectful to the families and grassroots patient advocates who are leading this movement for compassionate cannabis laws,\u201d they wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt is clear that the anti-cannabis extremists\u2014many from groups that exist outside of Nebraska\u2014will stop at nothing to prevent us from creating a system of safe, legal access to medical cannabis.<\/p>\n The 2022 ballot effort isn\u2019t the first time that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has pushed for reform despite the governor\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n Activists collected enough signatures to qualify a medical marijuana legalization measure for the 2020 ballot, but the state Supreme Court invalidated it<\/a>, finding that the proposal violated the single-subject rule for citizen initiatives.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the campaign deliberately chose to take a bifurcated approach this time around, with the complementary proposals to the reform to avoid such a legal challenge.<\/p>\n One of the statutory initiatives would establish legal protections for patients and doctors around cannabis, while the other would allow private companies to produce and sell medical marijuana products.<\/p>\n Lawmakers attempted to advance medical cannabis reform legislatively this year, but while the unicameral legislature debated a bill to legalize medical marijuana in May, it failed to advance past a filibuster<\/a> because the body didn\u2019t have enough votes to overcome it.<\/p>\n Morfeld and Wishart announced last December that they would also work to put the question of legalizing marijuana for adult use before voters in 2022<\/a>. But for now their focus appears to be on the medical cannabis effort.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Nebraska\u2019s attorney general argued in an opinion in 2019 that efforts to legalize medical marijuana legislatively in the state would be preempted by federal law<\/a>\u00a0and \u201cwould be, therefore, unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n Ohio GOP Lawmakers File New Marijuana Legalization Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Nebraska Governor Partners With Prohibitionist Group On Ad Opposing Medical Marijuana<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Republican governor of Nebraska is partnering with a chapter of the nation\u2019s leading marijuana prohibitionist group to run ads urging residents to oppose cannabis reform in the state. Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) was featured in a 30-second ad that was paid for by SAM Nebraska, an affiliate of SmartContinue 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\/51588"}],"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=51588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51589,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51588\/revisions\/51589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\nRead More: Nebraska Governor Partners With Prohibitionist Group On Ad Opposing Medical Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"