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Nebraska activists are putting out an urgent call for voters to sign petitions to place a pair of medical marijuana legalization initiatives on the state\u2019s November ballot, with just under four weeks left to collect about 30,000 more signatures to qualify each measure.<\/p>\n
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) said in an email blast on Thursday that while they prioritized meeting a requirement to gather signatures from at least five percent of voters in a minimum of 38 counties<\/a> across the state, they now need supporters to rally to hit the overall statewide signature threshold.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made the counties our main focus because they require a great deal of time and resources that cannot wait until the last minute,\u201d Crista Eggers, NMM\u2019s campaign manager, said. \u201cWe have the counties, but we have an urgent need to collect bulk signatures.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt we are farther ahead than in past petition drives, but still have a tremendous push to gather over 30,000 signatures on each petition over the next 27 days to assure we are successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The campaign needs to collect a total of 87,000 valid signatures for each of the two measures by July 3 in order to make the ballot.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no doubt Nebraskans want to see this on the ballot, so we need them to step up and help make that happen,\u201d Eggers said. \u201cMy personal ask, not as a campaign manager, but as a mother, is that people would react as if their child\u2019s life depends on it and go sign; because for many of us, our child\u2019s life really does depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n The first of the two current ballot\u00a0initiatives<\/a>\u00a0from 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 \u201cenact 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The other initiative would create a new a Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to provide \u201cnecessary registration and regulation of persons that possess, manufacture, distribute, deliver, and dispense cannabis for medical purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign is urging voters to find locations<\/a> to sign the petitions, which can be done in Omaha and Lincoln at Wine, Beer and Spirits, for example.<\/p>\n\n 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.<\/p>\n Volunteers\u00a0have been filling out petitions since last July<\/a>, about two months after\u00a0turning in the pair of complementary legalization initiatives to the secretary of state\u2019s office<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gov. Jim Pillen (R) has already voiced opposition to the reform effort, saying last September that legalization \u201cposes demonstrated harms to our children,\u201d 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\u2019s argument is a \u201ccop out,\u201d and she says the campaign will let voters decide for themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t stop until we get that done. That\u2019s where we\u2019re at, and that\u2019s how our campaign feels,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just keep showing up. And the reason we have to do that is because there is no option.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 One of NMM\u2019s earlier campaigns gathered enough signatures for ballot placement in 2020, but the\u00a0measure was invalidated by the state Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0following a single-subject challenge. Supporters then\u00a0came up short on signatures for revised petitions<\/a>\u00a0in 2022 due in large part to the loss of funding after one of their key donors died in a plane crash.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Wishart\u2019s\u00a0medical cannabis bill received a hearing<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u00a0stalled out in the GOP-controlled legislature<\/a>\u00a0amid a filibuster that supporters could not overcome.<\/p>\n Federal Health Officials Discuss Marijuana Research And Rescheduling Implications, But DEA Cancels Scheduled Appearance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Max Pixel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Nebraska Activists Say They Need 30,000 More Signatures Over Next Month To Put Medical Marijuana Initiatives For November Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Nebraska activists are putting out an urgent call for voters to sign petitions to place a pair of medical marijuana legalization initiatives on the state\u2019s November ballot, with just under four weeks left to collect about 30,000 more signatures to qualify each measure. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) said inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":76070,"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\/76069"}],"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=76069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76071,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76069\/revisions\/76071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Nebraska Activists Say They Need 30,000 More Signatures Over Next Month To Put Medical Marijuana Initiatives For November Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"