Nebraska Cannabis Activists Consider Rec Marijuana Legalization After MMJ Campaign Fails

Nebraska lawmakers are planning to introduce a measure to legalize medical marijuana in the upcoming legislative session, reported KNOP.

“We will exhaust every measure possible to get Nebraskans the medical freedom they deserve and want,” State Senator Jen Day of District 49 said earlier this week.

The plans for the 2023 legislative session – expected to begin on January 4 – are in the making after Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office announced that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) failed to submit enough valid signatures to place the two legalization initiatives on the November ballot.

The campaign, which previously lacked funding, sought to get a pair of medical cannabis proposals that would require lawmakers to pass laws protecting physicians who recommend medical cannabis treatment and patients who use it and impose legislature to set up rules for the medical cannabis program. The state said the campaign was roughly 10,000 signatures short for each measure.

Crista Eggers, the organizer behind the petition drive, is now considering placing the adult-use legalization question on the 2024 ballot as well, as a way to appeal to those with more funds, as first reported by Nebraska Examiner.

“There is nothing off the table about how we get this done,” said Eggers, adding they are “going to regroup, we’re going to hurt and we’re going to cry and we’re going to be angry, but then we’re going to take the anger we feel today and turn it into action.”

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