Nebraska Medical Cannabis Activists Submit Ballot Signatures Despite Legal Setback & Financial Struggles

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) have turned in signatures enabling them to now place a medical cannabis proposal on the Nebraska ballot, reported KFSM 5NEWS.

The activists hope that they’ve done their part and garnered enough signatures to support the cause.

The campaign first revealed its intentions to circulate a petition to get a pair of medical cannabis proposals on the ballot last September.

The first one would require lawmakers to pass laws protecting physicians who recommend medical cannabis and patients who use it. The other would impose legislation to set up rules for the medical cannabis program.

“Two months ago, we were at 20,000 signatures on each petition,” said state Sen. Anna Wishart (D), NMM co-chair. “And now we’re well over 90,000 on each.”

Prior to Thursday’s turn-in deadline Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana went ahead to collect several thousand more signatures to be sure that enough valid petitions were submitted.

The campaign also suffered a legal setback as the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision, allowing the state to enforce a requirement that initiative petition drives collect valid signatures from at least 5% of registered voters in 38 counties to be placed on the ballot, reported Law360. Earlier this year, the ACLU of Nebraska and NMM set in motion a legal action against the state's requirement.

Earlier this week, Crista Eggers, the organizer behind the petition drive for NMM urged the community to join the effort, emphasizing that they still needed 35,000 more signatures.

“I cannot be more clear,” Eggers said in a press release. "We have not reached the threshold we need, we are not working on overage, and without tens of thousands of Nebraskans signing this weekend we may not be able to submit our signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State on July 7th.”

Funding Struggles

Moreover, over the past few months, activists were clear about the campaign being desperate for funding.

“I’d say devastating is an understatement,” Eggers said at the time. “We’re pleading with you to help.”

Interestingly, state Sen. John Cavanaugh, one of many volunteers helping the organization collect more signatures for the MMJ petition said he does not plan to give up.

“Yeah, we’re never going to stop,” Cavanaugh said earlier this week. ”I mean the evidence is clear, marijuana is good, medical cannabis can be good medicine for a lot of specific diseases, ailments, issues that people have, and it’s a lot better than a lot of the medicine we’re using now which includes opioids.”

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