Group submits signatures to get medicinal cannabis on Nebraska ballot

A group aiming to legalize medicinal cannabis in Nebraska filed ballot petitions on Thursday, ending a campaign marred by tragedy and financial hurdles.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said it has submitted thousands of signatures to the Secretary of State in hopes of getting the medicinal cannabis proposal in the Cornhusker state vote this November.

The group will now await a message to see if the measure qualifies for voting.

“It’s official, we’ve got more than 184,000 signatures to put medical cannabis on the ballot,” said Sen. Anna Wishart, a Democratic representative who co-sponsored Nebraskans for medical marijuana. “We will know in the coming months whether it was enough for qualification. Each signature represents a person who had the courage to go out and ask and a person who had the heart to sign. Thank you Nebraska.”

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has weathered a series of setbacks during its petition campaign. In March, the group’s prospects looked bleak after one of its key donors died in a plane crash and another donor was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The two tragedies left Wishart and others associated with the group asking for donations.

“I would say devastating is an understatement,” said Crista Eggers, who also led the group’s petition campaign. “We ask for your help.”

“If we needed courage, drive and determination, then we have it,” said Eggers. “Our campaign would always be terminated if we needed that. But what our campaign unfortunately doesn’t have – and must have – is money.”

Egger’s motives are personal: her son Colton has epilepsy and cannot receive medicinal cannabis treatment in Nebraska.

“We have received so much support from individuals across the state who are supporting the many patients, like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this drug. Regardless of your political background, we should all agree that criminalizing a drug that has the potential to alleviate suffering is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said when announcing the group’s petition campaign last fall. “The current policy does not reflect our family values ​​here in Nebraska and we will change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering people like my son to be part of this movement and help us win 2022.”

On Thursday, Eggers was amazed at the group’s resilience.

“These were people who took care of this issue and they stepped up one day at a time and when things got tough they kept going,” Eggers said, as quoted by local television station KETV.

“There was no choice but to give up, right. Because of all of you. Because of all the people, the stories that counted on us to make it,” added Eggers.

Nebraskans for medical marijuana turned in the signatures at 11 a.m., fitting in with the hubbub that defined their petition movement. KETV reported that the group “used every second it could before having to drop off their signed petitions in Lincoln,” with people “still signing the petition outside the Secretary of State’s office less than an hour before the deadline.” .

In a post on its Facebook page Thursday afternoon, the group urged both people who wanted to sign the petition and notaries public to come to the foreign minister’s office.

Nebraska’s medical marijuana community has previously scrambled to get a proposal for the 2020 state vote, but the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that it was ineligible.

“What happens tomorrow, we face tomorrow,” Eggers said Thursday, as quoted by KETV.