Uff: Nebraska medical marijuana measures will not appear on the ballot again

Today, August 22, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R) announced that the state’s two medical marijuana initiatives did not gather enough signatures to qualify for the November 2022 election.

Monday’s news marks the second loss in two years for Nebraskans for medical marijuana, a group led by state senators Anna Wishart (D) and Adam Morfeld (D). In 2020, the state Supreme Court overturned their otherwise successful ballot initiative on false grounds, forcing them to launch that year’s campaign. (Opponents of legalization argued that the 2020 initiative “created confusion” and violated a state law that limits each initiative to a single issue. They argued that using medical marijuana and growing it for sale were two separate issues The state Supreme Court agreed.)

The 2022 campaign required around 87,000 valid signatures for each of the two measures; both lagged behind by about 10,000.

In addition, each campaign was required to collect a number of signatures equal to five percent of all registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. The two measures only reach this threshold in 26 and 27 districts respectively.

“Today, the Nebraska Secretary of State announced that our efforts to ease the pain of so many suffering Nebrascans did not meet the minimum requirements for verified signatures to land in the November election. To say we are devastated would be an understatement,” the campaign wrote on Facebook.

Related

The Nebraska Superior Court ends the 2020 Medical Marijuana Initiative

Bad luck and bad actors in the state government

The announcement concludes a campaign marked by tragedy, bad luck and insurmountable political obstacles.

In recent months, one prominent donor to the group has died and another has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Additionally, last month a federal appeals court ruled that Nebraska’s county-level signature requirements are indeed legal, despite a lower court ruling to the contrary.

During both campaigns, Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) has actively campaigned against the legalization of medical marijuana. In 2020, he told reporters that “there is no such thing as medical marijuana.”

Last year, Ricketts claimed that medical marijuana is a “dangerous drug that will affect our children” and that “if you legalize marijuana, you will kill your children. Data from across the country shows that.”

Indeed, data from across the country does not show that. Nebraska is one of only 11 states that haven’t legalized the medical use of marijuana. In some states, medicinal cannabis has been legal for more than a quarter century.

Related

Nebraska advocates are aiming for marijuana legalization in 2022

Regrouping for 2024

In the same Facebook post acknowledging their defeat, the campaign announced they will begin planning for 2024 immediately.

“But there is no giving up,” they wrote. “When we get the results from the Secretary of State’s office, we will analyze the data and then work immediately to qualify for the 2024 election.”

By this morning, the campaign had already launched a website to raise funds for their next, and hopefully final, campaign to bring medical marijuana to Nebraska.

“Suffering Nebrascans should never face having to leave themselves or their families from the state they call home just to access medical care,” they wrote.

Max Savage Levenson

Max Savage Levenson probably has the lowest cannabis tolerance of any author on the cannabis beat. He also writes about music for Pitchfork, Bandcamp and other bespectacled people. He is the co-host of the Hash podcast. His dream interview is Tyler the Creator.

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