Will 2022 finally be the year of marijuana legalization in Nebraska?

Nebraska Medical Marijuana is focused on ensuring that pro-cannabis bills are legalized through the ballot box starting in 2022.

The United States of America as a whole accepts marijuana as a beneficial drug, the benefits of which outweigh the disadvantages.

The House’s reluctance to pass laws introduced last year has resulted in the state of Nevada being one of the remaining 14 states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana.

The other states are Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Previous Approaches to Legalizing Medical Cannabis in Nebraska

The last measure was around May 2021, everyone was so certain that the state was about to approve medical marijuana. All hopes were dashed when the bill didn’t get enough votes to grow through the GOP-led filibuster

The bill was sponsored by Senator Anna Wishart and Senator Adam Morfeld. It has been amended several times to allow the Legal Affairs Committee to adopt the document. Although limited in some ways, the law would have allowed Nebraskans to prescribe medical marijuana products to treat diseases.

Both co-sponsors remain ardent supporters of cannabis legalization in the state and are strong behind the Nebraska Medical Marijuana Committee.

Another failed campaign to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska took place in 2020. Efforts have been made to include the measure on the 2020 ballot papers. The state’s Supreme Court suspended everything due to a one-issue dispute.

Nebraska Medical Marijuana (NMM)

This is a recognized political committee based in Nebraska. The committee was formed by marijuana advocates in Nebraska to support the 2022 vote that began legalizing the medical use of marijuana in the state.

The group has an official website. They have always expressed that they believe in patients’ right to easily access the best, most affordable medical cannabis to treat serious health problems.

Recent Nebraska Medical Marijuana (NMM) Activities

The NMM announced in June that the group would develop various voting initiatives that would complement each other. A short constitutional amendment would also be written. The brief change would say that residents of the state of Nebraska would have the right to use cannabis in various forms for its therapeutic benefits.

The marijuana advocates in the NMM have announced that they will select and support two separate initiatives as a strategy to have the marijuana bills on the polls in 2022.

The group announced that it will work to ensure that two complementary initiatives qualify for the 2022 elections.

The group that has learned from the mistakes of the past tries out this strategy in order to prevent a renewed disqualification from the state’s expenditure rule for citizens’ initiatives.

Last year, one of those directives invalidated a legalization measure that had already qualified for the ballot box for the general election held in late 2020.

The group plans to do away with the reduced language and instead work in concert with these two separate initiatives.

One of the bills is aimed at the legislature to pass a bill that contains legal protection for doctors and patients when using cannabis.

The second bill would direct lawmakers to authorize the production and sale of medical marijuana products by private companies in the state.

Senator Anna Wishart, one of Nebraskan’s co-chairs for medical marijuana and also a co-sponsor of the May 2021 failed bill, said in an interview that the new strategy has a higher chance of overcoming legal challenges that may arise.

Senator Wishart also said the main goal of the NMM for now is to introduce a language that the group believes in. “We’ve looked at all sorts of challenges and feel we have addressed them,” said Senator Wishart.

Senators Wishart and Morfeld both announced in a statement last year that they have plans to bring the issue of legalizing marijuana for adult use to Nebraska voters in 2022. They took it for granted that the medical cannabis measures would have been approved at the meeting in May.

At the moment everyone supports the medical marijuana measures for the 2022 ballot and it cannot be said for the time being whether recreational cannabis for the 2022 ballot is still in the works. Although it is very unlikely.

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Nebraska Medical Marijuana (NMM) has also partnered with other advocacy organizations such as the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), ACLU, and other groups. These groups are working with the NMM to perfect the new petitions and make sure they are rock solid.

MPP’s campaign manager Jared Moffat said in a message that the new initiatives were being properly reviewed by all groups. In this way, opponents would find it very difficult to cancel the language used in both initiatives. It would be unlikely that the measures would be removed from the polls in 2022.

Regarding the collection of signatures for these new initiatives, Crista Eggers, the signature collection for the NMM, said the group plans to “take off en masse” once the texts are finalized.

Eggers told other activists in a Facebook chat a few days ago that the team “Very close to having the petition language ready for submission”.

She also said the petitions are also being reviewed by experienced lawyers to make sure they are free from exploitable vulnerabilities.

Efforts will also begin to increase regional momentum and pressure on the cause.

Bottom line

The Nebraska Medical Marijuana Committee takes time to make sure the documents are foolproof.

The biggest fear this time around is that there will be a low turnout in the 2022 midterm elections. Hopefully the NMM has plans to ensure that at least the required number of voters turn up.

If only Governor Pete Ricketts stance against cannabis reform measures could change, but fingers crossed.

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