Medical marijuana initiative fails

An initiative for the legalization of medical marijuana will not appear on Nebraska’s November ballot. 

The Medical Cannabis Patient Protections Initiative and the Medical Cannabis Regulation Initiative failed to receive the number of valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot on Nov. 8. To qualify, the two initiatives each needed 86,776 valid signatures. The signatures also needed to include at least five percent of registered voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

The campaign was led by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM), an activist group and registered ballot campaign committee. Crista Eggers, campaign coordinator for NMM, led the effort to collect signatures for the initiative. The issue is personal for her, as her son is diagnosed with severe epilepsy and experiences seizures. 

NMM submitted over 90,000 signatures for the initiatives, but after the validation process, both initiatives were around 10,000 signatures short of the stipulation. The signatures also did not consist of five percent of registered voters in the required number of counties.

Before the signatures for the initiative were submitted, the county-level threshold requirement was challenged by NMM and Nebraska’s ACLU chapter in federal court. NMM and the ACLU argued the law is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, and gives disproportionate power to the smaller, rural communities of Nebraska. These communities are more isolated, which makes it harder for activists to gain support for their initiative and obtain signatures from residents. The requirement was temporarily suspended by a district court, but was reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit and is still being applied.

NMM previously attempted to introduce a medical marijuana initiative to the 2020 ballot. After collecting enough valid signatures, the initiative was disqualified by the Nebraska Supreme Court for violating the state’s “single-subject” rule for ballot issues, which is why the 2022 attempt included two motions which separated the protection of doctors and patients from businesses.

The effort led by NMM is based mostly on grassroots organization and volunteers, and is supported by Nebraska state senators Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld. The committee cited the death of a major donor as a setback in their 2022 effort, but has already announced their intention to qualify for the ballot in 2024.

Other efforts for the legalization of medical marijuana are taking place with State Senators Jen Day and Anna Wishart announcing plans to introduce legislation during the next legislative session, which begins on Jan. 4.

By Aubrey Benton