Nebraska's Krista Eggers is facing a July 3 deadline. If the two petitions can gather at least 87,000 names each by then, the state could put an initiative on the state ballot in November to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.
Petitioning is personal. Her 9-year-old son, Colton, suffers from epilepsy and severe seizures, and medical marijuana is sometimes prescribed to treat such symptoms.
“I'm a caregiver for a child who needs access to medical marijuana. Ninety-five percent of the people we're collecting[signatures]are Nebraskans who need access and who need this issue on the ballot. ,” said Eggers, an Omaha resident and campaign manager for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.
If the group is successful, Nebraska will join Florida and South Dakota in asking voters whether to legalize some marijuana use this fall. Voters in Florida and South Dakota, which already allow medical marijuana, will be asked to legalize adult recreational use.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 38 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana products, and 24 states, including the District of Columbia, allow adult recreational use. Although marijuana remains illegal under federal law, 74% of Americans now live in states where marijuana is legal for both recreational and medical purposes, and 54% live in places where recreational use is legal, according to the Pew Research Center. live in
While many states, especially those on the left, have legalized marijuana through legislation, “in some states, state legislatures are still reluctant to address the issue of marijuana legislation, especially in more conservative parts of the country,” Baugh said. said. Mr. Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Center for Drug Policy Research.
“That's why it's no surprise that the cannabis issue goes through the ballot initiative process,” Kilmer said.
As more states legalize cannabis, uneven safety rules could pose risks
In Kansas, where legislative efforts to legalize marijuana have suffered multiple setbacks since 2021, one Republican, state Sen. Conservative lawmakers blocked a bill to legalize medical use this Congress. '' reported the Kansas City Star.
Kansas is one of 24 states that do not allow citizen-initiated ballot measures.
However, marijuana use has become highly segregated, and even some conservative states have legalized it through legislation. Since 2020, four of the five states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Virginia) have legalized it through legislation. Legislature.
Participate in the vote
Nebraska is one of only three states where all cannabis products, including marijuana and CBD products, are illegal, the others being Idaho and Kansas.
Eggers said Nebraska lawmakers have shown little interest in changing course.
To avoid opposition from the Legislature, the question needs signatures from 7% of the state's 1.2 million voters to be placed on the ballot. She also needs signatures from 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska's 93 counties. In addition to Eggers, about 25 paid staff members and 200 volunteers help with the effort.
Eggers and her group came close to passing a cannabis bill on the 2020 ballot after collecting 200,000 signatures. But the state Supreme Court struck down the measure, saying the petition violated the state's single-subject rules for voting activities.
Nebraska medical marijuana advocates clear one of two key hurdles
The Supreme Court ruled that the petition would require changes to several state laws, including laws regarding ownership, public use, and insurance coverage.
A second attempt in 2022 gained momentum after a major donor died in a plane crash that year.
“There's a lot of money spent collecting signatures, from filling up gas tanks so people can go from county to county, to the labor costs that go into printing petitions and collecting signatures,” Eggers said. . “The problem is not support. We have support. At the end of the day, it's because we don't have the money to hire people to help collect signatures.”
recreational cannabis
Last year, three states legalized marijuana for recreational use. Voters in red state Ohio approved the ballot measure, and lawmakers in blue state Delaware and Minnesota passed the measure.
A total of 13 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana.
The ballot initiative in Florida would require a 60% supermajority to pass, but John Morgan, an attorney and Democratic Party fundraiser, spent more than $8 million of his own money to support medical marijuana in 2016. Endorsed by the same people who helped make legalization a success.
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis opposes the measure. So are parts of the state's medical marijuana industry. Nick Gurley, CEO of My Florida Green, said the legalization of recreational marijuana has increased competition, adding, “People who want to use marijuana recreationally and people who are sick and who rely on it for treatment. He said he was concerned that it could become difficult to distinguish between people who
Miscellaneous marijuana laws drive consumers and profits across state lines
Rob Mikos, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law and an expert on drug law, agreed that in some cases, recreational marijuana traffic could lead to a decline in medical marijuana patients.
However, there is not enough data to definitively state how adult-use recreational cannabis is impacting the medical market in regions where both medical and recreational cannabis are legal. he said.
June is a big month for Eggers. As of June 10, she has collected about 65,000 signatures on each petition, about 30,000 short of the total expected signatures needed for each petition.
“We know this is achievable, but there is definitely a sense of urgency in the coming weeks,” she says.
“I think our campaign is terrifyingly beautiful,” Eggers said. “It's scary that we've been in this situation for so long for the people of Nebraska who are suffering. But it's great because we've had support from almost every corner of the state.”
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