Nebraska Advocates Launch Third Medical Cannabis Ballot Initiative Campaign

Cannabis advocates in Nebraska are making their third attempt to get an initiative to legalize medical cannabis to voters as they host a signature drive kickoff today. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) has twice failed to get the issue on ballots – in 2020 after the state Supreme Court ruled the question’s wording violated the state’s single subject provision for initiatives, and in 2022 after the campaign failed to gather enough signatures.

In a press release, the campaign said the 2022 effort was unsuccessful because the “campaign lost two major financial backers who had provided significant funding during the initial effort, which at that time helped with the hiring of paid circulators.”

The campaign needs to collect 125,000 raw signatures on two complementary petitions by July 3, 2024.

The NMM is co-chaired by state Sen. Anna Wishart (D) and former state Sen. Adam Morfeld (D). Wishart has long backed medical cannabis legalization in the state and has sponsored legislation in the state Senate with little success.

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln survey from May 2022 estimated that in 2020 and 2021 83% of Nebraskans supported the reforms. The figures matched internal polling conducted by NMM, which four 80% support for medical cannabis legalization in the state.