Nebraska Initiatives to Legalize and Regulate Medical Cannabis Qualify for Ballot

Officials in Nebraska said last week that the campaigns to legalize and regulate medical cannabis in the state will qualify for the November ballot, the Associated Press reports.

Advocates submitted signatures for two ballot initiatives: one to legalize medical cannabis, and one to establish a regulated medical cannabis industry. Both initiatives had surpassed 89,000 verified signatures and had met the requirement of 5% distribution in at least 51 counties per state law, Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s office said in a press release.

“After years of hard work, we are beyond excited that Nebraskans will finally have the opportunity to have their voices heard on this issue in November. Our fight has been long, it has been hard, but we have never given up. Today we celebrate that very soon, patients in this state will have access to medical cannabis treatment.” — Crista Eggers, campaign manager for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, via the Associated Press

This is the third medical cannabis legalization effort by advocates in the state. In 2022, the petition fell short of the required signatures to qualify for the ballot — and in 2020, the petition’s ballot language was rejected by the state Supreme Court, which argued the petition was improperly addressing two topics: regulation and legalization.

The campaign this year split the issue into two petitions to hopefully meet the court’s standards.