Sheriff Who Challenged Nebraska Cannabis Has No Idea Who Funded His Case

Lancaster County, Nebraska Sheriff Terry Wagner – the plaintiff in the Nebraska Supreme Court case that blocked the state’s medical cannabis ballot initiative for the general election – said he doesn’t know who paid for the legal work to get the issue in front of the court, the Lincoln Journal-Star reports. 

Wagner said Lincoln attorney Mark Fahleson brought it to his attention “that it didn’t appear that the ballot language met the constitutional muster for single issues,” he told the Journal-Star, noting that “no tax dollars were used in the litigation.” Wagner said the attorney wanted to use his name as the challenger on the lawsuit since it was no secret he opposed medical cannabis legalization. 

Fahleson, who served as the chairman of the Nebraska Republican Party from 2009 to 2013, told the Journal-Star that the question of who funded the challenge was attorney-client privilege.

Wagner said that since he is a public servant whose job is to enforce existing laws, he can express his opinions about cannabis legalization during work time – which is paid for with tax dollars. He said medical cannabis legalization is “just a foot in the door for the marijuana industry to get into the state and then desensitize the population to the use of marijuana.” He added that he doesn’t believe cannabis is medicine.     

Fahleson said why he chose Wagner was also a matter of attorney-client privilege. 

Ultimately, the state Supreme Court ruled that the initiative proposal violated the single-issue clause for ballot questions, determining there were at least eight issues wrapped into the question.