‘There’s no giving up,’ says advocate, pledging to try again
By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Two initiatives to legalize medical marijuana failed to qualify for the November ballot, the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office announced Monday.
The effort, led by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, needed to collect valid signatures of 86,776 voters and collect signatures of at least 5% of registered voters in 38 of the state’s 93 counties for its two petitions.
Both petitions were short
The Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that the effort — which used volunteer petition circulators — fell short on both counts and on both petitions. A petition to legalize marijuana collected 77,843 signatures and qualified in 26 counties. A companion petition to set up regulation of medical marijuana turned in 77,119 valid signatures and qualified in 27 counties.
Crista Eggers, who coordinated the signature-gathering campaign for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said if the group determines the failure is valid, it will immediately begin a new petition drive for the 2024 ballot.
“There is no giving up,” said Eggers, whose son, Colton, suffers up to 100 epileptic seizures a day.
She had hoped to be able to legally obtain cannabis treatments for the 7-year-old.
Plenty of signatures in 2020
It was a bitter defeat for the medical marijuana group, which gathered more than enough signatures two years ago to qualify a single initiative for the ballot. But it was knocked off the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that the ballot language violated the state’s “single subject” rule.
This year, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana attempted to gather the required signatures using mostly volunteers after a major donor died and they were unable to afford professional, paid circulators.
Officials with the group had expressed doubts that they could qualify, despite a last-minute rush of signatures, using only volunteers.