Nebraska Group Delivers 114,000 Signatures for Medical Cannabis Legalization Measures

Nebraska medical cannabis legalization advocates attempting to put a pair of statutory measures before voters in the November 2024 election are now one step closer to their goal.

The measures’ sponsors, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM), submitted roughly 114,000 signatures for each petition to the Secretary of State’s office on July 3. The group needs approximately 87,000 valid signatures per petition to land on the ballot, a threshold based on 7% of registered voters in the state. In addition, signatures must be collected from 5% of the registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties to qualify for the ballot.

NMM’s sponsors are Campaign Manager Crista Eggers—a cannabis advocate whose 9-year-old son battles severe epileptic seizures—state Sen. Anna Wishart and former state Sen. Adam Morfeld. 2024 marks NMM’s third campaign attempt to place a medical cannabis legalization initiative before voters.

“Every signature means the world to patients in this state,” NMM officials wrote on social media July 3. “We crossed this state from Omaha to Scottsbluff and from McCook to South Sioux City. We heard stories from veterans, cancer patients, patients with chronic pain and epilepsy, and everything in between. No matter where we went, we discovered just how passionate Nebraskans are about this issue. We expect to find out our status for the November ballot sometime at the end of August.”

Roughly 70% of Nebraskans support legalizing medical cannabis, according to a February 2024 poll conducted for Neilan Strategy Group, the Nebraska Examiner reported.

NMM’s first petition for the 2024 ballot, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Patient Protection Act, aims to establish a doctor-patient system for medical cannabis that will protect patients from criminal arrests and prosecution for possessing up to 5 ounces of cannabis.

Under current state law, possessing up to 1 ounce of cannabis is an infraction on the first offense and a misdemeanor on the second offense that’s punishable by five days imprisonment and a $500 maximum fine, according to cannabis advocacy group NORML. Possessing 1 ounce to 1 pound is a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months imprisonment and a $500 maximum fine.

NMM’s second petition, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Regulation Act, intends to create the framework for a licensed and regulated industry, including establishing a commission to oversee a commercial marketplace. Under the proposal, the commission must issue licenses no later than Oct. 1, 2025.  

The group intends to reform Nebraska’s cannabis laws by posing two separate questions to voters because of the state’s single-subject rule, which was the demise of a previous legalization attempt. In 2020, NMM met the signature-gathering requirements only to have its petition struck down by the Nebraska Supreme Court that September when justices ruled the initiative dealt with two subjects: legalization and setting up a system to cultivate, sell and distribute products.

During NMM’s second legalization campaign in 2022, the group faced a financial setback when one primary donor died in a plane crash and another was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Canvassers fell short of collecting enough signatures to meet the state and county requirements that year.

In addition to sponsoring the NMM campaign, Wishart, a Democratic state senator since 2017, has sponsored legislation to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature (one chamber) since 2021. Her most recent bill died when the Republican-controlled Legislature adjourned in mid-April.

Last week, two days before NMM submitted its signatures to the Secretary of State’s office, Wishart posted a photo of Eggers’ son, Colton, on social media.

“This is why we fight so hard for safe access to medical cannabis,” Wishart wrote. “Colton has life-threatening seizures and has been told by medical experts that cannabis could save his life. His mom, Crista, has been leading our effort and fighting for her son for seven-plus years. This must be the year we succeed and let Nebraskans vote on this issue in November.”