Nebraska voters will have the opportunity to decide on the legalization of medical marijuana in the state during the upcoming November election, according to an announcement made last week by state officials. Bob Evnen, the secretary of state, confirmed that two separate measures regarding medical cannabis will be included on the ballot.
Officials from the pro-medical cannabis advocacy group, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, revealed earlier this year that they had gathered almost 114,000 signatures from voters in favor of legalization. This figure greatly surpasses the necessary 86,000 signatures to include the measures on the ballot. Evnen noted that, thus far, his office has confirmed about 89,000 signatures for each of the proposed ballot initiatives.
Additionally, both initiatives have met the state’s requirement of gathering signatures from a minimum of 5% of registered Nebraskan voters in at least 38 counties.
The initiatives campaign manager, Crista Eggers, expressed her enthusiasm about the progress made, noting that voters will now have the chance to express their perspectives on this issue after years of assiduously focused efforts.
One of the proposed measures focuses on legalizing medical cannabis while the other is designed to establish a regulatory system for the sale and production of medical marijuana. This comes after an earlier attempt to put a medical cannabis legalization proposal on the ballot was denied by the state’s Supreme Court in 2020 on the grounds that the initiative broke a state law that forbade ballot measures that addressed several legislative subjects.
Evnen noted that he has not yet legally qualified the measures for the ballot, as some counties were still in the process of verifying signatures. If the verified signatures reach 110% of the requisite number, the verification process will be concluded, and the secretary of state will certify the measures for inclusion on the ballot.
Following the announcement, supporters of cannabis policy reform celebrated the opportunity for voters to weigh in on the legalization of medical cannabis. According to a poll conducted earlier this year by the Nebraska Examiner, 70% of voters support the legalization of medical cannabis.
Nebraska’s inclusion of these ballot measures aligns it with three other states — South Dakota, Florida and North Dakota — where voters will also decide on cannabis policy reform initiatives this year. In contrast to Nebraska’s focus on medical cannabis, voters in these three states, which have already legalized medical cannabis, will be considering measures to legalize recreational marijuana. To date, 24 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use, while 38 have legalized it for medical purposes.
The entire marijuana industry, including enterprises such as TerrAscend Corp. (TSX: TSND) (OTCQX: TSNDF), will be watching how voters in those states with marijuana reforms on the ballot cast their votes since it could expand the reach of the reform movement around the country.
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