Medical marijuana petitions in Nebraska need 35,000 signatures by Thursday

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Two medical marijuana petitions in Nebraska are in danger of not making it onto the November ballot.

One petition focuses on giving patients the right to use medical cannabis when a doctor deems it necessary, while the second one deals with the production of cannabis.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said it needs at least 35,000 signatures by the July 7 deadline to get onto the ballot.

“We have not reached the threshold we need, we are not working on overage, and without tens of thousands of Nebraskans signing this weekend we may not be able to submit our signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State on July 7th”, campaign manager Crista Eggers said in a press release.

Earlier in June, a federal judge issued an injunction lowering the requirement for petition initiatives.

Eggers and Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana had filed a lawsuit alleging that the multicounty signature requirement violated the United States Constitution.

The judge agreed and blocked the requirement, but the state is appealing the ruling.

See also: Judge issues injunction in Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana petition lawsuit

“We are optimistic, that just like in our 2020 petition drive tens of thousands of Nebraskans will sign and turn in their petitions during the last week,” Sen. Anna Wishart said in the release.  “We have dozens of circulators across the state at every Independence Day event there is and interfacing with 150,000+ Nebraskans, but we need everyone who cares to rally together, find a circulator or store carrying petitions and allow the people to vote on what the politicians have failed to accomplish.”

Last week, the group held a press conference as a last-minute push to try to get Nebraskans to sign the two petitions.

See also: Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana pleads for 50,000 more signatures

To learn more about Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, go to nmm2022.org.