Nebraska Medical Cannabis Ballot Initiatives Ruled Valid
Judge’s verdict says Nebraska’s two medical marijuana measures are valid, after a month-long court hearings. Nebraska was the only state in the last elections that had a successful ballot outcome regarding marijuana. Nebraskans voted on two different proposals that seek to establish and regulate medical cannabis in the state. The ballot initiatives were then challenged in court on the basis that some petition signatures were collected unlawfully. Because of the discrepancy, the petition backers did not have a sufficient number of signatures, the allegations said.
On Nov. 5 Nebraskans voted in favor of medical cannabis, approving two intersecting measures with two-thirds majority. The pair of ballot initiatives was led by the campaign group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. Few other groups, including Families 4 Medical Cannabis, Growing the Good Life, and Teamsters Local 554, also rallied behind the initiatives.
Nebraska Cannabis Opponents Challenged the Initiatives in Court
However, quickly after the vote was closed, both medical cannabis proposals for Nebraska were challenged with a lawsuit filed by Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, the Attorney General’s Office and former State Sen. John Kuehn. The allegations concerned fraudulent petition signatures and fraudulent notarization, which campaigners had to collect as part of the process to qualify for ballot voting. The plaintiffs attempted to prove that more than 3,000 signatures on each petition were invalid.
“This Court cannot turn a blind eye to the sponsors and [Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana] campaign members’ willful disregard of the Nebraska Constitution and the statutory scheme that regulates the initiative process,” the AG’s Office said in one of its briefs on the case, Nebraska Examiner reported.
The AG’s Office went as far as to cite a Nebraska Supreme Court case from 1905 which said an election is allowed to be “rightfully quashed” if the process is so “infused” with fraud or “gross irregularity” which undermines efforts to count lawful votes. “The appropriate remedy is declaring the result of the elections void,” the AG’s Office said, according to the Nebraska Examiner.
Those arguing on the behalf of the petitioners said there was no “clear and convincing evidence” of fraud, and rejecting whole petitions would be a punishment for everyone who showed their support in the campaigns and on the ballot, Nebraska Public Media reported.
After a month of hearings, Lancaster County District County Judge Susan Strong dismissed the major legal challenges against both Nebraska medical cannabis petitions. On Nov. 26, the judge ruled that the number of valid signatures in the petitions was “legally sufficient,” or above the required 86,499 threshold. Therefore, there is no ground to void the results.
Nebraska Voters Strongly Supported Both Medical Cannabis Initiatives on the Ballot
The two medical cannabis measures passed the elections with near 70% support from Nebraska voters. Ballot Initiative 437 aims to enable healthcare practitioners to recommend the use of medical marijuana, and grant patient access (with or without caregiver assistance) to herb medicines. On the other hand, Ballot Initiative 438 looks forward to establish the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, the body that will oversee rules on possession, production, distribution, and dispensing of medical marijuana by registered private entities.
With the verdict given, Nebraska is now a step closer to regulating medical cannabis and launching its own medical cannabis program. Although, it’s expected that the court ruling by County Judge Susan Strong will be appealed and more time will be spent or lost in court hearings. But looking back it has never been easy for Nebraska cannabis advocates.
Petitions to bring medical cannabis on the ballot were first organized in the 2010s and failed. In 2020, the Nebraska Supreme court ruled as unconstitutional a medical cannabis measure that was all set to appear on the ballot. The ruling explained that the proposal breaches the state’s “single subject rule,” as the ballot measure accommodated more than one subject for voters to decide on. And for that reason there were two ballot initiatives for medical cannabis in the 2024 elections in Nebraska. The same pair of proposals was previously tried for the 2022 ballot, but the campaign failed to collect enough signatures at that time.
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Stephen Andrews
