NEBRASKA- A Nebraska coalition seeking to legalize medical cannabis delivers nearly 50,000 petition signatures
Signature gatherers had to overcome many obstacles, including COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, civil unrest/curfews
ADOPT, a broad coalition of Nebraskans who support access to medical cannabis, announced today that it has delivered nearly 50,000 validated petition signatures to its petition ally, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM). The signatures were collected by ADOPT this spring.
When ADOPT’s efforts are added to NMM’s existing total of more than 10,000 validated signatures, the petition effort will pass the halfway point to reach the more than 120,000 signatures needed for the Nebraska Secretary of State to place this constitutional amendment initiative petition on the Nov. 3 General Election ballot.
“We are proud of our success in gathering tens of thousands of petition signatures in support of letting Nebraska vote on legalizing medical marijuana,” said ADOPT spokesperson Michael J. O’Hara. “Despite the great obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, civil unrest, and curfews, our petition gatherers did a super job. Clearly, the people of Nebraska want to vote on this important health care issue.”
The signature-gathering deadline is July 2.
The coordinator for the medical marijuana initiative in Dodge County is Mark Jensen. Jensen is a strong advocate for the Medical Marijuana ballot initiative and he is fighting to get Dodge county to be one of the qualifying counties for the ballot. For this petition to move forward to the 2020 ballot, 10% of registered voters in Nebraska must sign.
“Right now, Dodge County still needs about 350 signatures to be considered a qualifying county. We have about three weeks left to gather signatures, and I really hope the people of Dodge County help get this passed through to the ballot,” said Jensen.
There will be a signing event for the petition in Fremont on Saturday, June 13th, from 9:30 am until at least 2 pm. It will be located on the corner of 21st and I street.
Jensen believes in legalizing Medical Marijuana because of the many medicinal benefits it provides.
“We should have these therapies available for the people that need them in our state (NE). It helps so much for PTSD, seizures, trauma, tremors, migraines, and pain management. Not only that, but it works better than opioids because it has been shown to not become less effective over long-term use like most opioids tend to do. A lot of older people have really supported this initiative because it is great for arthritis. The oils and creams and other topical stuff are what these people are using to help ease the pain of their arthritis. A lot of these people are having to drive out of state to receive the therapies they need and I really hope that we can pass this to make it easier for Nebraskans to receive the care they need,” said Jensen.
