Sign up to become a volunteer signature gatherer.

Yesterday, Nebraska lawmakers effectively killed LB 474, legislation that would have established one of the most conservative medical cannabis programs in the country. Though a bipartisan majority of state senators voted to end a filibuster and allow the bill to proceed, it ultimately came up two votes short of meeting the necessary threshold.

While we hoped that enough lawmakers would listen to their constituents and do the right thing, this outcome was not entirely unexpected. 

Now it’s up to the people of Nebraska to provide the relief that so many patients and families deserve. The ballot committee, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, is now rallying supporters and ramping up their signature drive to put medical cannabis on the ballot in 2022. Please take action now to support this effort:

• Sign up to be a volunteer signature gatherer.

• Make a contribution to help the campaign print petitions and hire staff to oversee the signature drive.

In 2020, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana overcame a pandemic and collected more than enough signatures to qualify the initiative — and they can do it again. Unfortunately, a deeply flawed ruling from the Nebraska Supreme Court kept the initiative off the 2020 ballot. But this time they’re backing a one-sentence constitutional amendment designed to avoid all potential legal challenges. They are also working with a team of legal experts to guide the drafting of complementary statutory language. In short, their plan is to replicate the successful model of the 2020 casino gaming initiatives that passed in Nebraska last year. 

Nebraskans overwhelmingly support creating a system of safe, legal access to medical cannabis. Please support and get involved with the 2022 ballot campaign. With your help, the people will prevail. 

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Prohibitionists have filed a lawsuit to overturn the legalization law passed by South Dakota voters on Election Day!

Please make a donation to South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws' legal defense fund.

Late on Friday, the Superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol and a local County Sheriff filed a lawsuit to overturn Amendment A, the marijuana legalization ballot initiative that was approved by 54% of South Dakota voters on Election Day. Governor Kristi Noem is supporting the lawsuit, and she's even using taxpayer dollars to help fund it.

If the lawsuit succeeds, Amendment A will be invalidated and legalization would be repealed. This would be a disastrous outcome given that South Dakota’s existing marijuana laws are some of the harshest in the country. The lawsuit argues that the initiative covered too many subjects and required a constitutional convention to be enacted.

The good news is this: South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the local campaign that passed Amendment A, is confident that they can defeat the lawsuit. Amendment A was carefully drafted and thoroughly vetted last year before the start of the signature drive.

But to win in court, the campaign needs to invest in a strong legal defense team...and that’s expensive.

Please consider making a contribution directly to South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws. Over the weekend, the campaign raised over $5,500 in small dollar donations, with nearly all the money coming from South Dakota residents.

Now, we need Americans across the country to help our friends in the Mount Rushmore State.

Since last year, MPP staff have played a central role in this historic campaign, in which South Dakota became the first ever state to simultaneously legalize medical marijuana and legalize marijuana for adults 21 and over.

Help ensure that this hard-fought victory is not reversed in court and donate what you can to South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws.

Thank you so much.

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Exciting news! Last Thursday, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted over 182,000 signatures to the Secretary of State in support of their initiative to legalize medical cannabis for patients with serious health conditions. The campaign needs roughly 121,000 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

Donate now to support the medical cannabis campaign in Nebraska!

Since last year, the Nebraska team recruited hundreds of volunteers who gathered over 33,000 signatures — including 14,000 collected in just the last two and a half weeks. MPP staff played a central role in the effort and contacted over 35,000 voters to ask them to sign in the final days of the signature drive!

We’re confident the campaign collected enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot, but we expect a well-funded opposition effort to emerge, led by politicians like Gov. Pete Ricketts. Patients and families in Nebraska need our help:

Can you contribute $25, $50, or $100 to help support families and patients in Nebraska?

Let’s make sure the Nebraska team has what they need to see this through and pass a compassionate medical cannabis law in November.

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Look up your legislative districts, then check out our S.C. House and S.C. Senate voter guides.

Next Tuesday, June 9 is Primary Election Day for the South Carolina Legislature. This year’s elections will be critical for determining whether South Carolina will finally enact a compassionate medical cannabis law.

We’ve put together a voter guide on where the candidates stand on medical cannabis. It includes responses to the South Carolina Compassionate Care Alliance’s  candidate questionnaire, along with whether incumbents cosponsored medical cannabis bills, and incumbents’ past committee votes.

First, look up your state legislative districts and precinct location here. After you fill in your information, the second section will display your Voting Districts. You’re looking for the number of your SC Senate District and SC House District.

Then, check out our voter guides for South Carolina Senate races and South Carolina House races to see where candidates in your district stand.

Registered voters can vote in either party’s primary on June 9 — or in advance by absentee ballot. South Carolina does not have registration by party. If your district is not listed in our voter guide, there is not a competitive primary. You can check back for our voter guide leading up to the General Election.

State legislative races have been so close some have tied and were decided by a coin toss. Don’t miss out on this chance to help decide who represents you in Columbia. To go the extra mile, you can volunteer for or contribute to candidates you support.

After you take a look at our voter guide, please spread the word. And if you speak to a candidate about medical cannabis and get new information that we have not included, let us know at Karen@mpp.org.

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Make a donation today to fuel MPP's legalization efforts across the country.

Earlier today, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act, ending marijuana prohibition in the country's sixth most populous state. This is a tremendous achievement and the first time marijuana sales have been legalized through a state's legislative process rather than a ballot initiative.

I'm proud to say that MPP's staff and lobbying team played a central role in this groundbreaking victory, and it's important to remember that we are only effective because people like you support our work. As we celebrate today, please make a contribution to help us legalize marijuana in more states and at the federal level.

Beginning January 1, 2020, individuals 21 and older in Illinois will be able to legally possess and consume cannabis. Retail marijuana sales are expected to begin at that time. Illinois' new legalization law is also significant because it contains some of the strongest language of any state around equity and social justice, including far-reaching expungement provisions and programs to help communities that have been most impacted by the war on drugs.

Today is another sign of our remarkable progress in recent years. But a majority of Americans still live in a jurisdiction where possessing marijuana is against the law. When you donate to MPP, you become part of a powerful movement that is not only changing laws, but changing lives.

Please don't sit on the sidelines. Join us in our mission of achieving a world with more humane and just marijuana policies.

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