Please email the senators below to let them know you oppose LB 1275.

Opponents of medical cannabis are attempting to undermine the 2022 ballot campaign led by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. We need your help to stop them.

Last month, medical cannabis advocates pointed out in the Lincoln Journal Star that LB 1275 is a “poison pill” bill, a medical cannabis bill with no cannabis. The fact that the proposal has received praise from SAM — a lobbying group that has fought for years against medical cannabis — tells you all you need to know: LB 1275 is NOT a true medical cannabis bill. 

LB 1275 is designed to be a stumbling block for the 2022 ballot initiative campaign. We need you to take action right now to help us defeat this bill.

Please send a short email to each of the state senators below (the list includes the sponsor of LB 1275 and members of the Judiciary Committee). Your message should be clear, polite, and only 2-5 sentences long.

• Sen. Lathrop: slathrop@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. Pansing-Brooks: ppansingbrooks@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. Brandt: tbrandt@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. DeBoer: wdeboer@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. Geist: sgeist@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. McKinney: tmckinney@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. Slama: jslama@leg.ne.gov
• Sen. Groene: mgroene@leg.ne.gov

You can read the full text of LB 1275 here. The Marijuana Policy Project has provided a summary here. Suggested points to make in your email:

• LB 1275 is an attempt to undermine the 2022 ballot initiative effort for medical cannabis. The state legislature has had years to act and has failed to do so. The voters of Nebraska deserve a chance to enact the policy they want.
• Despite being labeled a “medical cannabis bill,” LB 1275 would not create access to medical cannabis for anyone in Nebraska.
• Even if the bill is amended to provide for the production of medical cannabis in the state, the provisions are far too strict. Healthcare practitioners will be discouraged from participating, and the vast majority of patients who need access to medical cannabis will not be allowed to participate in the program envisioned by LB 1275.

Thank you for taking action. We need to send a clear message to state senators that LB 1275 is not supported by the medical cannabis community. Please forward this message to others and share the word on social media so others can take action, too.

And if you haven’t signed up to support Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, please visit the campaign website to get involved.

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Support the families and patients fighting for medical cannabis in Nebraska

Thanks to a new 2022 ballot initiative effort, Nebraskans may have an opportunity to end the criminalization of medical cannabis in their state next year. 

Led by Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM), a ballot question committee, local advocates intend to qualify a pair of initiatives ahead of the November election next year. In total, they’ll need to gather about 175,000 valid signatures from voters across the state before the July 7, 2022 deadline. Sponsors of the initiatives, State Senators Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld, recently filed drafts of the measures with the Nebraska Secretary of State. The campaign expects to begin circulating petitions later this month.

You can support the signature drive by donating directly to the campaign! A contribution of any amount will help print petitions, provide fuel for volunteers’ travel, and move the campaign closer to qualifying for the ballot.

The NMM campaign is now recruiting volunteers from across the state. They are working to organize local teams and mobilize supporters to be part of the grassroots signature drive. You can get involved by signing up here!

I hope you will support this important effort to bring compassionate cannabis laws to Nebraska. Please forward this email to other supporters and stay tuned for more updates as the petition language is finalized and the signature drive ramps up!

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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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Contribute to the 2020 campaign’s legal fund to help them defeat their opponents’ lawsuit.

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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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This afternoon, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, a 2020 ballot initiative committee, will deliver over 182,000 signatures gathered from all 93 counties in the state in support of their ballot initiative to establish legal protections for medical marijuana patients with serious health conditions. If approved by a majority of voters in November, the initiative would allow patients to access and use medical marijuana as recommended by their physician or nurse practitioner.

To qualify for the ballot, the campaign needed to submit over 121,000 valid signatures, representing over 10% of the voters in the state. The campaign also had to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters in a minimum of 38 counties across Nebraska.

Since last year, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has recruited hundreds of volunteers who gathered over 33,000 signatures for the campaign, including 14,000 collected in just the last two and half weeks.

In the coming weeks, state and local officials will tally the signatures collected by the campaign to confirm that enough valid signatures were submitted to qualify the initiative for the November 3 general election ballot. A decision is expected by mid-August.

More information about the initiative can be found at www.nebraskamarijuana.org.

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I’ve got some exciting news to share!

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which has been leading a signature drive for a constitutional ballot initiative for the past year with MPP’s help, is now partnering with a new group to significantly expand their efforts.

ADOPT, led by former Republican state senator Tommy Garret who has long fought for medical marijuana, views the measure as complementary to another goal: property tax reform. The organization will soon hire a paid petition firm to assist in gathering the signatures needed to qualify before the July deadline. Read more about this exciting development in Marijuana Moment.

Thanks to the hard work of hundreds of volunteers, we’ve already seen support for medical marijuana steadily increase across the state. And now, with this new partnership, it’s more likely than ever that the initiative will qualify for the November ballot.

Now’s a great time to help this effort in Nebraska build even more momentum. Make a donation to ensure the campaign will continue to have the resources necessary to take on powerful politicians in the state who oppose medical marijuana. Let’s help Nebraskan patients and their families win the compassionate reform they deserve.

Thank you!

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