The deadline for ballot initiatives to submit valid signatures is rapidly approaching, and the advocacy group Nebraska for Medical Marijuana (NMM) is requesting help from supporters to obtain the signatures for their initiative to pass.

NMM campaign manager Crista Eggers recently sent out an email asking for help on June 6. 

“There is no doubt we are farther ahead than in past petition drives, but still have a tremendous push to gather over 30,000 signatures on each petition over the next 27 days to assure we are successful,” Eggers said.

Eggers has spent numerous years advocating for medical cannabis legalization. Her son has suffered from epileptic seizures since he was two years old, and she saw the relief and benefits that medical cannabis offered to him in comparison to pharmaceutical medicines. “There is no doubt Nebraskans want to see this on the ballot, so we need them to step up and help make that happen,” Eggers said. “My personal ask, not as a campaign manager, but as a mother, is that people would react as if their child’s life depends on it and go sign; because for many of us, our child’s life really does depend on it.”

By July 3, NMM’s initiative must be submitted with signatures from 7% of voters. Additionally, the signatures must be collected from voters in at least 38 counties throughout the state (which has a total of 93 counties).  “We made the counties our main focus because they require a great deal of time and resources that cannot wait until the last minute,” Eggers said. “We have the counties, but we have an urgent need to collect bulk signatures.” At least 87,000 signatures would need to be verified by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office before being approved to appear on the ballot.

NMM recently shared on social media that one of its volunteers is watching their child suffer from a condition that could be treated with medical cannabis. “There’s a parent sitting in the hospital right now, exhausted and desperate for help for their suffering child who lay in the bed before them,” the post stated. “With nothing left to try, they cling onto the hope that medical cannabis may someday bring relief to this hell they are living. With only 29 days until signature turn in, and thousands of signatures to still be collected, this parent, and patients across this state are begging for help. Be a part of something today, that may change someone’s life tomorrow. #getinvolved #cannabisismedicine”.

This year’s ballot initiative marks the third time that advocates have worked to get medical cannabis legalized. The first was in 2020, which did not make it onto the ballot because the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that it violated the state’s single-subject rule. Another attempt was made in 2022, but it also didn’t make it onto the ballot because NMM didn’t collect signatures from voters in at least 38 counties.

Medical cannabis isn’t the only hot-button topic aiming for ballot consideration includes an amendment that would eliminate property tax, income tax, sales tax, and inheritance tax, a law that would require employers to provide paid sick leave for workers, and three separate amendments to either permit or ban abortions.

Nebraska is one of few states that haven’t legalized medical cannabis yet, including Idaho, Kansas, Wyoming, North Carolina and South Carolina.

This year’s voting opportunities include four primary cannabis-related ballots. In Idaho, which doesn’t allow any form of cannabis use, a group called Kind Idaho was working to collect signatures for the Idaho Medical Marijuana Initiative. Although it will not appear on this year’s ballot, it would have allowed patients with chronic conditions or who are terminally ill to use cannabis to treat their symptoms. It would also have included protections for those patients so they wouldn’t have to worry about prosecution for cannabis use.

In South Dakota, Measure 29 (or The South Dakota Marijuana Legalization Initiative) is officially on the ballot, which would legalize adult-use cannabis consumption, possession, and distribution. Technically both medical and recreational cannabis were legalized by voters back in 2020 but in 2021 the recreational initiative was found to be unconstitutional. Voters also rejected another attempt to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2022.

Meanwhile, there has been strong support for adult-use cannabis legalization in Florida. According to a recent poll, 66% of Florida voters plan to support the initiative. By party, 76% of Democrats support the initiative, alongside 71% of Independents and 57% of Republicans. The likelihood of legalization is strong, considering that a constitutional amendment requires 60% or more of votes on the ballot in order to pass. “Floridians want and deserve the same right to consume recreational marijuana that more than half the country already enjoys,” said Smart & Safe Florida campaign manager Morgan Hill. “This poll reflects what we at Smart & Safe Florida know to be true: legalizing recreational adult-use marijuana is good for Floridians’ health, safety, and individual freedom.”

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Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) is continuing to ramp up its medical cannabis ballot campaign for a third, and hopefully last time.

NMM officially launched its campaign on Sept. 13 with two different measures: The Patient Protection Act and The Medical Cannabis Regulation Act. The former would provide protection for both patients as well as caregivers, and the latter would set up a regulated market. In order to qualify for the November 2024 ballot, NMM must collect at least 87,000 signatures per measure by July 3, 2024.

NMM campaign manager, Crista Eggers, who has been involved in previous ballot initiatives for medical cannabis in her state, is remaining hopeful and steadfast in her mission. “I do know that day will come when I get to tell [my son] and that he will understand that by sharing something that’s very personal and very painful, he helped make a change. Someday there will be a parent that I get to talk to and they won’t have had to fight this battle,” Eggers told the Nebraska Examiner. “It will be worth it for that one parent that does not face what so many of us face.”

Eggers is a mother of a nine-year-old son who has suffered from epileptic seizures since he was two years old. Although they had tried a myriad of pharmaceutical medications, medical cannabis became the best option. In 2020, Eggers praised the possibility of the first medical cannabis legalization ballot initiative as a way for parents to help get treatments for their children without being criticized. “Right now to get our son the help he needs, we’re criminals and that’s what this is about, empowering Nebraskans to have this choice and be patients, not criminals,” Eggers said at the time. “We do expect the opposition to do whatever possible to derail this.”

The 2020 Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative did not make it on the ballot because the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the initiative violated the state’s single-subject rule.

Eggers and other advocates also pushed for legalization again in 2022. “We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine,” Eggers said. “No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane.” The 2022 Nebraska Medical Marijuana Initiative also did not make it onto the ballot in 2022 because volunteers did not collect the necessary 5% of voters signatures from a minimum of 28 out of the state’s 93 counties.

In January this year, Eggers explained that she will continue to advocate for legal access to cannabis as medicine. “There is one thing we will not do, and that is give up,” she told the Nebraska Examiner. She also said she’s hopeful that more progress can be made with a new administration and new governor.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen took office in January 2023, and his stance on medical cannabis is similar to that of his predecessor, former Gov. Pete Ricketts. “Access to medical marijuana should only happen if it has undergone the FDA-approved process,” Pillen has previously said.

Sen. Anna Wishart, who co-chairs NMM alongside former Sen. Adam Morfeld, has been a longtime supporter of medical cannabis legalization. Wishart has previously introduced medical cannabis bills on the legislative side, including one bill in 2021 that was two votes short of passing in a judiciary committee.

Also in January 2023, Wishart introduced another medical cannabis bill, Legislative Bill 588, entitled the “Medicinal Cannabis Act,” which Wishart described as “one of the most conservative medical cannabis bills in the nation.” “It is long past time that Nebraskans have access to a far safer alternative medicine,” Wishart added. Although LB-588 was introduced in January, it did not receive any further hearings after April.

In Nebraska, legislators are limited to two consecutive terms, and must wait for four years to run for congress again. Wishart is somewhat nearing the end of her two terms in January 2025, and expressed her desire to fight for medical cannabis while she’s still in office.

Legislative opposition to medical cannabis has been presented with negative, antiquated comments. In 2021, former Gov. Ricketts said: “If you legalize marijuana, you’re going to kill your kids.”

Eggers responded to the comment, explaining that she knows better than Ricketts in terms of what’s best for her son. “I know what is killing my child, and that is having horrific seizures daily for the last five, six years,” Eggers said, noting that cannabis was helping, not harming.

Nebraska is just one of a few states that have not legalized medical cannabis at this point, including Alabama, Idaho, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Even in these regions where cannabis has not yet been embraced, progress is slowly making its way forward. 

For example, although North Carolina has no medical cannabis, let alone recreational cannabis, the North Carolina Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recently voted on a proposal to approve recreational cannabis sales and regulation on its territory. The Tribal Council must now choose to pass the proposal in order for it to become official.

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Advocates in Nebraska, one of the few remaining states in the U.S. that have not enacted medical cannabis legislation, recently filed paperwork to get a medical cannabis initiative on the ballot in 2024.

According to the Nebraska Examiner, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana will need more than 200,000 signatures for the initiative to qualify. The group’s spokesperson, Crista Eggers, hopes that the people will override the decisions of her state legislature who have refused to listen to their constituents. “We have no choice but to keep petitioning our government,” said Eggers. “The Legislature refuses to act despite the will of over 80% of Nebraskans, from all parties, regions, ages, etc., supporting this.”

Eggers also spoke to the Lincoln Journal Star about their hope for medical cannabis. “We know the people support this,” said Eggers. “We are going to execute and put that into motion to have safe and regulated medical cannabis in Nebraska.”

Eggers’ eight-year-old son has been experiencing epileptic seizures since he was two years old. She and her family tried multiple medications that didn’t improve her son’s condition, but eventually tried medical cannabis with success. She has spent the last seven years advocating and working toward legalization for her son and other families across the state.

According to the group’s website, it takes approximately three weeks for the state to certify the initiative. After that, the group can begin to collect signatures.

Medical cannabis can provide relief to Nebraskans who are suffering. We are among the thousands of families and patients who need access,” the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana states on its website. “Whether it’s a neighbor or a loved one or a friend, most Nebraskans know someone who struggles with a serious health condition. But medical cannabis isn’t an option in our state—even if a doctor recommends it.”

In 2020, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana’s ballot initiative was stripped from the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court. The court stated that the initiative violated constitutional requirements for a “single subject” rule, which prompted the group to instead create two initiatives that separately addressed a regulatory framework and established protections for caregivers from arrest.

LB-474 was also introduced in the state legislature in 2021 to consider medical cannabis, but was two votes short in order to pass. Nicole Hochstein, a Nebraska mother of a child who suffers from epilepsy, described her feelings as “Devastated. Broken. In pieces because they literally voted my child’s life away.”

A petition drive in August 2022 failed to receive enough signatures for the 2022 ballot. Although the 184,000 signatures the group collected were not enough, and despite funding woes, the group decided to continue working toward 2024.

In December 2021, former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts was featured in an ad paid for by Smart Approaches to Marijuana that solidified his opposition on the topic of medical cannabis. “The only difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana is word choice,” the governor said. “Doctors can’t prescribe it and pharmacists can’t provide it because it’s not medicine.”

Earlier that year, he made statements claiming that cannabis “is a dangerous drug that will impact our kids” and “if you legalize marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids.”

Current Gov. Jim Pillen isn’t a staunch advocate of cannabis, but in February he did confirm support of FDA-approved medicines. “I’m a 100% believer in prescription authority. That’s a place the FDA has done a good job in over the past several years. I’m a proponent of prescription marijuana use if it’s approved through the FDA,” he said.

Medical cannabis laws are still lacking in other states such as Idaho, Indiana, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In the Americans for Safe Access 2022 State of the States Report, all of these states, including Nebraska, were scored with an “F” across the board for lack of legislation and access for patients.

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A bid to get a medical cannabis proposal on the Nebraska ballot this year officially came up short on Monday.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said that the Secretary of State Bob Evnen “announced that our effort to relieve the pain of so many suffering Nebraskans did not meet the minimum qualifications of verified signatures to end up on the November ballot.”

“To say we are devastated would be an understatement,” the campaign said in an announcement on Facebook. “Suffering Nebraskans should never be faced with having to move themselves or their families out of the state they call home just to have access to health care.”

The group turned in more than 184,000 signatures to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office last month, less than an hour before the deadline for submission.

In fact, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana pursued what it described as “two complementary initiatives” for the state ballot: the Patient Protection Act would have enshrined protections for patients with “serious health conditions and their caregivers from arrest for the use of medical cannabis as recommended by a health care provider,” while the Medical Cannabis Regulation Act would have established “the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to regulate private businesses that provide medical cannabis to qualified patients.”

Neither will be on the Cornhusker State’s ballot this November.

The Associated Press reports: “Each proposal needed nearly 87,000 signatures — or a total of 7% of registered voters — as well as 5% of registered voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties to put the proposals to a vote of the people. The Patient Protections initiative collected 77,843 valid signatures, and the 5% threshold was met in only 26 counties, Evnen said. That proposal would have legalized the use of up to 5 ounces of marijuana for qualifying medical reasons. The Cannabis Regulation initiative collected 77,119 signatures, and the 5% threshold was met in 27 counties. It would have legalized the possession, manufacture, distribution, delivery, and dispensing of marijuana for medical reasons and would have established a commission to regulate a state medical cannabis program.”

The news on Monday marks an expected conclusion to what has been a turbulent campaign for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.

In March, the group said it was scrambling for donations after two individuals who were expected to be major contributors were unable to support the campaign due to extenuating circumstances.

“I’d say devastating is an understatement,” Crista Eggers, one of the group’s spokespeople and leaders, said at the time. “We’re pleading with you to help.”

“If what we needed was grit, and drive, and determination, we have that,” Eggers added. “Our campaign would be done and over if that’s what we needed. But unfortunately, the one thing our campaign doesn’t have – and has to have – is money.”

Eggers was involved in the campaign for personal reasons: her son, Colton, has epilepsy but can’t receive medical cannabis treatment in their home state.

“We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine. No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said during the campaign launch last year. “The current policy doesn’t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we’re going to change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering individuals like my son to be part of this movement and help us win in 2022.”

Despite the fundraising setback, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana managed to round up thousands of signatures and submit its petitions just before the deadline last month, which the group hailed as a testament to the organizers’ resilience.

But that feeling of triumph was short-lived. Now, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana says it’s setting its sights on 2024.

“When we receive the results from the Secretary of State’s office, we will analyze the data and then we will immediately get to work on qualifying for the 2024 ballot,” the group said on Monday.

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A group that is aiming to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska submitted ballot petitions just under the wire on Thursday, ending a campaign that has been beset by tragedy and financial hurdles.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana said that it had turned in thousands of signatures to the secretary of state in the hopes of getting the medical cannabis proposal on the Cornhusker State ballot this November.

The group will now await word to see if the measure will qualify for the ballot.

“It’s official, we turned in 184,000+ signatures to put medical cannabis on the ballot,” said state Sen. Anna Wishart, a Democratic lawmaker who co-sponsored Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. “We will know in the coming months if it was enough to qualify. Every signature represents a person who had the guts to go out and ask and a person who had the heart to sign. Thank you Nebraska.”

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana has dealt with a series of setbacks throughout its petition drive. In March, the group’s outlook appeared dire after one of its top donors died in a plane crash, and another donor had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The pair of tragedies left Wishart and others affiliated with the group pleading for donations.

“I’d say devastating is an understatement,” said Crista Eggers, who also led the group’s petition campaign. “We’re pleading with you to help.”

“If what we needed was grit, and drive, and determination, we have that,” Eggers said. “Our campaign would be done and over if that’s what we needed. But unfortunately, the one thing our campaign doesn’t have – and has to have – is money.”

Eggers’ motivations are personal: her son, Colton, has epilepsy and is unable to receive medical cannabis treatment in Nebraska.

“We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine. No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said in announcing the group’s petition campaign last fall. “The current policy doesn’t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we’re going to change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering individuals like my son to be part of this movement and help us win in 2022.”

On Thursday, Eggers marveled at the group’s resilience.

“These were people that cared about this issue and they continued stepping up you know one day after another and when things got tough, right, they kept going,” Eggers said, as quoted by local television station KETV.

“There was no choice to give up, right. Because of all of you. Because of all the people, the stories, who were relying on us to get this done,” Eggers added.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana turned in the signatures at the 11th hour, befitting the tumult that defined its petition drive. KETV reported that the group “used every second they could before they had to turn in their signed petitions in Lincoln,” with people “still signing the petition outside the Secretary of State’s Office less than an hour before the deadline.”

In a post to its Facebook page on Thursday afternoon, the group urged both individuals who wished to sign the petition and notaries to come to the secretary of state’s office.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana mounted a previous effort to get a proposal on the state ballot in 2020, but the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it ineligible.

“As for what happens tomorrow, we’ll face that tomorrow,” Eggers said on Thursday, as quoted by KETV.

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A federal judge has struck down provisions of Nebraska’s voter initiative process in a ruling that will simplify efforts to put a medical cannabis legalization measure on the ballot for the November election. In his ruling, federal district court Judge John M. Gerrard wrote that a requirement that campaigns for ballot initiatives collect signatures from 5% of the voters in 38 counties violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Gerard issued an order on Monday barring Nebraska from enforcing the rule as activists work to collect signatures on two complementary medical cannabis legalization initiatives for the 2022 general election.

Under Nebraska law, citizens wishing to place a measure on the ballot must collect signatures from at least 7% of registered voters, including a minimum of 5% of voters in at least 38 of the state’s 93 counties. In a lawsuit, activists with the group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) and the American Civil Liberties Union claimed that the 38-county rule is unconstitutional because it violates rights to free speech and equal protection guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

Nebraska Initiative Process Violates ‘One Man, One Vote’

The plaintiffs argued that the rule violates the principle of “one man, one vote” by making the signatures of voters in sparsely populated rural counties more valuable than the signatures of voters in Nebraska’s cities. Under the rule, the plaintiffs said that one voter in rural Arthur County is the equivalent of 1,216 voters in Douglas County, which includes Omaha, Nebraska’s most populated city. NMM also stated that the requirement violates the First Amendment rights by dictating how the group prioritizes its signature-gathering efforts.

“A county number or how likely we are to qualify has dictated where I send my resources, where I send volunteers, you know, signature collectors,” Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign manager Crista Eggers, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, told local media.

Gerrard agreed with the plaintiffs and issued an injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing the 38-county rule for ballot measures, including those currently being circulated by NMM for two related medical cannabis legalization measures.

“The State of Nebraska is absolutely free to require a showing of statewide support for a ballot initiative—but it may not do so based on units of dramatically differing population, resulting in discrimination among voters,” the judge wrote in his ruling.

Gerrard also attacked the legal argument in support of the 38-county rule advanced by Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Doug Peterson, who argued that if the requirement were struck down it would destroy the state’s entire initiative process.

“For the State to argue that the baby must go with the bathwater is eyebrow-raising,” Gerrard wrote in his 46-page opinion.

Two Medical Cannabis Proposals Vying for Voters’ Support

Activists with NMM are currently circulating petitions for two medical cannabis initiatives for the November ballot. The first proposal would “require the Legislature to enact new statutes protecting doctors who recommend and patients who possess or use medical cannabis from criminal penalty,” according to a report in the Lincoln Journal Star. Under the second initiative, lawmakers would be required “to pass legislation creating a regulatory framework that protects private entities that produce and supply medical cannabis.”

The group has until July 7 to submit at least 87,000 signatures for each of the two initiatives. So far, the group has collected a combined total of about 80,000 signatures. Leaders of the drive say that Gerrard’s ruling will make the task easier because fulfilling the 38-county rule has been a challenge, especially since the death of a major donor to the drive died in March.

“This allows me to be able to go and collect signatures from all Nebraskans,” said Eggers.

Nebraska state Sen. Anna Wishart, another leader of the campaign, said that Monday’s ruling is a “big win” for residents who want to see the medicinal use of cannabis legalized.

“Nebraskans across the state support this issue because they know a loved one, friend or neighbor, who is sick and would benefit from having access to medical cannabis,” Wishart said.

On Tuesday, a federal judge denied a motion from Evnen to stay the injunction. The attorney general’s office said that Gerrard’s ruling would be appealed, a move that received the secretary of state’s approval.

“I concur with the decision to immediately appeal the District Court’s order, which nullifies a Nebraska State Constitutional provision concerning initiative petitions,” Evnen said on Monday night.

The Nebraska ACLU said it will continue working to ensure the 38-county rule is not reinstated.

“We will just have to see what Secretary Evnen does,” said Daniel Gutman with ACLU of Nebraska. “And we’ll obviously be ready to respond.”

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An organizer behind a bid to get a medical cannabis proposal on the Nebraska ballot this year says the campaign is in dire need of financial support as it nears a summer deadline to submit a petition to the state.

Crista Eggers, who is leading the petition effort for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said this week that the campaign is running short on money.

“I’d say devastating is an understatement,” Eggers told local television station WOWT. “We’re pleading with you to help.”

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana announced its plans to circulate a petition to get a pair of medical cannabis proposals on the ballot last September: one initiative would require the state legislature to to pass laws protecting physicians who recommend medical cannabis treatment and patients who use it; the other would charge the legislature to establish regulations for the medical cannabis program.

In the announcement, Eggers lamented that her young son Colton, who suffers from epilepsy, is unable to receive the treatment in the state.

“We’ve received so much encouragement from individuals all across the state, who support the many patients like our son Colton, who desperately need access to this medicine. No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said at the time. “The current policy doesn’t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we’re going to change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering individuals like my son to be part of this movement and help us win in 2022.”

But the campaign was dealt a tragic setback last month when a major donor died in a plane crash. The campaign said that another donor who was expected to contribute had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The grim news has left Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana reeling. Democratic state Sen. Anna Wishart, a co-sponsor of the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, said last month that she was confident that the group could still reach a $500,000 fundraising goal by its deadline of May 1.

She didn’t say how much money the group had, however, and the Lincoln Journal-Star reported last month that ““the campaign had a cash balance that was less than $30,000” as of February 28.

The Nebraska group needs to gather a minimum of 87,000 valid circumstances by July 7 in order for each initiative to qualify for the ballot. Last month, Wishart said each petition had around 25,000 signatures.

The campaign did not sugarcoat its financial circumstances this week. WOWT reported that “Eggers worries that if a group of donors doesn’t come forward in the next week and inject the campaign with a million dollars to hire professional signature collectors, she’ll be forced to move to a state where her son, Colton, who suffers from uncontrollable seizures, is able to get medical cannabis.”

“Every night I tell my child and others that we will get this done. And to think that we’re falling short, I don’t know what that means. For my family, it means splitting apart. Take one of my children to another state and leave another here. That’s not fair,” she told the station.

“If what we needed was grit, and drive, and determination, we have that,” Eggers added. “Our campaign would be done and over if that’s what we needed. But unfortunately, the one thing our campaign doesn’t have – and has to have – is money.”

This year was supposed to be a shot at redemption for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which tried to push a medical cannabis initiative in 2020 until the state Supreme Court blocked it from the ballot.

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Tragedy has left a campaign to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska scrambling for new donors, as the group aims to get a pair of proposals on the state ballot this year.

The Omaha World Herald reported this week that the group “Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana lost two individuals who were expected to make a major contribution to the current legalization campaign.”

One donor who made contributions to the group’s previous failed bid to get a medical cannabis proposal on the 2020 ballot died in a plane crash, Democratic state Sen. Anna Wishart, a co-sponsor of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, told the newspaper.

Another individual who was expected to contribute to the group this year was diagnosed with terminal cancer, according to the Omaha World Herald, which said that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana notified supporters of the “huge setback” in an email on Wednesday.

The World Herald reported that, despite the loss of two key donors, “Wishart was still confident the group could meet its $500,000 fundraising goal by May 1,” although she “declined to say how much the campaign has raised so far.”

According to the newspaper, “the campaign had a cash balance that was less than $30,000” as of a month ago.

The group announced in September that it had “recently filed drafts of the measures with the Nebraska Secretary of State and expects to begin circulating petitions later this month” for two separate medical cannabis proposals to make it onto the Cornhusker State ballot this year.

Under the first initiative, the Nebraska legislature would be required to enact new laws that would enshrine protections for physicians in the state who recommend medical cannabis treatment, as well as the patients who use it, from criminal prosecution.

The second proposal would require lawmakers in the state to to pass a bill establishing the regulatory framework for medical cannabis suppliers.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is being led by Crista Eggers, whose six-year-old son has severe intractable epilepsy.

Eggers said in an announcement in September that patients like her son Colton, “desperately need access to this medicine.”

“No matter what your political background is, we should all agree that criminalizing a medicine that has the potential to alleviate suffering, is both cruel and inhumane,” Eggers said at the time. “The current policy doesn’t reflect our family values here in Nebraska, and we’re going to change that. We need everyone who believes in compassion for suffering individuals like my son to be part of this movement and help us win in 2022.”

According to the Omaha World Herald, “each petition would need nearly 87,000 signatures” by the July 7, 2022 deadline in order to qualify for the ballot.

The newspaper reported that “Wishart believes each petition has about 25,000 signatures so far, and said signature gathering is one of the main reasons why donations are so crucial to these campaigns.”

Absent additional funding, “Wishart said it would not be impossible for the campaign to succeed, but it would be extraordinary,” according to the World Herald.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana tried to get a proposal on the 2020 ballot in the state, but after gathering almost 200,000 signatures, the group was stymied by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that the initiative violated state rules and was ineligible for the ballot.

At the time of the announcement in September, Wishart struck an optimistic note, saying this time around would be different.

“It was true last year and it remains true today that the vast majority of Nebraskans are on our side when it comes to this issue,” Wishart said. “Voters were unfairly denied the opportunity to enact reform last year, but this time, we’re ready for any legal challenge, and we will succeed.”

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