It didn’t really take that long. Nebraska’s medical marijuana program has yet to be implemented fully, and there is now a petition to legalise the drug in general.
After a couple of failed attempts, Nebraska voters gave their thumbs up to two medical cannabis initiatives – Initiatives 437 and 438 – on November 5, 2024. Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen announced that ballot measures became law in the month following. The first measure legalized medical cannabis and the second established a commission that would regulate its use and access.
Nebraska medical cannabis businesses are not likely to open before next year. But there is a movement underway that will put recreational cannabis legal on the ballot for 2026.
The petition sponsors submitted sworn statements to the Nebraska Secretary State between July 31 and 18 it states:
The Nebraska Cannabis Initiative Petitition aims at amending the Constitution of Nebraska to add a new Section 32 to Article 1, which says that anyone over 21 years old has the right to consume all Cannabis plants.
The object is very easy to use and would be able to cover marijuana as well as hemp.
Bill Hawkins has been a hemp activist for years. Hawkins, who is also the director of Nebraska Hemp Company (a non-profit formed for the purpose of educating and reasoning with citizens about cannabis laws and reform), is the sponsor.
This isn’t the first time that the Nebraska Cannabis initiative has been placed on the state ballot. An identical initiative The campaign failed to submit enough signatures before the deadline. In this attempt, approximately 123.465 signatures have been collected.
Under Nebraska law, the number of signatures need to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 10 percent of registered voters, and there’s a distribution requirement mandating petitions contain signatures from 5 percent of the registered voters in each of 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.