Nebraska medical cannabis legalization signatures valid, judge rules

A Nebraska judge handed medical cannabis legalization advocates a major victory when she ruled that enough registered voters’ signatures on an initiative petition were valid.

Separate ballot questions legalizing medical marijuana and setting up regulated sales received more than two-thirds support from voters despite a legal challenge from state officials, who claimed that signatures they’d originally validated were suspect.

In order to defeat the MMJ initiative in court, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers had to demonstrate that roughly 3,400 signatures on the petitions qualifying those measures for the ballot were fraudulent, according to Lancaster County Superior Court Judge Susan Strong.

And “[t]he Plaintiff and Secretary are well short,” Strong wrote in her ruling Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.

The judge noted that she found that “fewer than 1,000” signatures were invalid.

The vote is set to be certified on Dec. 2.

Appeal is up in the air

But whether medical marijuana will become legal in Nebraska now hinges on more potential legal action.

A spokesperson for Hilgers told the AP that they aren’t yet sure whether they will appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Initiative committee sponsor Crista Eggers praised the ruling and the “many years of hard work (that) have gone into this effort.”

“Knowing that another mother will soon have an option for her suffering child makes it all worthwhile,” she said in a statement to the Nebraska Examiner.

Last summer, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana submitted more than 100,000 signatures to qualify Initiatives 437 and 438 for the ballot – the third attempt to legalize medical cannabis in the state.

Earlier attempts failed on legal and procedural grounds after other challenges from state officials.

Court battles begin

Evnen certified the measures on Sept. 13 – the same day that prosecutors charged a signature gatherer with copying names out of a phone book and submitting false signatures.

Evnen and Hilgers later joined a legal challenge filed by a former state senator that sought to have the ballot measures invalidated.

Proponents argued that they’d submitted far more signatures than the relatively few thrown into question.

Legal wrangling continued through the election, where voters appeared unbothered by the pending court case.

Nebraska was only victory for marijuana legalization at the ballot box in 2024, after adult-use legalization efforts failed in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota.