Robert Celt
New Member
It came up several times during debate on the medical marijuana bill Tuesday night.
The Legislature could pass Sen. Tommy Garrett's proposal (LB643) and control the use and distribution of the drug, or the people could make the rules if it becomes a ballot initiative.
"When this goes on the ballot -- and it will pass -- this Legislature will not be able to catch up to what they have to catch up to," said Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash.
It may have been a threat, or he may have just been telling it like it is.
Regardless, the ballot initiative petition is already in the works, a proposed constitutional amendment received by Secretary of State John Gale in December 2014. The sponsors are officials of the Nebraska and Omaha NORML organizations, nonprofit groups that aim to reform marijuana laws.
The groups, including Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis, put the petition drive on hold to focus on getting Garrett's bill passed. That bubble burst Tuesday evening when Garrett couldn't get the needed 33 senators to vote with him on stopping a filibuster on the bill. And just like that it was gone.
Now they are staring down the barrels of time and money.
All of this has a backdrop of a memo sent out this week by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that said the agencies support research on marijuana and its components to advance an understanding of its risks and health benefits.
The agencies hope to make a decision on whether or not to reclassify the drug by July 1, it said.
Bryan Boganowski, founder of Omaha NORML, said a number of groups will rally together with the moms of kids with debilitating conditions and the families group.
"What the state has done has pretty much united all of the different groups now," Boganowski said.
The legislative body had its opportunity Tuesday night to pass what Boganowski believed was the most tightly regulated medical marijuana bill in the country and failed to do so.
Now they'll have no say, he said, and the law won't be anywhere as strict.
Shelley Gillen, whose son suffers from severe epileptic seizures, said lawmakers failed the people of Nebraska and failed their children.
The petition will need funding and petition circulators, and they need them quickly. In order to qualify for the November ballot, the groups would have to turn in petitions by early July. Otherwise, they would be looking at the 2018 ballot, Gillen said.
The funding piece is the most daunting, she said.
"We're just typical families in Nebraska," Gillen said. "We don't have big money. We don't have big titles behind our names. We don't own baseball teams. We don't have any association behind us to hire anybody."
It's going to be a grassroots effort, she said. They struggled to pay for their lobbyist to work on the bill.
The language of the proposed constitutional amendment as now written says that by Oct. 1, 2017, the state would enact laws to allow the private, noncommercial growing, possession, consumption and distribution of cannabis for any patient with a debilitating medical condition as determined by a licensed Nebraska physician.
The groups would consult an attorney to help them firm up the language and resubmit it, Gillen said.
"We do not want to give any control over to the Legislature," she said. "We want to make sure if we're going to do it, we do it right."
Gillen and others in the group are confident if they can get it on the ballot, it would pass.
"For every one person who seems to be against it, there's several hundred that are for it," she said.
She understands the journey toward getting the state's approval for medical marijuana has been a David vs. Goliath battle, with Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson in the role of Goliath.
"In the end, we all know who wins," she said.
Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg led the charge against the bill Tuesday. He said he didn't want to take the state down the path of legalizing a Schedule I drug.
Public policy should not be decided because of a threat by an outside force, he said. It should be decided on how a bill supports all of Nebraska.
The majority of his constituents oppose legalization, he said, in part because medicine is prescribed by physicians and dispensed by pharmacists, and they fear marijuana might not meet the same standards as traditional prescription drugs. With that said, he trusts Nebraska's referendum process. And he trusts voters would educate themselves on the issue.
"We talk about the second house of Nebraska, and this would be an opportunity for the second house to speak," he said.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Nebraska Groups Ready To Push For Medical Marijuana Petition Drive
Author: Joanne Young
Contact: Lincoln Journal Star
Photo Credit: Liz Essley Whyte
Website: Lincoln Journal Star
The Legislature could pass Sen. Tommy Garrett's proposal (LB643) and control the use and distribution of the drug, or the people could make the rules if it becomes a ballot initiative.
"When this goes on the ballot -- and it will pass -- this Legislature will not be able to catch up to what they have to catch up to," said Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash.
It may have been a threat, or he may have just been telling it like it is.
Regardless, the ballot initiative petition is already in the works, a proposed constitutional amendment received by Secretary of State John Gale in December 2014. The sponsors are officials of the Nebraska and Omaha NORML organizations, nonprofit groups that aim to reform marijuana laws.
The groups, including Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis, put the petition drive on hold to focus on getting Garrett's bill passed. That bubble burst Tuesday evening when Garrett couldn't get the needed 33 senators to vote with him on stopping a filibuster on the bill. And just like that it was gone.
Now they are staring down the barrels of time and money.
All of this has a backdrop of a memo sent out this week by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that said the agencies support research on marijuana and its components to advance an understanding of its risks and health benefits.
The agencies hope to make a decision on whether or not to reclassify the drug by July 1, it said.
Bryan Boganowski, founder of Omaha NORML, said a number of groups will rally together with the moms of kids with debilitating conditions and the families group.
"What the state has done has pretty much united all of the different groups now," Boganowski said.
The legislative body had its opportunity Tuesday night to pass what Boganowski believed was the most tightly regulated medical marijuana bill in the country and failed to do so.
Now they'll have no say, he said, and the law won't be anywhere as strict.
Shelley Gillen, whose son suffers from severe epileptic seizures, said lawmakers failed the people of Nebraska and failed their children.
The petition will need funding and petition circulators, and they need them quickly. In order to qualify for the November ballot, the groups would have to turn in petitions by early July. Otherwise, they would be looking at the 2018 ballot, Gillen said.
The funding piece is the most daunting, she said.
"We're just typical families in Nebraska," Gillen said. "We don't have big money. We don't have big titles behind our names. We don't own baseball teams. We don't have any association behind us to hire anybody."
It's going to be a grassroots effort, she said. They struggled to pay for their lobbyist to work on the bill.
The language of the proposed constitutional amendment as now written says that by Oct. 1, 2017, the state would enact laws to allow the private, noncommercial growing, possession, consumption and distribution of cannabis for any patient with a debilitating medical condition as determined by a licensed Nebraska physician.
The groups would consult an attorney to help them firm up the language and resubmit it, Gillen said.
"We do not want to give any control over to the Legislature," she said. "We want to make sure if we're going to do it, we do it right."
Gillen and others in the group are confident if they can get it on the ballot, it would pass.
"For every one person who seems to be against it, there's several hundred that are for it," she said.
She understands the journey toward getting the state's approval for medical marijuana has been a David vs. Goliath battle, with Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson in the role of Goliath.
"In the end, we all know who wins," she said.
Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg led the charge against the bill Tuesday. He said he didn't want to take the state down the path of legalizing a Schedule I drug.
Public policy should not be decided because of a threat by an outside force, he said. It should be decided on how a bill supports all of Nebraska.
The majority of his constituents oppose legalization, he said, in part because medicine is prescribed by physicians and dispensed by pharmacists, and they fear marijuana might not meet the same standards as traditional prescription drugs. With that said, he trusts Nebraska's referendum process. And he trusts voters would educate themselves on the issue.
"We talk about the second house of Nebraska, and this would be an opportunity for the second house to speak," he said.
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Nebraska Groups Ready To Push For Medical Marijuana Petition Drive
Author: Joanne Young
Contact: Lincoln Journal Star
Photo Credit: Liz Essley Whyte
Website: Lincoln Journal Star
