Medical marijuana ballot measures remain in question for November election

While Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen certified several petition initiatives for the Nov. 5 ballot, there is still legal wrangling going on over a pair of measures dealing with medical marijuana.

Evnen on Sept. 13 approved ballot issues dealing with abortion rights, school vouchers and paid sick leave. He also approved two dealing with medical marijuana: one that would allow the use of medical cannabis and one that would regulate its sale and distribution.

But the medical marijuana petitions are the subject of a lawsuit filed Sept. 12 by former Republican state Sen. John Kuehn in Lancaster County District Court.

The lawsuit is a legal broadside alleging procedural problems with the signature-gathering process for the petitions and the unlawful preemption of federal laws dealing with marijuana use, among other issues.

Kuehn is involved with Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a national organization that opposes marijuana legalization.

The lawsuit is pending.

Meanwhile, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Hall County Attorney Martin Klein filed felony charges against a Grand Island resident for allegedly filing at least 200 medical cannabis petitions with fraudulent signatures.

Aside from the two medical marijuana measures, Nebraska voters will get to decide on four other ballot measures: one dealing with school vouchers, one dealing with paid sick leave, and two that propose conflicting policies on abortion rights.

The school vouchers measure would partially repeal Nebraska’s law allowing tax dollars to go toward private school tuition. The petition drive for that measure was spearheaded by the Nebraska State Education Association, the state teachers union, which has noted that 48 of Nebraska’s 93 counties have no private schools.

The paid sick leave ballot question would require small businesses with 20 or fewer employees to grant full-time workers a minimum of five paid sick days per year. Employees of larger businesses would get seven paid sick days per year.

The Protect Our Rights measure, put forth by a coalition of five abortion rights organizations, would amend the state constitution to “provide all persons the fundamental right to abortion without interference from the state or its political subdivisions until fetal viability,” generally considered to be around 24 weeks gestation. 

The other abortion measure, called Protect Women and Children, would cement Nebraska’s current 12-week abortion ban in the state constitution.

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Sept. 13 rejected two lawsuits that sought to block the pro-abortion rights measure from appearing on the ballot.

Nebraska is one of 10 states with abortion questions on the ballot this year, according to the independent health policy group KFF.

If both of Nebraska’s abortion ballot measures pass, the measure that receives the most “for” votes will be enacted, Evnen said.

“As far as the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office is aware, Nebraska has never before had two conflicting petition efforts make the same ballot,” Evnen said in an Aug. 23 statement.

The election is on Tuesday, Nov. 5.