LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska officials missed a deadline this week granting licenses to marijuana growers as part of a voter-approved measure that legalized medical marijuana, offering the latest example of pushback in Republican-led states against efforts to legalize the drug.
“How many times do we have to go down this road of fighting for our lives?” Lia Post asked through sobs Tuesday to the newly formed Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission as it became clear the body would not meet the Wednesday deadline.
Post lives in eastern Nebraska and suffers from a condition that causes chronic pain in her extremities. Marijuana provides relief from the condition and allows her to avoid addictive opiates.
“There’s no begging left in me,” Post cried during the commission meeting, where three members hand-picked by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen said they had to postpone licensing.
Nebraska Republican leaders from the governor to the state’s attorney general and conservative lawmakers are working to weaken or even kill the new law, despite its overwhelming support at the ballot box.
Most states have legalized some marijuana use
Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana for adults, although some efforts in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota recently failed at the ballot box. The medical use of marijuana is more accepted and allowed in 40 states and the District of Columbia, including 17 states where voters approved it.
But some Republicans in those states have continued to fight against medical marijuana approved by voters. In South Dakota, a Republican state lawmaker unsuccessfully pushed a bill this year to repeal voter-approved medical marijuana. In Idaho, lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment that would forbid citizen initiatives to legalize marijuana and instead leave such decisions to the Legislature.
And in Mississippi, the effort to undo a 2020 voter-backed medical marijuana law seems to have gutted that state’s citizen initiative process after the Mississippi Supreme Court voided it, ruling the state’s initiative process is outdated.
Reasons for the pushback appear rooted in the belief that marijuana is a dangerous drug.
Law enforcement has long opposed it as a gateway to other drug use and as a driving-while-intoxicated hazard that can’t be measured in the field by a Breathalyzer. Many cite the federal government’s continued classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug on par with heroin and LSD.
Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, said polling has shown a majority of Republicans support legalized medical marijuana.
“It’s like a small part of the Republican Party, but some of them are vehemently opposed,” O’Keefe said. “It’s people that bought into reefer madness.”
Unlike marijuana, O’Keefe noted thousands of Americans die annually from prescription opiates and adverse incidents from other drugs.
Nebraska pushback on medical marijuana ‘unique’
The medical marijuana law passed by Nebraska voters in November required that licenses be issued by Wednesday. The reason for the delay? Days earlier, Pillen forced the resignation of the two commission members he hadn’t appointed. They had been tasked with checking the qualifications of cultivator applications.
Pillen has insisted he is not opposed to medical marijuana, but has made several moves that critics say are designed to keep people from accessing it. That includes appointing members to the commission who have publicly opposed legalizing marijuana, even for medical use. Pillen also asked the commission to limit the number of marijuana plants to be licensed for medical use to 1,250 — a number the industry argued is too low to accommodate the number of state residents seeking prescription marijuana.
“The purpose in doing so was to ensure that an overabundance of plants would not saturate the market and lead to the creation of unregulated and potentially illegal sales,” Pillen spokesperson Laura Strimple said.
The new Nebraska commission has so far flouted provisions of the voter initiative — including passing emergency rules that ban smoking, vaping or marijuana edibles for medical use, which are specifically allowed under the law voters passed. The commission has also forbidden flavorings to improve the taste of bitter tinctures and pills that are allowed, has drastically limited the number of growers and dispensaries to be licensed, placed burdensome and expensive continuing education requirements on doctors and restricted the amount and strength of medical marijuana that can be prescribed.
State Attorney General Mike Hilgers has turned to the courts to try to invalidate the ballot initiative, approved by more than 70% of voters.
“I would say Nebraska is unique in the level of hostility of trying to overturn the will of the people,” said O’Keefe with the Marijuana Policy Project.
Attorney general says he’s following the rule of law
Hilgers lost a court battle last year in which he called into question the validity of thousands of signatures gathered to place the question on the November ballot. A former Republican state lawmaker also sued to void the new law, arguing that it violates federal prohibitions against marijuana. He lost that challenge in district court but has appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Hilgers said his legal fights are solely about protecting the rule of law, accusing the petition process of “unprecedented levels of fraud.” So far, the only success Hilgers has had in court is the misdemeanor conviction of a petition circulator accused of forging signatures on petitions.
“Someone cannot justify this wrongdoing by simply pointing to the favorable results on the ballot; if you could, it would create a dangerous precedent for future petition initiatives,” Hilgers said.
But Hilgers has made no secret of his opposition to even limited legalization of marijuana. In a March editorial, he said “marijuana is easily abused and is not safe to consume even under medical supervision.”
Advocates defend will of the people
Crista Eggers, who led the medical marijuana ballot initiative, argued a “black market” thrives when marijuana for medical use is too severely restricted.
“If you are one of the 71% that voted in support of medical cannabis, you should be angry, because the system and the regulatory framework that is coming down from this commission is not at all what voters intended,” she said.
Paul Armentano, of the marijuana advocacy organization NORML, said elected officials in states dominated by one political party count on voter partisanship.
“I can only presume that lawmakers are emboldened to take these steps because, generally, they don’t fear there will be repercussions from the voters at the ballot box,” he said.
