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Nearly 6 In 10 Nebraska Voters Support Medical Marijuana Legalization Measures On Next Month’s Ballot, New Poll Finds

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Newly released polling results out of Nebraska suggest that nearly 6 in 10 registered voters favor legalizing medical marijuana through a pair of initiatives on the ballot next month. Another third say they’re opposed to the policy change, while fewer than 1 in 10 remain undecided.

The release of the findings, from a new multistate survey conducted by Emerson College Polling and the Midwest Newsroom in late September and early October, comes just two weeks before Election Day on November 5. Pollsters asked 1,000 registered votes in the state about a variety of political topics, including the medical marijuana proposal.

Asked whether they would “vote yes to legalize the medical use of marijuana, or no, in opposition,” 59 percent of respondents said they planned to approve the change. A third (33 percent) said they would vote no, and 8 percent said they were unsure.

Emerson College Polling says the credibility interval for the survey, which it compares to a margin of error, is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Results of the new poll show that Democrats were far more supportive of the medical marijuana proposals than were Republicans, though more than 70 percent of voters with independent or other party affiliations also supported legalization.

White voters were also slightly more supportive of the reform than nonwhite voters, and in terms of age groups, those 40 to 49 years older were the most likely to favor legalization, with more than 70 percent support in that cohort. Older and younger groups were closer to 60 percent support.

The only groups of voters identified in the polling that did not have majority support for medical marijuana were Republicans (42.3 percent yes), past Trump voters (41.6 percent yes) and people 70 or older (45.6 percent yes).

In an interview with Nebraska Public Media, which also produced a chart breaking down support for the reform among subgroups, Holly Edgell, the managing editor of the Midwest Newsroom and a partner on the poll, described the result as “a pretty big vote of confidence.”

Nebraska Public Media host Dale Johnson said the broad finding of support underscores a difference between voters and their elected officials. “This would go back to my observation about voters differentiating from lawmakers in the legislature,” Johnson said. “Here in Nebraska, there’s huge opposition to medical cannabis [in the legislature], but yet, you ask the person on the street they want it passed…”

“So many states that border Nebraska have it,” replied Midwest Newsroom data journalist Daniel Wheaton. “The reality of what’s legal versus what is possible to obtain is different in Nebraska.”

The forthcoming vote marks the third time activists have attempted to let voters decide on medical cannabis legalization in recent years. Advocates have faced repeated setbacks in their push for cannabis reform in prior election cycles.

The legalization campaign, led by the group Nebraska Families 4 Medical Cannabis (NF4MC), consists of two ballot initiatives. One would require lawmakers to codify protections for doctors who recommend cannabis and patients who purchase and possess it—essentially legalizing the drug. The other initiative would create a new regulatory body, the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, to provide “necessary registration and regulation of persons that possess, manufacture, distribute, deliver, and dispense cannabis for medical purposes.”

The pro-legalization campaign turned in more than 114,000 signatures for each of their proposals in July, although ongoing legal disputes have complicated the effort. John Kuehn, a former Republican state senator and former State Board of Health member, have filed a lawsuit over whether the campaign’s collected signatures were valid. Secretary of State Bob Evnen (R), despite initially certifying the signatures, has now raised concerns.

Meanwhile, Nebraska officials are themselves been accused of witness tampering in a separate case alleging malfeasance by petition collectors.

A state judge said earlier this month that it’s possible the legal disuputes won’t be resolved until after Election Day.

Supporters of the medical marijuana legalization proposal say the changes could bring nearly $1 billion in economic benefits to the state.

An analysis by Vicente LLP, a leading cannabis-focused law firm, found that the state could see medical marijuana patient registrations exceed 56,000 by 2028 and 93,000 by 2030. That would translate into more than $152 million in medical cannabis sales by 2030 and over $925 million in new economic activity—including jobs and revenue—by the end of that year, the firm said.

The campaign got an early start on signature gathering this round. In addition to meeting the county-based threshold, activists successfully collected signatures from at least seven percent of registered voters statewide to qualify for the ballot.

Volunteers had been petitioning since last July, about two months after turning in the pair of complementary legalization initiatives to the secretary of state’s office.

Gov. Jim Pillen (R) has voiced opposition to the reform effort, saying last year that legalization “poses demonstrated harms to our children,” and that medical cannabis should only be accessible if its approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

An earlier campaign gathered enough signatures for ballot placement in 2020, but the measure was invalidated by the state Supreme Court following a single-subject challenge. Supporters then came up short on signatures for revised petitions in 2022 due in large part to the loss of funding after one of their key donors died in a plane crash.

Nebraska lawmakers, including campaign co-chair Sen. Anna Wishart (D), have also attempted to enact the reform legislatively, but cannabis bills have consistently stalled out in the conservative legislature.

Wishart’s medical cannabis bill received a hearing in the unicameral Judiciary Committee last year, but it did not advance. She attributed the inaction to changes in committee membership. An earlier version of the measure ultimately stalled out in the GOP-controlled legislature amid a filibuster that supporters could not overcome.

Meanwhile, two adult-use cannabis legalization bills also received a hearing in the Judiciary Committee in August ahead of a special session convened by the Republican governor. They have not advanced further at this point.

Separately, lawmakers during a special session this summer considered a sweeping property tax relief bill that initially contained a steep new tax on consumable hemp and CBD products, but that provision was removed prior to final passage.

A prior tax bill for the earlier regular session initially contained a 100 percent tax rate on consumable hemp products. But following industry and consumer pushback, the proposed rate was reduced to 30 percent for the special session before being taken out of the bill.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

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Ben Adlin, a senior editor at Marijuana Moment, has been covering cannabis and other drug policy issues professionally since 2011. He was previously a senior news editor at Leafly, an associate editor at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. He lives in Washington State.

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