Politics
Senate Candidate Highlights GOP Opponent’s Claim That Legalizing Marijuana Will Cause Children To Die
A new ad from the campaign of Nebraska independent U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn is highlighting his opponent’s claim that legalizing cannabis will lead to the death of children.
“If you legalize marijuana, you’re gonna kill your kids,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) is heard saying in the ad that challenger Dan Osborn’s campaign released on Thursday.
The comments are from 2021, when Ricketts was Nebraska’s governor. He was speaking at a press conference ahead of a vote in the legislature on a bill to legalize medical cannabis.
While that legislation ultimately failed, Nebraska voters approved medical marijuana legalization ballot measures in 2024.
Although Osborn’s ad opens with the Ricketts marijuana quote, it is otherwise focused on the senator voting in favor of funding cuts to Medicaid while receiving campaign contributions from insurance companies.
That said, Osborn has often discussed his support for cannabis reform in detail.
“In 2024, 71 percent of Nebraska voters voted to legalize medical marijuana but Pete Ricketts has sabotaged the will of the people at every turn,” the independent candidate’s campaign website says. “He spent $500,000 on ads lying about medical marijuana. He said it would ‘kill your kids.’ He lobbied against legislation that would have properly regulated it.”
“I will stand up for patients and caregivers to make sure people can get the medicine that helps them,” it says. “I will not only stop the obstruction, I will actively work to support the adoption of medical marijuana in our state.”
Beyond medical use, Osborn has said that the government should more broadly “stop putting people in prison for cannabis use.”
“The cat’s out of the bag on this one. The current regime only makes it easier for high schoolers to score,” he said. “Ask anyone who’s underage what’s easier to get, beer or weed, and they’ll tell you. Our current policy is government overreach at its finest.”
Ricketts, for his part, teamed up with a chapter of prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana in 2021 to appear in an advertisement arguing against medical cannabis.
“The only difference between medical marijuana and recreational marijuana is word choice,” the then-governor said in the ad. “Doctors can’t prescribe it and pharmacists can’t provide it because it’s not medicine.”
“Today the marijuana industry has set its sights on Nebraska. And the real goal is the legalization of recreational marijuana across the state,” he said. “We’ve seen what happens when progressive politics trump science and common sense. That can’t happen. It’s up to us to protect our kids and defend our communities. Big Marijuana’s way is the wrong way for Nebraska.”
In addition to opposing medical marijuana in Nebraska, Ricketts has also taken a number of anti-cannabis steps since joining the Senate.
He has advocated against the Trump administration’s move to reschedule marijuana, for example, and has cosponsored legislation that would continue to block cannabis businesses from taking federal tax deductions under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code 280E—even under rescheduling.
Rickets has also opposed legislation to allow banks to work with state-licensed marijuana businesses.
Photo courtesy of Max Pixel.
