By: Liam Fenwick, Reporter
OMAHA, Neb. – Time is running out for advocates that want to legalize medical cannabis in Nebraska. They need thousands of signatures for their petitions by July 7th to get in on the voting ballot in November.
Kade Kenworthy is the owner of the vape shop Remediez in Omaha. He said legalizing medical cannabis would be beneficial for the state.
“I think it would considerably help people with ailments that we assign prescription drugs to currently.,” Kenworthy said.
Kenworthy also said that he has seen his own customers benefit from alternative cannabinoid products.
“We had an older lady come in the other day, who has a constant migraine. And she’s taking a CBD product, an alternative cannabinoid product, and she’s been to the doctors, she’s been to the Mayo Clinic and nothing has helped her. Now these alternative cannabinoid products do help her,” Kenworthy said.
Even though there is growing support for medical cannabis within the state, the petitions need thousands of more signatures.
A statutory petition needs 87,000 valid signatures. Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana have two petitions and hope to collect more than that.
Crista Eggers is the statewide campaign manager of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana. She said the campaign is personal to her.
“I have a child that has intractable epilepsy. That means that he seizes actually, honestly hundreds of times a day. He continues seizing despite any medical treatment. We have tried every pharmaceutical drug and every combination of medications,” Eggers said.
She also said her organization is doing their best to gather signatures for their petitions.
“We are gathering the necessary 250,000 raw signatures, overall signatures. Across these two petitions,” Eggers said.
After all the signatures are gathered, they would be sent to the Secretary of State. to be certified for the ballot in November.
Crista Eggers said the petition cannot be signed online. To find locations to sign the petition or signing events visit nebraskamajuana.org.
