Lincoln, Neb. (AP) -Nebraska officials this week missed a deadline for the granting of licenses for marijuana producers, as part of a measure approved by the voters that legalized the medical marijuana, and offered the latest example of pushback in republican states against efforts to legalize the drug.
“How often do we have to go down this way of struggle for our life?” The Lia Post asked Sobb on Tuesday at the newly founded Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, as it became clear that the body would not keep the deadline on Wednesday.
Post lives in Ostnebraska and suffers from a disease that causes chronic pain in its extremities. Marijuana relieves the disease and enables her to avoid addictive opiates.
“There is no begging in me,” said Post during the commission meeting, in which three members were testified by the Republican governor Jim Plenens that they would have to move the licensing.
The Republican leaders of the Nebraska from the governor to the Attorney General and Conservative legislators work despite their overwhelming support in the ballot box to weaken or even kill the fresh law.
Most states have legalized some marijuana employ
Twenty-four states and Washington, DC, legalized the leisure marihuana for adults, although some efforts in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota have recently failed on the ballot. The medical employ of marijuana is more accepted and approved in 40 states and in the District of Columbia, including 17 countries in which voters approved it.
However, some Republicans in these countries have continued to fight against medical marijuana, which was approved by the voters. In South Dakota, a Republican legislature was unsuccessful this year a legislative proposal for the abolition of the medical marijuana approved by the voters. In Idaho, the legislators proposed a constitutional change that would prohibit the citizens’ initiatives of legalizing marijuana and instead left such decisions to the legislator.
And in Mississippi, the efforts to reverse a medical marijuana law 2020 supported by voters seem to have disappointed the state’s process of the state’s initiative from the Supreme Court of Mississippi, who triggered that the state initiative process is out of date.
Reasons for the pushback seem to be rooted in the conviction that marijuana is a threatening drug.
The law enforcement agencies have long refused as a goal for another drug employ and as a driver -related danger that cannot be measured in the field of an alcoholure. Many cite the continued classification of marijuana by the federal government as a threatening drug that corresponds to heroin and LSD.
Karen O’keefe, director of state guidelines at the Marijuana Policy Project, said the surveys showed that the majority of Republicans support legalized medical marijuana.
“It’s like a small part of the Republican Party, but some of them are vehemently against it,” said O’keefe. “They are people who bought in Reefer Madness.”
In contrast to marijuana, O’keefe found that thousands of Americans die annually from prescription opiates and unwanted incidents from other medication.
Nebraska Pushback on medical marijuana ‘unique’
The Medical Marijuana law adopted in November demanded that the licenses be granted on Wednesday. The reason for the delay? Days earlier, Pillen forced the resignation of the two commission members that he had not appointed. They had been commissioned to check the qualifications of cultivation applications.
Pillen insisted that he is not rejected against medical marijuana, but has taken several steps, the critics say that people should be held away. This includes the appointment of members to the Commission, who have publicly opposed the legalization of marijuana against medical employ. Pillen also asked the Commission to limit the number of marijuana systems that are to be licensed for medical employ to 1,250 – a number that argued the industry is too low to record the number of residents who are looking for prescription marijuana.
“The purpose was to ensure that an abundance of plants would not fill the market and would lead to the creation of non -regulated and potentially illegal sales,” said Laura Strimple, spokeswoman for pills.
The fresh Nebraska Commission has so far made provisions of the voter initiative -including the adoption of emergency rules that prohibit smoking, vaping or marijuana for medical employ, which are expressly permitted in accordance with the legal voters. The Commission has also banned aroma to improve the taste of bitter tinctures and pills that are approved, the number of breeders and pharmacies that are allowed to be approved, have drastically restricted the requirements for the requirements for the formation and restriction of regulations for doctors and strength of medical marijuana.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers has turned to the courts to try to make the ballot initiative too invalid, which was approved by more than 70% of the voters.
“I would say that Nebraska is unique in the hostility of the attempt to lift the will of the people,” said O’keefe from the Marijuana policy project.
Attorney General says he is pursuing the rule of law
Hilgers lost a court dispute last year in which he questioned the validity of thousands of signatures in order to ask the question of the ballot in November. A former legislator of the Republican state also sued the fresh law and argued that he violated marijuana against federal associations. He lost this contestation before the district court, but has appealed to the state’s Supreme Court of Justice.
Hilgers said that his legal struggles go exclusively to protect the rule of law and accuse the petition process of “unprecedented fraud”. So far, the only success that Hilgers has achieved in court is to have the condemnation of an offense of a petition circulator who is accused of having made signatures for petitions.
“Someone cannot justify this misconduct by simply indicating the favorable results on the ballot. If they could, this would create a dangerous precedent for future petition initiatives,” said Hilgers.
But Hilgers made no secret of his opposition to the constrained legalization of marijuana. In a March cardary article, he said “Marijuana was slightly abused and can also consume safely under medical supervision.”
Proponents defend the will of the people
Crista Eggers, who led the medical marijuana initiative, argued, argued that a “black market” lives when marijuana was too constrained for medical employ.
“If you belong to one of the 71% that voted for the support of medical cannabis, you should be angry because the system and the regulatory framework based on this commission are not what the voters have intended,” she said.
Paulalmentano from the Marijuana Advocacy Organization Norml said that elected civil servants in countries dominated by a political party that counts on voting party.
“I can only assume that the legislator is encouraged to take these steps because they generally are not afraid that voters will have an impact,” he said.
