According to new polling data, a strong majority of registered voters in Nebraska support legalizing medical marijuana.
Nebraska is one of just a dozen states that have not legalized medical marijuana. New polling commissioned by the Neilan Strategy Group, and conducted by Data Targeting Inc., shows that 70% of voters in the state want that to change.
“Nebraskans are clearly ready to legalize medical marijuana,” said Perre Neilan of Neilan Strategy Group.
The group included 2,198 likely general election voters polled between February 7 and 9. The margin of error is +/- 2.1%.
The poll is particularly relevant given that the nonprofit group Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is actively collecting signatures for a pair of initiatives that would legalize medical marijuana and provide protections for physicians who recommend it.
The group has until July to collect 125,000 signatures from registered Nebraska voters.
One of the two initiatives would “enact a statute that makes penalties inapplicable under state and local law for the use, possession, and acquisition of limited quantities of cannabis for medical purposes by a qualified patient with a written recommendation from a health care practitioner, and for a caregiver to assist a qualified patient in these activities.”
The proposal would create the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to provide the necessary “registration and regulation of persons that possess, manufacture, distribute, deliver, and dispense cannabis for medical purposes.”
The second initiative would provide explicit legal protections for doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients.
