Alleged large fraud dedicated by signature-gatherers final yr ought to imply the undoing of Nebraska medical marijuana legalization, the state’s excessive court docket heard this week.
The Nebraska Supreme Courtroom is weighing a lawsuit filed by a former state lawmaker that seeks to pressure medical hashish advocates to “show” final yr’s poll query, overwhelmingly authorised by voters, was really legitimate.
John Kuehn, a former Republican state lawmaker and co-founder of anti-legalization advocacy group Good Approaches to Marijuana, launched a quest to undo medical marijuana legalization in Nebraska months earlier than final November’s vote.
Will the Nebraska Supreme Courtroom cancel medical hashish?
A lower-court state decide final fall dismissed Kuehn’s lawsuit alleging that Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana relied on fraud to gather sufficient signatures to qualify two medical marijuana legalization measures for the poll.
However Kuehn appealed to the excessive court docket, which in flip led some state lawmakers to refuse to the touch medical hashish regulation.
“All we’re asking is that this court docket reverse and remand for a second part of trial, the place the sponsors could have an opportunity to show that they gathered sufficient legitimate signatures,” Zachary Pohlman, an lawyer for Kuehn, informed the Supreme Courtroom, in response to Nebraska Public Media.
That’s regardless of judges earlier expressing skepticism that the state might unwind legalization after Secretary of State Bob Evnen licensed the election.
There’s no timeline as to when the court docket could rule.
Are Nebraska elected officers anti-cannabis?
Kuehn appears to have ethical assist from state officers.
Each Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and state Legal professional Normal Mike Hilgers have questioned whether or not the state medical marijuana measures are authorized beneath both the state structure or federal legislation.
And Pillen has already led state medical hashish regulators to delay licensing – and entry to medical hashish – in addition to scale down the variety of licenses obtainable and the way a lot hashish may be cultivated.
State regulators issued the primary two of 4 cultivator licenses in October.
