Nebraska is seeing a new push from Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana – a constitutional initiative legalizing it for adult use.
Governor Pete Ricketts says regardless if it’s for medical use or not it shouldn’t be legal.
“There’s no such thing as medical marijuana. It’s a drug and the long term plan for the big marijuana industry is to make it available in a recreational way,” Ricketts said at a Monday morning news conference.
Ricketts says drugs go through an FDA regulatory approval process and says it’s a bad idea for state’s to bypass that.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana previously announced their intentions to put medical cannabis on the next ballot but announced their plans for recreational legalization Saturday.
In light of the successful ballot measures in South Dakota and yesterday’s vote in the House of Representatives, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is drafting a constitutional ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adult use and will file it in January! #legalizemarijuana
— Senator Adam Morfeld (@Adam_Morfeld) December 5, 2020
Ricketts cited increased poor health outcomes in Colorado since the state legalized both forms of the drug and added that companies are trying to avoid regulation.
“They can avoid regulation. That’s what’s going on. These are for-profit companies that are trying to go around the regulatory process and make profits off of doing that.”
Ricketts has remained steadfast in his opposition to the drug.
“People that maybe smoked marijuana back when they were younger maybe in the 60s and 70s, and the level of THC in the marijuana at that time is tiny compared to what’s in it today,” Ricketts said. “It’s a much more dangerous drug today.”