After the loss of a major donor, Nebraskans For Medical Marijuana is attempting to do something that has never been done before. They are running an entirely grassroots petition drive.
Several tragedies have left the organization without the necessary $1 million funding to move forward with a traditional paid signature drive.
“Instead of us paying people to go out and find Nebraskans to sign the petitions, we’re going to have Nebraskans going to singing locations to sign,” says State Senator Anna Wishart, chair of NMM. “We have 100 store locations across the state, small businesses who care enough about this campaign, that they have trained their staff and have petitions available for somebody to go in and sign.”
Wishart tells KLIN News they need to collect more than 87-thousand signatures by the deadline on July 7th. So far they have collected about 50,000 thousand signatures, 25,000 for each of their two petition issues. They need more than 87-thousand.
They have to collect verified signatures from at least 5% of voters in at least 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. The campaign is asking anyone who cares about the success of medical cannabis legalization to join their efforts. “Grassroots donations and volunteers are essential to the successful signature collection.” Supporters can go to nebraskamarijuana.org to find out how to help and find a store where petitions can be signed.