A petition effort asking voters to legalize medical cannabis is continuing despite the obstacles of the coronavirus pandemic.

ADOPT, a coalition of Nebraskans who support medical cannabis access, recently delivered nearly 50,000 signatures to Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, a political committee supporting a 2020 constitutional ballot measure to allow medical cannabis.

The signatures were collected this spring by ADOPT, which has since suspended operations.

Prior to ADOPT’s submission, the committee had over 10,000 signatures – meaning the petition is halfway to its goal of more than 120,000 signatures to place the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot.

“We are proud of our success in gathering tens of thousands of petition signatures in support of letting Nebraska vote on legalizing medical marijuana,” ADOPT spokesperson Michael J. O’Hara said in a news release. “Despite the great obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, civil unrest and curfews, our petition gatherers did a super job.”

ADOPT used both paid and volunteer gatherers. It halted in March, but it resumed in early May following social distancing and other public health guidelines – until curfew orders forced it to again stop operations. ADOPT was able to deploy gatherers for 31 days between March and June.

“Building on ADOPT’s great efforts, we hope the other groups gathering signatures will be able to complete the process by continuing to collect signatures through June,” O’Hara said.

The signature deadline is July 2.