The other day Nebraska’s Attorney General did his job. His job was to appease Pete Ricketts, Tom Osborn, Jim Pillen and some of the other leaders of this state in spreading doubt about the legitimacy of the signatures on the petitions to legalize Medical Marijuana in Nebraska.

On the Friday that Secretary of State Bob Evnen was scheduled to certify all the petition initiatives, Attorney General Mike Hilgers held a press conference where he announced criminal charges were filed against 66 year old Michael Egbert. If found guilty he could face a penalty of up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He might also get probation.

Now if Egbert is found guilty, he deserves any punishment the court sees fit. The organizers of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana agree with that. Here’s why I said that Hilgers did his job in trying to please the powers that be: The falsified signatures they found in Hall County were only a few hundred and were caught in time to never be submitted to the Secretary of State in the first place. So while the charges are real it had nothing to do with the final count of valid signatures.

Hilgers kept repeating that there were potentially thousands of invalid signatures while offering no proof to back up that claim. He continued with the investigation anyway.

Doesn’t it stand to reason that if there were these massive irregularities that Hilgers is claiming against the Marijuana initiative there would also be similar suspicions about the abortion petitions or the school choice petition? If he has those suspicions, he certainly didn’t call a press conference to express them.

He said there could be thousands of invalid signatures on the marijuana petition to sow some doubt and try to say that the vote of the people will be illegitimate. He wanted to imply that the medical marijuana supporters were cheaters.

There is no evidence any of that is true.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana is truly a grass roots effort. They didn’t have big donors to pay for a lot of petitioners. These signatures were gained for the most part by volunteers. Most of these volunteers were either patients or parents of sick children dealing with epilepsy or some of the other diseases marijuana has been shown to help.

Pete Ricketts gave $500,000 to pay for petitioners to limit access to abortion in Nebraska. The group to protect abortion rights collected about the same amount from a number of assorted donors like Planned Parenthood, and the Women’s Fund of Omaha. The Support our Schools petition had the backing of the powerful teachers union. The Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana group had a bunch of parents from around the state plus a few paid petitioners to get the necessary number of signatures.

Pete Ricketts has used scare tactics and said that Medical Marijuana will kill the children. I’d like to inform the Senator that the movie Reefer Madness was not an actual documentary. Medical Marijuana will not turn these kids with severe epilepsy or adults battling cancer into drug fiends who rob liquor stores or worse yet…become jazz musicians.

If you are against Medical Marijuana refuse to take it if a doctor prescribes it to you. If you fear this will lead to legalizing recreational pot don’t vote for it if it ever gets on the ballot here.

But don’t let the lies and exaggerations of the opposition scare you. Thirty-eight states have legalized cannabis for medical use and these states are doing just fine.

I will be greatly shocked if our Attorney General finds those thousands of invalid signatures he claims are out there. I will not be surprised if he and others keep repeating they exist in order to sow doubt.

I’m sure there will be some legal challenges now. After all, they got the Nebraska Supreme Court to negate a past petition drive. But I believe this time the pro medical folks are on solid ground, and Nebraska citizens will be able to vote for it come November.

Kudos to Secretary of State Bob Evnen for certifying the petition. I’ll bet he got pressured from some powerful people to stop it. But he followed the law and did the right thing.

Come November I’ll be voting to legalize Medical Marijuana. I’ve done the research and legalizing it doesn’t frighten me in the least. No matter how much the AG, the Senator, a former football coach, and others try to scare us. Suffering people will benefit from it. Voting against it is not Nebraska nice.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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