Of all the ballot measures Nebraska voted on two weeks ago, none had the overwhelming support that medical marijuana received. The two initiatives received about 70% of the vote. The people have spoken.

But will that stop the Attorney General from his crusade against the campaign organiz?

In case you haven’t been following the story (after all, there’s been a lot going on lately), Attorney General Mike Hilgers has filed a lawsuit against the grassroots organizers of the petition drive, saying that thousands of signatures were collected illegally. Thus, not enough legal signatures were collected to allow it on the ballot, even though Secretary of State Bob Evnen certified those signatures.

Preliminary hearings have been held and Lancaster County and Judge Susan Strong will soon decide if a full trial should be held to decide if the will of the people will triumph or if the will of a handful of politicians will.

During the hearings, the state’s key witness is a woman who has been convicted and is on probation for insurance fraud. The defense is claiming that even if some of the signatures were invalid due to a clerical error, there weren’t enough mistakes to invalidate the petition.

But with 70% of the state saying that they want to join the majority of America and legalize cannabis for medical purposes it’s pretty obvious what the people want. They want the option to have medical marijuana.

There were a lot of statewide initiatives for us to vote on including abortion, school choice, and paid sick leave. These issues had money to pay for petition circulators, or large organizations behind them to rally volunteers to man the streets. The medical marijuana petitioners were for the most part parents with epileptic children, or people with MS, cancer, PTSD, and other ailments that marijuana has been proven to help with. This group didn’t have large financial backing. All they had were volunteers who believed in the cause.

Was every I dotted, and T crossed when they turned in the signatures? I don’t doubt there were some clerical mistakes. But I don’t doubt there were some of those same mistakes in every other organization that turned in their signatures.

Yet the state is only going after one group. The group with the least amount of money behind them. Why is that? Is that because Senator Pete Ricketts fears that medical marijuana will kill children? Is it because Republican politicians in the Unicameral are following his lead along with the lead of Tom Osborne and other prominent people who have spoken out against medical marijuana? Or is it just because they are a small volunteer group made up of everyday citizens and not some well-financed politically connected organization?

I did attend a portion of the trial and all the other information I’ve received is from published news reports. However, it seems to me that the AG has not provided enough evidence to further this case. If it were me and I had the power, I would read the writing on the wall and ask Judge Strong to drop the case. Or if I were Judge Strong, I would rule that not enough evidence was presented to warrant the case from moving forward.

But I’m not the AG or the Judge. I’m just an observer who knows people who are suffering and could be helped with a doctor’s prescription for a natural remedy. I’m just another citizen hoping we’ll get what we want.

Let me close by offering a personal anecdote. Last January I had some major surgery. I was in the hospital for 6 days where I was on a lot of pain medication. When I was released, I was offered a prescription for an opiate-based pain reliever. I refused it and went with prescription Tylenol instead. That was my right as a patient. The same right any patient who was prescribed medical marijuana would have if they didn’t want it.

Patients shouldn’t be criminals. The good people of the Cornhusker state know that. Now it’s time for the power brokers in the state to learn that as well.

I pray that after all the hard work the volunteers put in, that the voters’ voices will be heard and that suffering people will suffer no more.

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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