Nebraska judge clears path for medical marijuana ballot measures, but fraud trial still ongoing | Where to order Skittles Moonrock online

A Nebraska judge on Friday ruled against cannabis opponents who brought a lawsuit alleging fraud during the signature-gathering process for a pair of medical marijuana ballot questions, clearing the path for voters to weigh in on the measures this week.

Judge Susan Strong of Lancaster County District Court on Friday threw out a motion by former state Sen. John Kuehn, who had asked for a court order preventing the secretary of state from counting votes in favor of either of the ballot questions – Initiatives 437 and 438 – until a civil trial revolving around the alleged fraud has concluded, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Strong said before ruling on Friday afternoon that she was acting to preserve the status quo, which “in this case is that the secretary of state has certified these ballot initiatives and ballots have been printed and people are already voting on them,” she said, according to the Journal Star.

“I don’t know that I have the authority, as a district court judge in Lancaster County, to prevent 93 counties in the state of Nebraska from tabulating and publishing their votes,” Strong said.

The judge also indicated in her ruling that none of the evidence presented by the time she ruled on Friday was indicative that the plaintiffs’ case was strong enough to succeed on the merits. That suggests the underlying allegations of fraud on the part of the campaign Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana may not be enough to get the ballot measures themselves invalidated, a legal question that is still yet to be fully answered by the court.

The civil trial was ongoing into Monday, but may be concluded as early as Monday afternoon.

Strong also on Friday indicated she was likely to rule against a second motion by Kuehn, that the civil matter be continued until some criminal charges against cannabis campaign operators were resolved, the Journal Star reported, although the Nebraska attorney general’s office said it agreed with Secretary of State Bob Evnen that the evidence proved fraud by the medical marijuana campaign.

If the pair of initiatives are successful, 437 would legalize possession and consumption of medical marijuana, while 438 would establish a regulatory system for businesses to grow, manufacture and sell cannabis products.

John Schroyer

John Schroyer has been a reporter since 2006, initially with a focus on politics, and covered the 2012 Colorado campaign to legalize marijuana. He has written about the cannabis industry specifically since 2014, after being on hand for the first-ever legal cannabis sales on New Year’s Day that year in Denver. John has covered subsequent marijuana market launches in California and Illinois, has written about every aspect of the marijuana trade, and was part of the team that built the cannabis industry’s first-ever trade show, MJBizCon. He joined Green Market Report in 2022.