A Lancaster County, Nebraska District Court judge on Tuesday dismissed legal challenges against the state’s two medical cannabis petitions, the Nebraska Examiner reports. In the 57-page order Judge Susan Strong said the petition challengers – former State Board of Health member John Kuehn, Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office – were “well short” of proving that enough signatures collected for the petitions were invalid.
“For the Legalization Petition, they have shown that 711 signatures have lost their presumption of validity. For the Regulatory Petition, they have shown that 826 signatures have lost their presumption of validity. Because the Plaintiff and Secretary have not rebutted the presumption of validity for a material number of signatures, a second phase of trial is not necessary.” — Strong in the order
In order to prevail, the plaintiffs would have had to show that more than 3,463 signatures on the legalization petition and 3,357 signatures on the regulatory petition were invalid. Both petitions needed to be approved by voters in order to create a functional medical cannabis industry in the state.
In the order, Strong notes that “In