New Nebraska Measure To Create A Constitutional Right To Use Marijuana Filed For 2026 Ballot

Nebraska activists have filed an initiative to legalize marijuana and establish a constitutional right to use cannabis for adult over the age of 21. If organizers collect enough valid signatures from registered voters, it could appear on the 2026 ballot.

The one-sentence measure simply reads,  “All persons twenty-one years of age or older have the right to use all plants in the genus Cannabis.”

The measure, filed by Bill Hawkins of the Nebraska Hemp Company, comes as state regulators are charged with implementing medical cannabis initiatives approved by voters in 2024.

Advocates have been critical of rules implemented so far by the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission, however. For example, the regulations ban medical marijuana flower and products that can be smoked or vaped, as well as edibles or other products containing flavoring.

The new proposed 2026 initiative to create a broad right to use cannabis is the fifth proposal seeking to effectively legalize recreational marijuana since 2018, according to Ballotpedia, which first reported its filing. None of those prior measures, which were also sponsored by Hawkins, have obtained enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot.

In order to go before voters next year, the current initiative will need to collect signatures from 10 percent of registered voters. Organizers will also need to obtain signatures from 5 percent of the registered voters in each of two-fifths of the state’s 93 counties.

The marijuana reform push also comes as the state attorney general is cracking down on sales of intoxicating hemp-derived products, including those containing delta-8 THC.

Las year’s approval of two medical marijuana ballot measures came after an earlier attempt in 2020 gathered enough signatures for ballot placement, but saw the measure invalidated by the state Supreme Court following a single-subject challenge. Supporters then came up short on signatures for revised petitions in 2022 due in large part to the loss of funding after one of their key donors died in a plane crash.