Marijuana legalization bills introduced in Nebraska Legislature

The push to make marijuana legal, whether for medical or other purposes, picked up steam Friday in the Nebraska Legislature.

State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha offered a proposal that would wipe the slate clean on marijuana. Legislative Bill 481 would strike marijuana from state laws criminalizing drugs and remove past convictions for marijuana possession from the record books.

The measure would also spell out that parents cannot lose their children just for use or possession of marijuana. But it would add marijuana smoking to the types of smoking banned in public places and work sites.

Also on Friday, Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln introduced a new version of her Medicinal Cannabis Act. LB 474 would set up a process to regulate the production, processing and distribution of marijuana for use by people with certain health conditions.

Wishart introduced similar legislation two years ago, while launching an initiative petition to legalize medical marijuana. The bill stalled in the face of stiff opposition. Petition organizers collected enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot, but it was tossed off by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that it violated the single-subject limit in the state Constitution. [Read more at Omaha World-Herald]