LINCOLN- Sen. Anna Wishart offered the Legislature one more chance to legalize medical marijuana and enact strict regulations over who could access cannabis and how it could be used.

If lawmakers decided not to advance her measure (LB474), she said, voters will almost certainly be granted the opportunity to consider a ballot initiative next year asking them to enshrine “the right to cannabis for medical purposes” into the state constitution. Her warning went unheeded, however. Opponents used procedural motions to mount a successful filibuster, and shortly after 6 p.m., only 31 senators voted to invoke cloture, falling two short of the tally needed, effectively pushing LB474 off the agenda for the year.

“Make no mistake,” Wishart said on Wednesday morning, “we will get the signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot. We’ve done it before in a global pandemic, and it will pass with overwhelming support in this state.”

Wishart said she won’t bring another bill forward next year — she’s sponsored legislation to legalize medical cannabis in each of her five years in the Legislature — and instead will shift her focus to gathering signatures from voters across the state.

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