Connect with us

Nebraska

Conflicting camps debate merits of medical marijuana legalization in Nebraska ahead of petition deadline

Published

on

Conflicting camps debate merits of medical marijuana legalization in Nebraska ahead of petition deadline


Roasting below the mid-June solar on a transparent day outdoors of the Madison County Courthouse, Benjamin Herner waited patiently for potential signees to his petition — one that would put hashish on the poll within the upcoming November elections.

Though Herner is a licensed chiropractor by commerce, he’s devoted the previous decade of his life to an initiative devoted to the reason for legalizing hashish medically in Nebraska.

As a longtime sufferer of fibromyalgia, Herner, Norfolk resident who’s spent most of his life in small-town Nebraska, mentioned his firsthand expertise with the “highly effective” medicinal properties of hashish satisfied him of the necessity to carry that to a authorized, secure and accessible marketplace for others.

Advertisement

“I’ve been on methadone, man. I’ve been on all of these anti-inflammatories; none of them touched my ache, however THC (the psycho-active chemical in hashish) did.”

Though he set a private objective of gathering 100 signatures, Herner mentioned he’s effectively surpassed that, managing to internet almost 400 by tenting outdoors of companies all all through the winter, spring and early summer season for almost 200 hours.

“Generally you’ve received to do it your self, in order that’s the perspective I had,” he mentioned.

The trigger Herner works for, aptly titled Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, is a part of a statewide effort to carry potential aid to many Nebraskans who vary from youngsters to the aged and undergo from a wide range of illnesses, from muscular pains and seizures to Crohn’s illness and even most cancers.

Petition deadline looming

Advertisement

Spearheaded within the Nebraska Legislature by state Sens. Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, the motion has gained traction lately. Nonetheless, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana finds itself with its again in opposition to the wall, with a deadline of Wednesday, July 7, with 132,000 signatures gathered to date and greater than 60,000 nonetheless wanted to get the initiative on the poll.

“We nonetheless have a really steep hill to climb to be actually sincere right here,” Wishart mentioned. “But when we get it on the poll … I feel it should have one of many strongest showings of any poll initiative when it comes to folks supporting the difficulty.”

Nonetheless, the motion has frequently confronted opposition from state authorities establishments, together with a gut-wrenching defeat for the motion in 2020 when a poll measure that handed the state’s petition signature threshold was struck down by the Nebraska Supreme Courtroom for together with too many points in its wording.

Extra lately, a Could 2021 medical hashish invoice proposed by Wishart fell within the state Legislature on a 31-18 vote, simply two votes in need of the two-thirds supermajority required to surpass the filibuster and transfer Legislative Invoice 474 ahead.

Wishart, the consultant for the city twenty seventh District encompassing the west finish of Lincoln since 2017, mentioned she thinks political calculations are nonetheless holding again some, if not all, of the payments’ opponents, evaluating the scenario to the state legalization of playing within the 2020 election.

Advertisement

“We dragged our ft for years on legalizing playing,” Wishart mentioned. “Actually, a few of the senators that have been essentially the most ardent in opposition are those which can be introducing legalization to benefit from the income from playing.”

‘Not only a benign substance’

Politics aren’t the one factor holding again some, nevertheless. John Kuehn is a former state senator on the opposite aspect of the controversy. First elected to the Legislature in 2014, Kuehn represented the agricultural thirty eighth District, which covers six counties in south-central Nebraska and whose largest municipality is the city of Holdrege, till 2019. He is also co-chairman of the Nebraska chapter of Good Approaches to Marijuana, a nationwide group opposing the commercialization and legalization of hashish.

The group has many issues about legalizing hashish medically in Nebraska attributable to its impacts on “youth, psychological well being and public security.”

“These are all issues that voters and residents and households are going to should weigh after they come into this difficulty, as a result of it’s not only a benign substance,” Kuehn mentioned.

Advertisement

These issues, Kuehn mentioned, begin with hashish’ lack of institutional certification, which makes it troublesome to find out its security, and he in contrast it to the way in which cigarettes are marketed, saying this makes the “medical” label misleading.

“There is no such thing as a distinction between medical marijuana and leisure marijuana; it’s the identical product,” Kuehn mentioned. “Something that might have a medical label or terminology used to it ought to undergo an FDA approval course of and be regulated in the identical means as every other prescription remedy can be, and never utilizing a dispensary mannequin and type of following the tobacco playbook for making a harmful drug accessible, significantly to youngsters.”

Wishart disagreed with the sentiment that FDA approval is a be-all, end-all for a drug’s security, nevertheless. She cited the dangerous impacts of assorted FDA-approved medication, reminiscent of oxycodone, which can be “destroying folks’s lives” and that the federal strategy to hashish has been traditionally biased.

“I feel the FDA system is damaged on the subject of this difficulty,” Wishart mentioned. “Trying into the previous on the legal prohibition of hashish simply opens your eyes to a few of the large points when it comes to authorities and forms, management and cash.”

Moreover, Wishart cited a 2014 research from the Society for Adolescent Well being and Drugs that discovered from a sampling of 11 million adolescent college students between 1991 and 2011 that there was no enhance in use amongst teenagers in states with medical hashish legal guidelines.

Advertisement

The most important thrust of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana’s platform is that hashish can be utilized to offer aid for a bunch of difficult-to-treat situations, together with seizures, fibromyalgia, glaucoma and most cancers. Wishart related to this impetus by pointing to 2 circumstances she encountered throughout her expertise with the Legislature.

Throughout her early days campaigning for her seat, she talked about talking with a mom whose daughter moved to Colorado to get remedy via hashish merchandise for her son, who suffered tons of of seizures a day.

“It eradicated his seizures, and he’s a cheerful, wholesome 10-year-old boy, and they might love to come back again to this state, however they’d be handled like criminals right here,” Wishart mentioned.

After Wishart turned a sitting senator, she was visited by a person who presupposed to have been given a pancreatic most cancers prognosis and 10 months to stay by a physician. The well-documented energy of hashish as an urge for food stimulant, which may counteract the appetite-suppressed signs of his most cancers, led him to pursuing an Oregon-based physician who specialised within the drug and prescribed him with a suppository that supposedly resulted in serving to him to outlive the illness.

“Why on the planet would this man not be capable of discuss to a physician in Nebraska to get entry to a plant that for over 10,000 years not a single individual has ever fatally overdosed from?” she mentioned.

Advertisement

‘Not typical sufferers’

Kuehn countered, nevertheless, that such anecdotal examples account for less than 10% of the issuances granted for medical marijuana in legalized states, whereas the opposite 90% are for “ache and different situations” which can be presumably not as dire.

“These are, by and huge, not the everyday sufferers which can be given because the poster little one instance for medical marijuana use,” Kuehn mentioned. “Most of them are males of their mid-20s who’ve a number of drug use points and who used marijuana and different illicit substances earlier than they ever received their medical marijuana card.”

Moreover, Kuehn pointed to the uncertainty behind utilizing hashish to deal with the opposite 10% of sufferers.

He mentioned the American Glaucoma Society doesn’t condone the usage of hashish for treating that particular illness and that the drug’s efficacy for most of the different situations it’s purported to alleviate is unsure, with well-tested alternate options even obtainable for some, reminiscent of CBD for epilepsy, which has been federally legalized since 2018 and in Nebraska since 2019, and is totally endorsed by Good Approaches to Marijuana.

Advertisement

“(For) somebody to simply exit and procure (hashish) and type of, for lack of a greater time period, experiment with them on titrating a dose, that’s antithetical to every part we find out about drugs,” Kuehn mentioned. “It’s equally merciless to deal with essentially the most susceptible sufferers as in the event that they don’t deserve the identical security and purity and care as every other affected person.”

Kuehn additionally cited research which have related hashish to exacerbating psychosis and different psychological well being situations like melancholy and social anxiousness, though the very fact of whether or not it’s able to instantly inflicting these problems remains to be extensively debated among the many medical group.

Even when hashish have been to be medically legalized, Kuehn appeared to precise doubt on the knowledge of entrusting docs with deciding whether or not to offer sufferers entry to hashish, particularly since there isn’t a framework for prescribing particular dosages within the dispensary format.

“Opioids are essentially the most regulated of the prescription-controlled substances and we’ve seen an epidemic of overdose even supposing you have got a physician’s prescription, and never simply that, a physician has a DEA license and it’s tightly regulated by pharmacies,” Kuehn mentioned. “(Then) we’re speaking about 95% to 99%-THC edibles and vapes and dab merchandise … there’s actually no restrict on what a person may use or devour, after which there’s no interplay with a physician and figuring out what an applicable dosage ought to be.”

Wishart insists that hashish’ nontoxicity places it in a distinct class from opioids, nevertheless, as a result of there isn’t a potential for deadly overdose or withdrawal.

Advertisement

Moreover, she mentioned her proposed medical hashish invoice included a requirement for docs to endure “many hours of training” earlier than they might be allowed to suggest hashish to sufferers, though she didn’t specify what number of hours, or how the invoice would account for controlling doses. Most states with authorized hashish embrace per-transaction and/or periodic buying limits.

Regardless of the complicated and infrequently polarizing nature of hashish, Wishart mentioned her work in campaigning throughout the state has awoken her to the potential that the difficulty of hashish legalization has to carry collectively folks from all sides of the spectrum, whether or not younger or outdated, Republican or Democrat, particularly within the context of latest years.

“After popping out of the COVID pandemic, persons are considering extra about their medical freedom, and their potential to make these types of choices,” she mentioned. “It’s really a problem I actually love engaged on when it feels prefer it’s really easy to be pulled aside as of late.”

Kuehn cautioned that recognition can’t be the one consideration. He mentioned persons are typically extra supportive of medical marijuana initially as a result of they don’t totally perceive the idea and the entire flaws that the group sees within the present framework for its legalization. Additionally, Kuehn mentioned it’s troublesome for his group to achieve each voter with the right messaging.

“If you discuss to (voters) about what medical marijuana really means, they in a short time change their opinion,“ Kuehn mentioned. “So we completely imagine that the poll initiative course of is the unsuitable strategy to go about legalizing a drug; that mentioned, if it’s there, we’ll proceed to maneuver ahead with our training mission and to do what it’s that we do.”

Advertisement

Even so, the medical marijuana initiative’s prospects aren’t excessive for getting on the poll this yr, though Wishart mentioned a defeat subsequent week isn’t going to cease them from preventing for what they imagine is true, both.

“We’ll proceed to attempt each on the poll for the 2024 election and within the Legislature,” Wishart mentioned. “We’re not going away till that is profitable.”



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Nebraska

Shots didn't fall, but Nebraska encouraged in close loss to No. 15 Michigan

Published

on

Shots didn't fall, but Nebraska encouraged in close loss to No. 15 Michigan


Shots didn’t fall, but Nebraska encouraged in close loss to No. 15 Michigan

Monday night’s game between Nebraska and No. 15 Michigan inside Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln was not what you would call a pretty basketball game.

Advertisement

Michigan won 49-46 — yeah, it was that kind of rock fight — after a 3-pointer at the final buzzer from Berke Büyüktuncel didn’t fall. That’ll go down as a Quad 1 loss for the Huskers, who have five of those all-important Quad 1 wins on its résumé.

Both teams were ice cold all night and had a hard time putting the ball in the hoop. Michigan shot 30% from the field and 19% (5-of-27) from 3-point range. Nebraska was worse — 26% overall and 21% (6-of-28) from 3.

Brice Williams led all scorers with 26 points and became the third player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark in just two seasons, joining Terran Pettway and James Palmer Jr.

While Williams is having a first-team All-Big Ten-type season, the 6-foot-7 guard is not Superman. He scored 18 of Nebraska’s 21 first-half points but was held to eight points on 2-of-8 shooting in the second.

“For the most part, we tried to deny his catches and push him off his spots more,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said of the second-half game plan against Williams.

Advertisement

Williams had zero help on Monday. He outscored the combined efforts of his teammates, who mustered just 20 points and went an ugly 7-of-41 from the field.

While he was his usual stellar self defensively, Juwan Gary scored five points on 2-of-13 shooting and missed all five of his 3s. Büyüktuncel, playing in his first game since spraining his left ankle against Ohio State on Feb. 9, was clearly rusty, missing all 10 of his shots, which included six 3s. Connor Essegian, the top scoring threat off the bench, went 1-of-5, missed all four of his 3s and scored two points.

Ugly offense, for sure.

“It happens. Some guys just have off nights. Just sucks it all happened at once,” Williams said.

But yet, Nebraska was in the game until the end. The Wolverines, the second-place team in the Big Ten, did not run away with the win. After the game, Nebraska head coach Fred Hoiberg chose to focus on that instead of the wickedly-bad shooting, which he believes was so bad it won’t happen again.

Advertisement

The defense and the edge it takes to beat a superior team was there for the Huskers.

“I’m proud of the guys for going out there and giving ourselves a chance when you had about as poor an offensive night as you could possibly have,” Hoiberg said. “When the ball doesn’t go in the basket it’s not easy to continue to go out there and have a spirit defensively, but our guys fought like hell all game long to keep us in the game and to give ourselves a chance where we get a great look on a possession where there’s under 20 seconds.”

Michigan improved to 21-6 overall and 13-3 against Big Ten competition while Nebraska drops to 17-11, 7-10.

Michigan came into the game averaging over 77 points against Big Ten competition. Nebraska held it to 49 points, a season-low. The Wolverines’ previous season-low scoring was 62 points against Michigan State on Feb. 12. Michigan’s 29.5% shooting was a season-low, too.

Advertisement

But at the end of the day, scoring points is what wins games. Nebraska didn’t do enough of it.

And it was the easy ones Nebraska didn’t convert that hurt the most offensively. The Huskers went 1-of-7 on layups as Michigan’s twin 7-footers, Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf, defended the rim well. Both altered shots and finished with 10 rebounds — Goldin also had two blocks while Wolf had one.

With the Huskers not having anyone outside of Williams able to make shots, Goldin anchored down in the paint and wasn’t worried about perimeter defense. That’s where a stretch big like Rienk Mast can be so effective.

“Their big was sitting in the middle. When you got a 7-1 guy in there that’s huge, that protects the paint,” Hoiberg said. “When the ball wasn’t going in, that floor just shrunk.”

Berke Büyüktuncel makes his return, but with quite a bit of rust

Monday night was Büyüktuncel’s first game back from a sprained left ankle that kept him out the past three games. Clearly, there was rust the 6-10 UCLA transfer needs to shake off after going 0-of-10 from the floor and 0-of-6 from behind the arc.

Advertisement

Hoiberg said after there game Büyüktuncel had just one practice with contact before he played on Monday.

But while his offense wasn’t there, Büyüktuncel’s energy and defense was, Hoiberg said.

“Berke being on the floor is a huge part of that,” Hoiberg said of Nebraska’s defense. “You see how important he is to us, being able to guard multiple positions, get deflections. From an analytic standpoint, it’s really not even close — he is our most important guy on the defensive end of the floor. So whether he’s making baskets or not, he plays a huge role and is a very important part to this team.”

Up next

Nebraska is off until Saturday when it hosts the Minnesota Gophers (14-13, 6-10) at 1 p.m.

Ben Johnson’s Gophers are coming off a 69-60 loss to Penn State and will host Northwestern on Tuesday.

Advertisement

Minnesota has one of the best players in the conference in Dawson Garcia, a 6-11, 234-pounder who’s averaging 19.8 points per game against Big Ten competition.

“I told them, I don’t want to see anybody hanging their head for the effort, the energy you guys played with,” Hoiberg said of what he told the players in the locker room. “I want everybody to walk out of here with your head held high. We’re going to get it right, and we’re going to go out and fight like hell on Saturday.”

Quick look at the remaining opponents 

>> Saturday vs. Minnesota (NET rating 92, Quad 3)

>> Tuesday at Ohio State (34, Quad 1)

>> Sunday, March 9 vs. Iowa (64, Quad 2)

Advertisement

ENJOYING INSIDE NEBRASKA?

>> GAIN ALL-ACCESS with an annual or monthly subscription for less than $10/month

>> NEW SUBSCRIBERS get 30 days FREE

>> Sound off on the hot topics on our INSIDER’S BOARD

>> Follow us on Twitter (@NebraskaRivals)

>> Follow us on Instagram (@nebraskarivals)

Advertisement

>> Subscribe for FREE to the Inside Nebraska YouTube channel





Source link

Continue Reading

Nebraska

Nebraska dad’s unusually difficult journey to change his 2-year-old daughter’s name from ‘Unakite Thirteen Hotel’

Published

on

Nebraska dad’s unusually difficult journey to change his 2-year-old daughter’s name from ‘Unakite Thirteen Hotel’


A two-year-old girl from Nebraska was legally named Unakite Thirteen Hotel by a random word generator while in foster care and her baffled father is begging for the state’s help to change the unwieldy moniker. 

The perplexing backstory behind the one-of-a-kind name began when baby girl was born inside a home in Council Bluffs, Iowa and was somehow transferred to state custody without a birth certificate or Social Security number (SSN).

When Unakite – who now goes by Caroline – was born, her mother and her father, Jason Kilburn of Omaha, had been broken up. 

In fact, Kilburn told WGAL there was even a chance that Caroline was not his child. 

Advertisement

Caroline’s birth mother soon lost custody of her because the Douglas County Attorney’s Office accused her of doing drugs while pregnant and neglecting her daughter, KBTX reported.

‘It kills me that I wasn’t able to be there when she was born because it wouldn’t have happened like it did,’ Kilburn solemnly said to WOWT.  

The child was taken into foster care and brought to a Nebraska hospital near her foster mother’s residence. 

Kilburn told WGAL that when his daughter was technically issued a birth certificate during this hospital visit. However, it just has her mother’s last name and says ‘for government use only’ on it. 

Advertisement

Two-year-old Unakite Thirteen Hotel, who goes by Caroline, was given her computer-generated name by Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Jason Kilburn of Omaha had to prove he was Caroline's father before being able to have custody of her

Jason Kilburn of Omaha had to prove he was Caroline’s father before being able to have custody of her 

Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) then gave the toddler her unorthodox computer-generated name, Kilburn and his attorney Josh Livingston said. 

Livingston explained to WGAL: ‘When she was brought to Nebraska, she was in the juvenile court in Nebraska in the foster care system. 

Advertisement

‘They petitioned the court while she was in their custody for an order so that they could obtain a SSN. They gave her a legal name. That legal name was Unakite Thirteen Hotel.’

Kilburn was able to prove his paternity and after spending about a year in foster care, Caroline was finally able to go home with her dad. 

But his grueling legal battle on behalf of Caroline- who is still Unakite in the eyes of the state – is far from over. 

‘I’m worried that this child fell between the cracks,’ Livingston told WOWT.

‘And I’m worried that when it became apparent that this child fell through the cracks, nobody…with any authority did anything to fix it.’

Advertisement

When the state agreed to give him custody, they failed to present Caroline’s birth certificate or SSN, posing far greater issues than not being able to change her name. 

Attorney Josh Livingston believes the state of Nebraska requested a SSN for Caroline, but Kilburn never received it

Attorney Josh Livingston believes the state of Nebraska requested a SSN for Caroline, but Kilburn never received it 

Kilburn worries not having a birth certificate or SNN can pose greater issues than not being able to change Caroline's name

Kilburn worries not having a birth certificate or SNN can pose greater issues than not being able to change Caroline’s name

‘I can’t get medical insurance on her. I can’t claim her on my taxes I can’t even sign her up for daycare because they want a Social Security number too for insurance purposes,’ Kilburn said to 3NewsNow. 

The only way to get to the bottom of Caroline’s mysterious circumstances is to reopen her DHHS case – but the state cannot do that without any identification.

Advertisement

Livingston does believe that DHHS asked the federal court for a SSN, but Kilburn never received it. 

‘So obviously, Social Security number is a federal issue. But when DHHS filed that motion with the court to obtain the Social Security number, they certainly put a duty on themselves to follow through with that,’ the attorney told WGAL. 

DHHS officials told Livingston they reached out to an Iowa agency that provided insight on how Kilburn could get Caroline a birth certificate. 

‘Under the Child Protection and Family Safety Act, specific information related to children in the custody of DHHS or who were in the past is confidential. DHHS is working with Mr. Livingston to resolve this issue,’ DHHS wrote to WGAL.

‘Each state is responsible for all vital events that happen within the state including births and deaths as well as the registration of the event, the certificate, and any amendments or corrections needed.’

Advertisement

Livingston and Kilburn believe the answer to their Unakite-Caroline dilemma lies in legislation proposed by Senator Megan Hunt. 

The toddler was born in an Iowa home before she was taken into foster care in Nebraska

The toddler was born in an Iowa home before she was taken into foster care in Nebraska 

Senator Megan Hunt has proposed a legislation to pass a Nebraska Youth in Care Bill of Rights, whihc Kilburn and Livingston believe will help rectify Caroline's situation

Senator Megan Hunt has proposed a legislation to pass a Nebraska Youth in Care Bill of Rights, whihc Kilburn and Livingston believe will help rectify Caroline’s situation 

LB368 aims to establish the Nebraska Youth in Care Bill of Rights, which essentially outlines the protections the state’s children should be entitled to. 

Hunt reacted to Caroline’s situation, telling WOWT: ‘This situation is absolutely unacceptable and highlights a critical failure in our system. 

Advertisement

‘No child should be left without a legal identity, especially after being in state custody. 

‘This is exactly the kind of bureaucratic negligence that LB368 aims to prevent by ensuring foster youth have access to essential documents like birth certificates and Social Security numbers before they transition out of state care – among many other rights.’



Source link

Continue Reading

Nebraska

No. 1 Nebraska rolls to a perfect day two at the Big Red Invitational

Published

on

No. 1 Nebraska rolls to a perfect day two at the Big Red Invitational


LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Some of the best teams in the country all squaring off in the Big Red Invitational Saturday.

Eight teams in total were in action, including No. 1 Nebraska, No. 5 Arkansas State, No. 6 Wichita State, and No. 13 Mckendree.

 

This is the first time the Huskers have hosted an invitational at the Hollywood Bowl in a couple years, and the team says the huge support is a big help.

Advertisement

“Obviously we only have one home event a year, and having the crowd and all the support of the Husker fans behind us, it’s just been awesome,” said Jillian Martin.

Nebraska went 4-0 in traditional matches Saturday, with four players making the top 15.

Through two days, the team has a total of 9,731 pinfalls and are scoring an average of 216.2 per game.

Senior Husker star Kayla Verstraete will end her career in Lincoln tomorrow, and adds it’s a special way to wrap up her regular season.

“A lot of people don’t get this to end their careers at home,” said Verstraete. “I think it’s just a bitter sweet moment, but we’re not done yet.”

Advertisement

Nebraska will return to the lanes Sunday morning at 8:55 am CT in a best 4-0f-7 baker match vs. No. 13 Mckendree.





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending