LINCOLN — Proponents of medical marijuana in Nebraska say they will launch a petition drive with the goal of letting voters decide whether to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes in 2018.

Three groups that support medical cannabis recently closed the door on putting the question on the November general election ballot, said Maggie Graham, an officer of Omaha NORML, which stands for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. They would have needed to gather tens of thousands of voter signatures by a July 7 deadline.

Instead, the groups will focus on drafting new ballot language to amend medical cannabis into the Nebraska Constitution. They hope to start the petition drive in 2017. It will rely heavily on volunteer circulators to gather the roughly 120,000 signatures they’ll need from registered voters, Graham said. [Read more on KearneyHub.com]