EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - Dan Osborn Breaks Down Marijuana Legalization Fight as Congress Moves Against THC Gummies

Congress is pushing for a total ban on THC products and the ban is expected to go into effect by the end of the year.

The initiative is being spearheaded by Nebraska Senator, Pete Ricketts and North Carolina Senator, Ted Budd.

Ricketts in particular has always been a strong opponent of any marijuana legalization efforts. Back in early 2021, he famously said at a press conference, "if you legalize marijuana, you're gonna kill your kids."

Banning a type of product that millions of Americans use isn't very small government oriented, what the Republican Party (which Ricketts is a member of) claims to be all about. Banning THC products would be quite the opposite, it's government overreach.

I reached out to Ricketts' opponent, Independent Dan Osborn to get his thoughts on all this in an exclusive interview.

The conversation started with the famous statement that Ricketts made back in 2021.

"Yeah, strongly disagree. You know, while he was saying that on the Senate floor in Nebraska, the woman who headed up the initiative to legalize medical cannabis, her son was having a seizure on the Senate floor as he was saying that, and she's the one advocating, you know, or kind of running it, running the program because there's a medication that can help. It can help kids. It can help people with PTSD and to deny people a medication because you don't agree with it to me that doesn't make any sense," Osborn told me.

I then asked Osborn if he knows this woman and how he knows her:

"Well, I've met her on the campaign trail plenty of times. Her name's Crista Eggers, and E G G E R S. And you know, we've occupied the same room with with different events with her heading up the the ballot initiative in Nebraska, and so we we've crossed paths a few times."

Crista Eggers has been a leading advocate for medical cannabis programs in Nebraska and is the Executive Director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.

The conversation then shifted to future Congressional actions that Osborn would undertake if he were to be elected Nebraska's next Senator:

"Yeah, I would think I think it would mirror, you know, what we got passed here in Nebraska, which passed by over 71%. You know, so people came with another ballot initiative that got passed along with it to create a cannabis commission to be able to effectively regulate the industry."

Osborn highlighted the difficulties in implementing Initiative 43 to legalize medical cannabis, which passed with 71% of the vote in 2024.

"Unfortunately, you know, with Ricketts' influence and our attorney general and governor, they stacked the commission with people who are also on the alcohol board. So, they they decided just to stall the whole program against the will of the people. And regardless of whether you like the issue or don't like the issue, or against it, or for it. That's democracy in working, right? And the will of the people at the end of the day, should be paramount. But it's not, and it's frustrating."

Osborn also opposes Ricketts' THC ban in Congress, while calling for more transparency from companies that sell the product to ensure people know how many milligrams they are getting and to keep the product away from children.

"We need oversight at least around the industry to make sure if it says 10 milligrams it is 10 milligrams, not 100 milligrams so right and then you know. We obviously need the age restrictions and we need to ensure that kids aren't getting access to that type of thing. Try to do everything the the safe way. So we need to definitely guardrail the industry. But I don't believe a ban is in order," Osborn told me.

The conversation ended with me asking Osborn if he uses marijuana or knows anyone that does, telling me that he's tried it a few times, but it's "not for him."

"So I don't have much of a relationship with it, other than you know I've known some folks, but you know ultimately it is about you knowing Crista and her kid, and you know she wants to administer a medication to a child that she can't have access to, and if she does, could potentially get cited for it or even jailed, and that shouldn't exist, man. That's not America."

If Republicans really want to position themselves as the party that opposes big government, then they should take some notes out of Dan Osborn's playbook.

"The less government oversight on things, the better," Osborn declared.

You can listen to the full interview here.