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WAHOO, Neb. — Gov. Pete Ricketts says he’s never smoked marijuana despite having friends in college who did, and he sees danger in legalizing its use as medicine.

“I never had the desire to smoke marijuana. I never thought it was the cool thing to do,” Ricketts said.

The 54-year-old governor, a married father of three who attended college in Chicago, has issued statements in opposition to a legislative bill that would legalize cannabis for medical uses.

When asked about his views last week after a town hall meeting in Wahoo, Ricketts said he’s looked at the data, and sees concerns, particularly in the lack of medical evidence that medicinal marijuana works.

“There’s no major medical organization that says smoking marijuana is any way to deliver (health) benefits,” he said.

Cannabis, Ricketts said, should go through the same approval process at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as other medications. Without FDA approval, he said, how do you know if there are risks and side effects and, if it works, what dosage works best? Ricketts added that the FDA has approved some synthetic forms of cannabis to treat seizures and other maladies.