SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – On Tuesday, it was announced that in November, South Dakota might once again have the chance to legalize marijuana in South Dakota for adults 21 and over.
The group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws submitted petitions containing over 29,000 signatures in support of that ballot initiative, which failed in the 2022 election.
Matthew Schweich is still the director of the group hoping to make cannabis legal for all adults, not just those with state approval to use it for medicine, and he appeared confident that the third consecutive attempt in a state election for this to cross the finish line will be the charm.
”I think to a large extent the debate has been had in South Dakota. Voters have heard from both sides for a number of years,” Schweich explained.
In 2020, South Dakotans voted 54 percent in favor of recreational marijuana, but Governor Kristi Noem led the charge to declare the amendment unconstitutional, which the state’s Supreme Court upheld.
Two years later, a new measure was defeated. Schweich chalked that up to a 20 percent lower voter turnout in 2022.
”We believe that when more voters participate in the decision, that better reflects the will of the people,” Schweich said.
Jim Kinyon is the chairman of Protecting South Dakota Kids, a nonprofit group once again opposing a legal cannabis amendment.
“We’ve pretty clearly indicated this is not what we want as a state, but again, the industry has a motive, and an intention, and it seems to be contrary to the well-being of our state, our communities, our kids, and our public safety,” Kinyon expressed.
The motivation for making marijuana legal for all, Kinyon claims, is purely financial.
”It will not make us healthy, wealthy or wise. This drug will not do that. So, to keep presenting that’s what the objective of this industry is, is a joke. They’re after our money,” Kinyon said.
Medical marijuana has been sold legally in South Dakota for almost two years, and at least a couple of dispensary owners have told us it has not been profitable. Legal recreational cannabis would open doors for these same dispensaries to sell to a much larger market.
This is not what we want. This is not the public will. Obviously, there are segments of our country in communities like Denver, in Seattle, in California, and Washington, DC, that are dealing with the toxic aftermath of this horrible decision that they’ve done to their own state,” Kinton said.
Twenty-four states have legalized recreational marijuana. Schweich says that if the claims of endangering kids and public safety were true, those states would have repealed those laws. None have.
“So, they’re welcome to go ahead with their sensationalist, over-the-top, doom-and-gloom tactics. We’re going to stick with the facts and we’re really going to focus moreso on what type of electorate is going to show up, what we can do to shape that electorate,” Schweich said.
This all comes on the heels of last week’s news that the DEA is moving to reclassify marijuana as a far less dangerous drug than it is considered now — from the same class as heroin, to on par with substances like aspirin and codeine.
Attorney General Marty Jackley confirmed to Dakota News Now that this would not make any impact on the way South Dakota’s marijuana laws are enforced.
What would, Jackley says, is voters in November approving the legalization of recreational marijuana.
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