WTF: South Dakota will vote to legalize weed again this November

It’s déjà vu again for the cannabis legalization movement in South Dakota. Yesterday, May 3, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) filed over 19,000 signatures to put recreational cannabis back on the state vote.

In a remarkable turn of events, South Dakota will be forced to repeat an entire legalization campaign, thanks to the state’s anti-Pot and anti-Democrat Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and the GOP-led state Supreme Court.

In 2020, South Dakota passed legalization by a 54-46 vote (while also passed medical marijuana by a 70-30 majority). But Governor Noem, a staunch Prohibitionist, used state resources to facilitate a lawsuit against Amendment A, the legalization vote measure. The state Supreme Court upheld the lawsuit, ending Amendment A in November on the absurd grounds that it addressed multiple issues, not just one (GOP lawmakers and judges have made similar arguments against marijuana ballots in Nebraska, Florida, and Mississippi).

“Governor Noem is like most other politicians in South Dakota in that she doesn’t believe voters are empowered to make their own decisions about public policy matters,” campaign manager Matt Schweich told Leafly. “I think she’s wrong.”

Details of South Dakota’s legalization initiative

South Dakota’s 2022 initiative is very different from the 2020 Amendment A. It contains no language related to the regulation, licensing, or taxation of a cannabis market for adult use. Instead, it emphasizes the civil liberties of residents: it legalizes personal possessions, restricts self-cultivation, and reduces the associated criminal penalties.

“A lot of people were motivated to sign that [2022] Petition — not specifically because they support cannabis legalization — but because of their belief in the electoral process,” Schweich said.

“A woman in Rapid City signed it. She looked me in the eye and said, “I’m going to vote against in November, but I just find it outrageous that they overturned what voters decided,” he added.

Schweich expects South Dakota Secretary of State Steve Barnett (R) to officially sign the initiative in the next few weeks once his office has counted and validated the signatures. Then the campaign officially begins.

“It won’t necessarily be easy to pass this initiative,” Schweich told Leafly. “We have to run a strong campaign.”

South Dakota Republicans plan to thwart legalization

Unfortunately, Noem’s war on Pot is part of a larger anti-democratic trend in South Dakota. This June, residents will vote on a Republican-led constitutional initiative, Amendment C. If passed, any citizen-led ballot measure or constitutional amendment would need to win 60% of the vote to become law, rather than a simple majority.

Schweich noted that his campaign is similarly focused on thwarting Amendment C, although that doesn’t apply directly to the recreational cannabis initiative. “We will defend ourselves tooth and nail,” he said.

Schweich also pointed out that the court delayed their decision by almost seven months. This has hampered activists’ ability to effectively rewrite their initiative. “Not only [the state Supreme Court] erase what voters passed in 2020, but they meddled in 2022 as well. You wronged two separate elections,” said Schweich.

Meanwhile, the state’s first medical dispensaries are likely to open later this year. At least that’s something to celebrate.

Stay tuned for more information on South Dakota’s legal cannabis vote. Learn more about South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws here.

Max Savage Levenson

Max Savage Levenson probably has the lowest cannabis tolerance of any author on the cannabis beat. He also writes about music for Pitchfork, Bandcamp and other bespectacled people. He is the co-host of the Hash podcast. His dream interview is Tyler the Creator.

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