South Dakota Pot Legalization Initiative qualifies for November election

South Dakota’s Secretary of State announced Wednesday that a ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis garnered enough verified signatures to qualify for November’s elections, giving the state’s voters another chance to vote for recreational cannabis in the state legalize the ballot box. Secretary of State Steve Barnett also announced that the proposal, sponsored by the group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML), will be titled Initiated Measure 27 for this year’s general election.

The Office of the Secretary of State reported that the SDBML campaign collected a total of 31,588 signatures. Analysis of a random sample of signatures found that approximately 79.2% were validated as coming from registered South Dakota voters. According to the results of the sample, 25,023 signatures from state officials were found to be valid, far more than the current 16,961 signatures required for a measure to qualify for voting.

“We are extremely pleased to have qualified for the vote and are extremely grateful to everyone who signed our petitions, our volunteers, our staff and our supporters,” SDBML Director Matthew Schweich told Argus Leader. “We look forward to taking part in the elections in November and we are confident that we can win again and restore the will of the people [S]out the Dakota.”

Under the proposal, adults 21 and older would be allowed to own and purchase up to one ounce of weed and grow up to three cannabis plants at home. Public consumption, cultivation of more than three plants, and some other cannabis-related activities would still be against the law, but violators would only face civil penalties for such offenses.

Successful voting action for 2020 put down in South Dakota

A broader voting measure, Amendment A, was passed by 54% of South Dakota voters in 2020. After legal challenges supported by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, an opponent of recreational cannabis legalization, the voting measure was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

Contrary to Amendment A, the initiated measure 27 does not seek to create a regulatory framework for the commercial cultivation, manufacture and sale of cannabis or to levy a tax on the cannabis industry. Instead, this year’s ballot measure legalizes the possession and purchase of cannabis, leaving the details to state legislatures. Activists hope the more than 8,000 additional signatures collected will help dissuade opponents from filing new lawsuits to stop legalization.

“One of the main reasons we kept such ambitious goals for our signature drive was to make sure we had a healthy margin so we could deter our opponents from filing a lawsuit,” Schweich said. “This was the plan to have that buffer and ensure there were no more lawsuits about cannabis initiatives in South Dakota.”

But efforts to legalize recreational cannabis in South Dakota face a new challenge from a proposal on the ballot for next month’s primary. Under Amendment C, future voting measures would require 60% of the vote to pass if they passed a tax or required $10 million or more in government funding in any of the first five years after passage. If Amendment C is accepted by voters in the June primary, it would go into effect before the November general election. The effects on the initiated measure 27 are unclear.

“We must defeat Amendment C on June 7,” Schweich said. “Amendment C is a shameful and cowardly attack on the constitutional suffrage initiatives of the people of South Dakota. This complicated proposal, created by politicians in [the South Dakota capital of] Pierre, has the potential to paralyze the initiative process and could even be used to undermine our cannabis legalization move in 2022. We can’t get away with politics with that.”