Petition deadline for South Dakota’s legalization campaign is approaching

The clock is ticking for a group of South Dakota activists to come up with a legalization proposal for this year’s vote.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana, the group leading efforts to get the initiative on the ballot, said Wednesday that more than 3,000 signatures weren’t where they needed to be.

The deadline for submitting the petition to the South Dakota Secretary of State is May 3rd.

“Our conservative estimate right now is that we’re at 13,500 valid signatures and we need 17,000 valid signatures,” Matthew Schweich, the campaign director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, told local television station KELO.

“We’re a little nervous, we’re within striking distance of collecting enough valid signatures and qualifying for voting, but we really don’t want to take any chances,” added Schweich.

The campaign is also an attempt to avenge last year’s legislative decisions that reversed Amendment A, the constitutional amendment passed by a majority of South Dakota voters in 2020 that legalized adult recreational marijuana use.

Republican state Gov. Kristi Noem has been strongly opposed to the change from the start and took the measure to court last year.

A South Dakota district judge ruled in favor of Noem, saying the amendment violated the state’s constitution.

In November, the day before Thanksgiving, the state Supreme Court upheld that lower court ruling, ruling that Amendment A violated the Constitution’s one-issue requirement for amendments.

Noem, a possible 2024 GOP presidential nominee, celebrated the result.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” Noem said in a statement following the decision. “We do things right – and how we do things is just as important as what we do. We are still subject to the rule of law. This decision does not affect my government’s implementation of the medical cannabis program, which was approved by voters in 2020. This program launched earlier this month and the first cards have already been mailed to eligible South Dakotans.”

However, South Dakota voters have not celebrated Noem’s approach to cannabis policy.

A poll late last year found that just 39% of Mount Rushmore state voters approve of their approach to cannabis legalization, while 17.8% said they somewhat disapproved and 33.4% said they strongly opposed it .

Activists like Schweich hope these numbers bode well for this November, not to mention the passage of Amendment A in 2020.

But the lengthy and messy legal challenge that followed previous legalization efforts appears to have angered some South Dakota voters on the issue.

“South Dakota is fed up, we’re all weary,” said Melissa Mentele, an activist involved in the legalization campaign, as quoted by KELO. “It’s not the issue that people are exhausted with, they are exhausted with the process of voting, and it doesn’t matter.”

“It’s the biggest thing we’ve come across. It’s not, I already signed that, it’s why should I sign that because it doesn’t matter,” Mentele added.

As KELO reports, “Schweich says this signature drive is intended to bring a legislative initiative to a vote that is a very simplified, abbreviated version of Amendment A.”

“I would call it legalization for individuals,” said Schweich, as quoted by the broadcaster. “It makes it legal for an adult 21 and over to own up to an ounce, grow up to three plants at home, and it reduces three personal penalties related to how you grow them.”

Lawmakers in South Dakota tried to forestall the ballot initiative by passing their own legalization bill this year, but efforts fell flat.