South Dakota legislators push law toward legalization

A bill legalizing adult recreational cannabis narrowly advanced in the South Dakota legislature last week, passing the Senate by a single vote. The legislation would bring some relief to lawyers who have been in a tug-of-war with the state for the past two years to end the ban and finally start making legal sales in the state.

In 2020, 54 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment A, which would have legalized recreational marijuana alongside hemp and medicinal cannabis within the state. (That same year, an even larger majority of voters passed a separate ballot measure that legalized only medical marijuana.)

But from that moment it was doomed to fail, as Republican Gov. Kristi Noem launched a legal challenge to the change.

In February last year, a South Dakota district judge ruled in favor of Noem, saying that Amendment A violated the state’s constitution and could not go into effect.

Months later, the day before Thanksgiving, the state Supreme Court upheld that lower court ruling, arguing that the amendment violated the Constitution’s “one subject” requirement.

Undeterred, supporters said in the fall they intend to put another legalization proposal on the 2022 vote, prompting the GOP-controlled state Senate to push its own measure.

“This is your opportunity to take matters into your own hands,” said one of the bill’s backers, Republican State Senator David Wheeler, as quoted by the Associated Press. “This bill is your opportunity to do what the people said in Amendment A.”

“The marijuana train is one-way nationwide,” he added. “It’s better if we anticipate.”

The law, passed by the Senate on Wednesday, would allow adults age 21 and older to have up to one ounce of marijuana in their possession. In addition, lawmakers in the chamber on Wednesday passed a series of bills “to establish retail licenses in the same way they license liquor establishments, and to automatically establish misdemeanors and minor offenses for use or possession of cannabis that is more than five, years old to remove from background check records,” according to the Associated Press.

Despite its passage through the State Senate, the bill still has a long, difficult road ahead of it before final approval.

Leaders in the state House of Representatives, where Republicans also hold a large majority, have indicated the bill will face stiff opposition in their chamber.

“That was not very favorable in the House of Representatives,” House Majority Leader Kent Peterson said Thursday, as quoted by local television station KELO. “I would assume this is going to have a decently tough road ahead.”

And then there’s Noem, a potential GOP presidential nominee for 2024, who has long been vocal against the legalization of recreational cannabis.

At a news conference on Wednesday, the governor didn’t say whether she would veto the bill if it ended up on her desk, but reiterated that she opposes recreational marijuana use.

“I haven’t seen anyone get smarter from smoking dope,” Noem said, as quoted by Dakota News Now.

A poll late last year found that just over half of South Dakota voters disapprove of Noem’s handling of cannabis legalization.