South Dakota Senate clears cannabis legalization and deletion bills

By Jelena Martinovic

The South Dakota Senate gave the green light to bills legalizing and taxing marijuana and allowing demerits for petty cannabis offenses, Marijuana Moment reported.

Sponsored by Sen. Michael Rohl (R), the Legislature advanced SB 3 by a vote of 18 to 17 late Wednesday. The measure was approved by the Trade and Energy Committees last week and is now headed to the House of Representatives.

Photo by Bet_Noire/Getty Images

What is inside

Once the law goes into effect, the law would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis from licensed retailers.

The proposal would not allow home-growing, which was based on a voting measure campaigners have been collecting signatures for.

South Dakota voters approved legalization during the 2020 election. However, the reform was nullified by the state Supreme Court following a challenge by the government of Gov. Kristi Noem (R).

According to District Judge Christina Klinger’s ruling last February, which the Supreme Court upheld, the initiative violated the requirement that constitutional amendments be single-issue.

Under the new proposal, the state adult use program would be regulated by the state Treasury Department, which will also enact rules related to issues such as transportation and registration.

RELATED: South Dakota’s Supreme Strikes Recreational Cannabis Vote, Overturns People’s Will

Local municipalities, on the other hand, might choose to allow cannabis businesses in their jurisdictions. Additionally, individuals with a prior felony conviction would not be permitted to hold a cannabis business license.

The licensing provisions of a separate bill, SB 150, which would only go into effect if voters voted to approve legalization, would ensure that only existing companies that currently hold liquor licenses would be permitted to enter the marijuana market.

Photo by powerofforever/Getty Images

“While we prefer the framework of SB 3, we were very pleased that both SB 3 and SB 150 passed the Senate today,” Matthew Schweich, director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML), told Marijuana Moment . “We are now one step closer to a compromise and passage of a legalization bill by the legislature in this session.”

Deletion & Tax Invoices

Another measure allowing automatic deletions five years after a person’s conviction for minor marijuana offenses was also pushed by the Senate on Wednesday.

In addition, a Senate bill was also passed that was poised to establish a tax regime for a regulated marijuana market. The vote scheduled after the legalization and deletion measures were initially delayed by the member’s request to reconsider approval of SB 3. However, the legislature did not insist on pushing for a new vote.

RELATED: Kentucky lawmakers are filing bills to legalize the sale of adult-use cannabis and… lead the market?

The measure provides for a 15% excise tax on marijuana products, with proceeds going to a cannabis fund that would be approved “through the normal budget process,” the text of the bill reads.

Recreational cannabis is still taboo

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a bill that would establish tax policy if recreational marijuana becomes legal. The bill, which would impose a 15 percent overall tax on cannabis, was mandated as part of the 2020 voter-approved initiative passed by the South Dakota House Taxation Committee last week.

Despite this setback, activists stress optimistically that the passage of SB 3 is more important for the passage of the broader reform.

Noem told reporters last week that she “has never supported recreational marijuana,” but it’s a “debate that the people of South Dakota are having.”

“There are recreational laws here in the legislature that could be improved,” she said. “We’ll talk about that.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.