South Dakota marijuana activists are ramping up for a signature gathering effort to put legalization on the 2022 ballot as the state Supreme Court continues to consider a case on the fate of the legal cannabis measure that voters approved last year.<\/p>\n
Advocates are still holding out hope that the top court will issue a positive ruling in the case. But no action was announced on Thursday\u2019s weekly decision day for the justices\u2014and because time is running short to mobilize a ballot campaign to qualify for 2022\u2014South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws is now soliciting volunteers to prepare for a massive signature collection drive on any of the four proposed legalization initiatives that the group has filed<\/a> so far in case the 2020 measure is indeed overturned.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Matthew Schweich, deputy director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which has played a leading role in coordinating reform efforts in South Dakota, told Marijuana Moment that advocates \u201cremain hopeful\u201d that the court will uphold the will of voters, but they aren\u2019t taking anything for granted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must prepare for the worst,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we are building a grassroots volunteer signature drive operation across the state in order to qualify another cannabis legalization initiative for the 2022 ballot. We need our supporters to once again donate their time and energy to ensure that the will of the people is respected in South Dakota.\u201d<\/p>\n Activists already got the ball rolling in July, filing the reform measures with the state Legislative Research Council, which is the first step toward putting the issue before voters next year.<\/p>\n The four potential initiatives share some basic provisions, but they each take a unique approach to the policy change. Activists have also filed a fifth measure to eliminate a single-subject rule for the ballot process\u2014a policy that led to a state judge deeming the 2020 recreational measure unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advocates recognize that the state\u2019s ballot laws mean that they are up against the clock to get any of the measures approved for circulation and to collect enough to qualify. And as the court contemplates the fate of the voter-approved initiative, the campaign is encouraging prospective volunteers to fill out a form<\/a> to get prepared for signature gathering.<\/p>\n Now that they\u2019ve gone through reviews by the Legislative Research Council, the initiatives must be accepted by the state attorney general and secretary of state. At that point, advocates will have until November 8 to collect at least 33,921 valid signatures for a constitutional proposal and 16,961 for a statutory measure, depending on what direction they choose to take.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what each of the four potential legalization proposals<\/a> would do:<\/strong><\/p>\n While advocates remain frustrated over the February ruling that invalidated the 2020 adult-use legalization initiative\u2014and the ongoing delay in the Supreme Court\u2019s decision on upholding or overturning that decision\u2014they\u2019re at least encouraged that the separate medical cannabis measure that voters approved<\/a> approved took effect in July.<\/p>\n Outside of South Dakota,\u00a0advocates across the county are also already working on number of state-level cannabis initiatives for 2022.<\/p>\n New Hampshire lawmakers are pursuing a new strategy to legalize marijuana in the state that involves putting a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot<\/a> for voters to decide on in 2022.<\/p>\n Lawmakers in Maryland are also crafting legislation to\u00a0place a marijuana legalization referendum on the 2022 ballot<\/a>\u00a0after the House speaker called for the move.<\/p>\n Nebraska marijuana activists announced recently that they have turned in a pair of<\/a>\u00a0complementary initiatives to legalize medical cannabis<\/a>\u00a0that they hope to place on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Ohio activists recently cleared a final hurdle to begin collecting signatures for a\u00a02022 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana<\/a>\u00a0in the state.<\/p>\n Missouri voters may see a\u00a0multiple marijuana initiatives on the state\u2019s ballot next year<\/a>, with a new group filing an adult-use legalization proposal that could compete with separate reform measures that are already in the works<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arkansas advocates are collecting signatures to\u00a0place adult-use marijuana legalization on the ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Activists in Idaho are working to advance separate measures to legalize possession of recreational marijuana and to create a system of legal medical cannabis sales. State officials recently\u00a0cleared activists to begin collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0for a revised initiative to legalize possession of marijuana that they hope to place before voters on the 2022 ballot. Meanwhile, a separate\u00a0campaign to legalize medical cannabis in the state<\/a>\u00a0is also underway, with advocates actively collecting signatures to qualify that measure for next year\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n After a House-passed bill to\u00a0legalize marijuana in North Dakota was\u00a0rejected by the Senate in March<\/a>, some senators hatched a plan to\u00a0advance the issue by referring it to voters on the 2022 ballot<\/a>. While their resolution advanced through a key committee, the full Senate blocked it. However, activists with the group\u00a0North Dakota Cannabis Caucus are collecting signatures<\/a>\u00a0to qualify a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n Oklahoma advocates\u00a0are pushing two separate initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to legalize marijuana for adult use and overhaul the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n Wyoming\u2019s attorney general recently issued ballot summaries for proposed initiatives to\u00a0legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize cannabis possession<\/a>, freeing up activists to collect signatures to qualify for the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n New Hampshire Lawmakers Take First Step To Put Marijuana Legalization On 2022 Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Marijuana Activists Gear Up For Large-Scale 2022 Legalization Ballot Push<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
South Dakota marijuana activists are ramping up for a signature gathering effort to put legalization on the 2022 ballot as the state Supreme Court continues to consider a case on the fate of the legal cannabis measure that voters approved last year. Advocates are still holding out hope that theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49978,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49977\/revisions\/49978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Constitutional Approach 1<\/h3>\n
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\nRead More: South Dakota Marijuana Activists Gear Up For Large-Scale 2022 Legalization Ballot Push<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"