South Dakota activists announced on Sunday that they will not be turning in signatures for a marijuana legalization initiative in time for an initial Monday deadline\u2014but they\u2019re not giving up, as a federal court ruling may give them until May to make the 2022 ballot.<\/p>\n
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) had wanted to turn in enough valid signatures by Monday, the state\u2019s original deadline, \u201cin order to be certain of ballot qualification.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was our preference to file by Monday in order to avoid any potential legal challenges,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n
But in August, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota ruled<\/a> that the state election law requiring that signatures for ballot initiatives be submitted one year ahead of the election was unconstitutional and enjoined officials from enforcing that rule, pushing the deadline to six months before an election.<\/p>\n It appears that the state isn\u2019t pleased with the court\u2019s ruling, however. On the secretary of state\u2019s site, there\u2019s a note<\/a> emphasizing that \u201clitigation in this case is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n While pending appeals could potentially upend cannabis activists\u2019 new plans, SDBML said that \u201cthe May 3 deadline is the law in South Dakota and we feel confident that we can rely on that extension.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been very focused on the signature drive for the last several weeks\u2014and we\u2019re going to need to remain focused on the signature drive,\u201d Matthew Schweich, director of SDBML, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n In the background, the state Supreme Court is continuing to consider a review of the constitutionality of an earlier cannabis legalization initiative that voters approved in 2020<\/a>\u00a0but which was later challenged with a lawsuit funded by the administration of Gov. Kristi Noem (R).<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had setbacks before and we overcame them. We\u2019ll do the same again,\u201d SDBML said in this weekend\u2019s Facebook post. \u201cThe work continues.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, lawmakers have been working to advance cannabis reform legislation<\/a> that they want the legislature to take up at the start of the 2022 session. The Marijuana Interim Study Committee passed the bill late last month, and now it\u2019s pending action before the Executive Board before potentially being formally introduced early next year.<\/p>\n If lawmakers pass an adult-use legalization bill, or the Supreme Court upholds the voter-approved reform initiative, Schweich said the campaign would no longer need to collect signatures for a new ballot measure.<\/p>\n As drafted, the current version of the legislation would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to an ounce of cannabis. The state Department of Revenue would be responsible for regulating the market and issuing marijuana business licenses.<\/p>\n Unlike the legalization initiatives that South Dakota voters approved last year, the draft bill would not provide a home grow option for adult consumers. Marijuana cultivation for commercial sales could only be grown indoors, too.<\/p>\n Advocates say that it\u2019s important to continue to pursue their ballot initiative for next year due to the ongoing uncertainties in the courts and legislature.<\/p>\n Schweich said there are essentially three routes that legalization could take in South Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first is that the South Dakota Supreme Court upholds or partially upholds Amendment A,\u201d he said, referring to last year\u2019s voter initiative. \u201cThe second is that the legislature passes a recreational cannabis law in the upcoming session. And the third is that the May 3 extension holds for signature drives, and if needed, we can put ourselves back on the ballot next year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m quite confident that one of those three options is going to work out for us,\u201d Schweich said. \u201cI just don\u2019t know which one it\u2019s going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n SDBML will need to collect at least 16,961 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify the statutory measure for next November\u2019s ballot. The campaign is seeking volunteers to boost the petitioning process.<\/p>\n The campaign had initially put forward\u00a0four proposed legalization initiatives<\/a> in the event of a negative ruling by the court, but they ultimately decided to pursue just one.<\/p>\n While advocates remain frustrated over a February lower court ruling that invalidated last year\u2019s adult-use legalization initiative\u2014and the ongoing delay in the Supreme Court\u2019s decision on upholding or overturning that decision\u2014they\u2019ve been encouraged that the\u00a0separate medical cannabis measure that voters approved<\/a>\u00a0approved took effect in July.<\/p>\n The draft legalization bill that recently passed in committee originally contained provisions that would have significantly undercut the medical program by making it so only those under 21 could qualify while steering adults toward the recreational market. But the panel agreed to scrap those provisions.<\/p>\n Bill On Studying Marijuana From Dispensaries Heads To Biden\u2019s Desk After Congressional Passage<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer. <\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Marijuana Activists Delay Legalization Signature Delivery After Missing Initial Deadline<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
South Dakota activists announced on Sunday that they will not be turning in signatures for a marijuana legalization initiative in time for an initial Monday deadline\u2014but they\u2019re not giving up, as a federal court ruling may give them until May to make the 2022 ballot. South Dakotans for Better MarijuanaContinue 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\/51028"}],"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=51028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51029,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51028\/revisions\/51029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: South Dakota Marijuana Activists Delay Legalization Signature Delivery After Missing Initial Deadline<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"