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A bill to legalize marijuana in South Dakota was approved in a Senate committee on Thursday, sending it to the floor. And a separate panel advanced legislation earlier in the week to set up a tax scheme for an adult-use cannabis market if legalization is enacted.<\/p>\n
These developments come as activists continue to explore ways to end prohibition legislatively or through the ballot. South Dakota voters already approved legalization during the 2020 election, but the reform was struck down by the state Supreme Court<\/a> following a challenge from the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Now the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee has passed SB 3<\/a> in a 5-3 vote. Sponsored by Sen. Michael Rohl (R), the bill as amended would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to two ounces of cannabis from licensed retailers.<\/p>\n\n The original bill set a possession limit of four ounces for adults, but the sponsor filed a committee amendment to cut that in half.<\/p>\n The state Department of Revenue would be responsible for regulating the adult-use program and promulgate rules related to issues such as transportation and registration.<\/p>\n Local municipalities would be able to opt out of allowing marijuana businesses within their jurisdiction.<\/p>\n The bill also stipulates that nobody with a felony conviction could hold a cannabis business license\u2014a provision likely to be contested by reform advocates.<\/p>\n A Marijuana Interim Study Committee, headed by legislative leaders, was established last year to explore the issue, and the panel ultimately recommended that the legislature take up legalization this session<\/a>. This legislation is one of the direct products of that recommendation.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the South Dakota House Taxation Committee separately approved a bill<\/a> on Tuesday to establish a tax policy if recreational marijuana becomes legal, setting an overall 15 percent tax on cannabis just as was prescribed under the voter-approved 2020 initiative.<\/p>\n \u2014 Activists welcome the opportunity to work with the legislature to develop a framework to regulate adult-use marijuana, but they\u2019re also keeping their options open.<\/p>\n South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) is actively collecting signatures to place legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a> as lawmakers navigate the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were pleased to see Senate Bill 3 pass through the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee today,\u201d Matthew Schweich, campaign director of SDBML, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cThe voters of South Dakota clearly support an adult-use cannabis legalization law, as evidenced by the passage of Amendment A in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA coalition of advocates, including South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Law, New Approach South Dakota, and the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota, are working very hard to pass a legalization bill through the Legislature so that we do not need to run a second ballot initiative this November,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, if necessary, we are fully prepared to win another campaign. Our signature drive is active and making steady progress.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign\u2019s 2020 success at the ballot was overruled by the state Supreme Court as a result of a legal challenge funded by Gov. Kristi Noem\u2019s (R) administration. The court ruled that the measure violated a single-subject rule for ballot initiatives.<\/p>\n Noem\u2019s office also recently suggested that the activists behind that voter-approved initiative should pay the legal fees of the lawsuit<\/a> that invalidated the will of voters\u2014a proposal that the campaign called \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n While a recent poll found that most South Dakota voters approve of Noem\u2019s job performance overall,\u00a0just 39 percent approve of her handling of marijuana legalization<\/a>, with 51 percent disapproving. The governor is up for reelection this year.<\/p>\n Noem has consistently faced criticism from advocates and stakeholders over her early opposition to cannabis reform.<\/p>\n She released an ad ahead of last year\u2019s election\u00a0urging residents to vote against the legalization initiative<\/a>\u00a0that ultimately passed, 54-46 percent.<\/p>\n Lately, however, the governor seems committed to associating herself with the implementation of a separate medical cannabis legalization initiative that voters also overwhelmingly approved last year, despite having opposed the proposal in the run-up to the election.<\/p>\n After regulators approved rules for the medical marijuana program in September, Noem said her administration \u201cis fully on board to make certain South Dakota continues to implement the most responsible, patient-focused medical cannabis program in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Noem tried to get the legislature to\u00a0approve a bill to delay implementation<\/a>\u00a0of the medical cannabis program for an additional year, but while it cleared the House, negotiators were unable to reach an agreement with the Senate in conference, delivering a defeat to the governor.<\/p>\n In response,\u00a0her office started exploring a compromise last year<\/a>, with one proposal that came out of her administration to decriminalize possession of up to one ounce of cannabis, limit the number of plants that patients could cultivate to three and prohibit people under 21 from qualifying for medical marijuana.<\/p>\n DEA Faces Challenge To Proposed Psychedelics Ban In Its Own Administrative Court<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Legalization And Taxation Bills In Committee<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A bill to legalize marijuana in South Dakota was approved in a Senate committee on Thursday, sending it to the floor. And a separate panel advanced legislation earlier in the week to set up a tax scheme for an adult-use cannabis market if legalization is enacted. These developments come asContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":53019,"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\/53018"}],"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=53018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53020,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53018\/revisions\/53020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: South Dakota Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Legalization And Taxation Bills In Committee<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"