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The South Dakota Senate on Wednesday approved bills to legalize marijuana in the state, set up a regulatory infrastructure for sales if voters approve a reform initiative at the ballot and provide for expungements for low-level cannabis offenses.<\/p>\n
These actions follow a Tuesday House vote to defeat a separate measure meant to set up a tax model and other regulations for the market.<\/p>\n
These developments also 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>\u00a0following a challenge from the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Now, the Senate has advanced SB 3<\/a> in a 18-17 vote. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Michael Rohl (R), cleared the Commerce and Energy Committee<\/a> last week and will now advance to the House. It would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis from licensed retailers.<\/p>\n Home cultivation would not be permitted, however, unlike under a ballot measure that activists have been collecting signatures for.<\/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 \u2014 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\u00a0take up legalization this session<\/a>. This legislation is one of the direct products of that recommendation.<\/p>\n Prior to the vote on that measure, the chamber approved a separate bill, SB 150<\/a>, which would take affect only if voters approve legalization at the ballot. The licensing provisions of the measure would make it so only existing business that currently hold liquor licenses would be eligible to enter the marijuana market. That would include places like gas stations, grocery stores and bars, according<\/a> to The Argus Leader.<\/p>\n Another bill<\/a> to allow for automatic expungements five years after a person\u2019s conviction for a low-level marijuana offenses also passed the Senate on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the House rejected a separate bill<\/a> on Tuesday that would have established a tax policy if recreational marijuana became legal, setting an overall 15 percent tax on cannabis just as was prescribed under the voter-approved 2020 initiative. The South Dakota House Taxation Committee had approved the legislation last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Activists viewed that defeat as a setback, but clarified that the measure itself would not have legalized adult-use cannabis. What\u2019s most important, they say, is passing SB 3 to enact the broader reform.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0place legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a>\u00a0as lawmakers navigate the issue.<\/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\u00a0should pay the legal fees of the lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0that invalidated the will of voters\u2014a proposal that the campaign called \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Noem told reporters that she\u2019s \u201cnever been supportive of recreational marijuana\u201d but it\u2019s a \u201cdebate that people in South Dakota are having.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s recreational bills here in the legislature that could be improved,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about that.\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 Maryland House Debates Bill To Put Marijuana Legalization Referendum On November Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Senate Approves Marijuana Legalization And Expungements Bills, While House Defeats Tax Measure<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The South Dakota Senate on Wednesday approved bills to legalize marijuana in the state, set up a regulatory infrastructure for sales if voters approve a reform initiative at the ballot and provide for expungements for low-level cannabis offenses. These actions follow a Tuesday House vote to defeat a separate measureContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":53134,"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\/53133"}],"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=53133"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53135,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53133\/revisions\/53135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: South Dakota Senate Approves Marijuana Legalization And Expungements Bills, While House Defeats Tax Measure<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"