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South Dakota activists turned in what they say are more than enough valid signatures to place a marijuana legalization initiative on the state\u2019s November ballot.<\/p>\n
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) submitted petitions to the secretary of state\u2019s office on Tuesday, the submission deadline, just weeks after sounding the alarm about potentially coming up short<\/a> as the deadline approached.<\/p>\n A final push in cities across the state apparently proved fruitful, with advocates making up the deficit and then some. The campaign independently verified about 19,250 signatures; they need 16,961 valid submissions to qualify.<\/p>\n Matthew Schweich, campaign director of SDBML, told Marijuana Moment that the \u201cfurious final push\u201d to collect the remaining signatures this past month delivered results and they\u2019re confident that the state will clear the measure for the ballot following its review. The secretary of state\u2019s office is expected to make a determination about the signature validity within weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very proud to submit these petitions, and we are extremely thankful to the voters who added their signatures and to the volunteers who helped us finish this petition drive,\u201d Schweich said separately in a press release. \u201cThis campaign was a statewide grassroots effort that involved thousands of South Dakotans.\u201d<\/p>\n South Dakota voters already approved legalization during the 2020 election, but the reform was\u00a0struck down by the state Supreme Court<\/a> following a challenge supported by the governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Following the court ruling, activists decided to take a two-track approach to the policy change in 2022, both working with legislators for a legislative reform while separately collecting signatures for the ballot initiative if lawmakers failed to act.<\/p>\n While they would have preferred lawmakers to enact the policy change, that did not pan out this session. The House\u00a0rejected a Senate-passed legalization bill<\/a> in March, effectively leaving it up to activists to get on the ballot again.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the campaign\u2019s marijuana legalization ballot\u00a0initiative<\/a>\u00a0would accomplish:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The measure would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to an ounce of cannabis. They could also grow up to three plants for personal use.<\/p>\n It also lays out civil penalties for violating provisions related to issues such as public consumption or growing more plants than permitted.<\/p>\n Employers would specifically be allowed to continue enforcing workplace drug policy prohibiting cannabis use by workers.<\/p>\n State and local governments could continue to ban marijuana activities made legal under the initiative in buildings \u201cowned, leased, or occupied\u201d by a governmental body.<\/p>\n The measure does not touch on regulatory policies concerning taxing cannabis sales, licensing or equity.<\/p>\n \nSDBML\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 \u201cOver the course of this signature drive, our staff had conversations with thousands of South Dakotans from all across the state. Based on our experience, a substantial number of the people who signed our petitions did so primarily because they believe the ballot initiative process must be respected by politicians,\u201d Schweich said. \u201cThis petition drive was bigger than just cannabis\u2014it was an opportunity to restore the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, the campaign will now be focusing efforts on defeating a separate constitutional initiative, Amendment C, that would require at least 60 percent of voters to approve a ballot measure, instead of a simple majority. The proposal was placed on the state\u2019s June 7 ballot by an act of the legislature.<\/p>\n Schweich called the proposal a \u201cdisgraceful sneak attack on the constitutional ballot initiative rights of the people of South Dakota.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlacing this type of constitutional amendment on a primary ballot is completely indefensible,\u201d he said. \u201cFurthermore, the nature of this constitutional amendment is deeply problematic as it will expose the initiative process to increased ligation that could in the end cripple it.\u201d<\/p>\n A Marijuana Interim Study Committee, headed by legislative leaders, was established last year to explore cannabis policy reform, and the panel ultimately recommended that the legislature\u00a0take up legalization this session<\/a>. The House-defeated legislation was one of the direct products of that recommendation.<\/p>\n \u2014 Even if the legislature had enacted the bill,\u00a0 however, the governor would have likely posed a threat. She\u00a0declined to rule out vetoing the legalization legislation<\/a>\u00a0on the day it passed the Senate in February. She also confusingly questioned voter support for the reform despite the fact that they approved it at the polls two years ago.<\/p>\n Noem\u2019s office also recently suggested that the activists behind that voter-approved initiative\u00a0should pay the administration\u2019s legal fees of the lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0that 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 More recently, however, the governor seems to be trying to associate herself with the implementation of a separate medical cannabis legalization initiative that voters also overwhelmingly approved in 2020, 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 New Jersey Lawmakers File Bills To Restrict Marijuana Use By Police And Other Workers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Activists Turn In Signatures To Put Marijuana Legalization On The Ballot<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
South Dakota activists turned in what they say are more than enough valid signatures to place a marijuana legalization initiative on the state\u2019s November ballot. South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) submitted petitions to the secretary of state\u2019s office on Tuesday, the submission deadline, just weeks after sounding theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":54596,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595"}],"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=54595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54597,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54595\/revisions\/54597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: South Dakota Activists Turn In Signatures To Put Marijuana Legalization On The Ballot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"