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South Dakota activists are \u201cextremely confident\u201d they\u2019ve collected more than enough signatures to qualify a marijuana legalization initiative for the state\u2019s November ballot.<\/p>\n
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) will deliver the signatures to the secretary of state\u2019s office on the turn-in deadline on Tuesday, the campaign announced on Monday.<\/p>\n
For months it\u2019s been unclear if the grassroots efforts would be able reach the signature threshold for ballot placement<\/a>, as national industry and philanthropic financial support has been negligible this cycle. But the campaign pushed forward and, its leaders are predicting, prevailed.<\/p>\n Matthew Schweich, executive director of SDBML, told Marijuana Moment on Monday that the campaign is \u201cextremely confident that we have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.\u201d That confidence is based on a \u201crigorous\u201d internal validation system they\u2019ve employed in the lead-up to the submission.<\/p>\n This marks the campaign\u2019s third attempt to get the reform enacted at the ballot.<\/p>\n Voters did approve a legalization initiative in 2020, but it later was invalidated by the state Supreme Court over single-subject concerns. The campaign\u2019s\u00a0second initiative in 2022 was rejected by voters<\/a>. A separate medical cannabis initiative that was also approved by voters in 2020 was not challenged and remains state law.<\/p>\n Part of what made this latest legalization push different is the fact that \u201cevery penny of the budget for the signature drive came from within South Dakota, with almost all of it coming from members of the medical cannabis community,\u201d Schweich said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt tells me that almost every member of the medical cannabis industry in South Dakota recognizes that now\u2019s the time to move forward recreational legalization,\u201d he said. \u201cThey understand that waiting until 2026 is a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re certainly going to need to explain to voters that this is a separate initiative,\u201d Schweich said. \u201cI think that of all the states that have passed recreational legalization, there\u2019s no state with a more interesting or turbulent or complicated path.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the possibility of an opposition campaign from Gov. Kristi Noem (R), the controversial governor who\u2019s made headlines this past week after disclosing that she fatally shot her 14-month-old puppy that she claimed posed a safety risk, Schweich said: \u201cBring it on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s welcome to come fight us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid of the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n In December,\u00a0the secretary of state\u2019s office approved a circulator handout<\/a>\u00a0submitted by SDBML, a requirement that has allowed the campaign to deploy paid canvassers to gather signatures along with its grassroots network of volunteers who have been distributing petitions.<\/p>\n The campaign material\u00a0simply features\u00a0the state attorney general\u2019s title and explanation of the ballot measure<\/a>, which was finalized in August.<\/p>\n If activists do secure ballot placement this year, they will still need to win over voters who rejected legalization in the last election.<\/p>\n Ahead of that election, a poll found that 51 percent of South Dakotans\u00a0planned to vote against the legalization measure<\/a>, while 40 percent said they\u2019d be supporting it and 10 percent remained undecided. That was\u00a0the third poll in a row<\/a>\u00a0showing the legalization measure behind<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0a separate proposed 2024 legalization ballot measure<\/a>, sponsored by Rapid City resident Emmett Reistroffer, also received its final ballot explanation from the state attorney general. That initiative would legalize adult-use possession and cultivation of cannabis, while allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to serve adult consumers. That said, the chief backer of the proposal said he had no plans to collect signatures or campaign for the change.<\/p>\n Separately, opponents of legalization filed two other proposed ballot measures<\/a>\u00a0to tighten drug laws in the state.\u00a0One would repeal the state\u2019s medical marijuana law, while the other would keep federally banned substances from ever being legalized by voters.<\/p>\n The state attorney general\u00a0finalized the ballot explanation for the medical marijuana repeal measure<\/a>\u00a0last August. But SDBML\u00a0has said the initiative should be thrown out<\/a>\u00a0due to an alleged error in how the proposal was filed, failing to include a full list of the state statutes it would seek to undo.<\/p>\n After voters approved medical cannabis legalization in 2020, the governor tried to get the legislature to approve a bill to delay implementation<\/a>\u00a0for an additional year. But while it cleared the House, negotiators were unable to reach an agreement with the Senate in conference, dealing a defeat to the governor.<\/p>\n In response,\u00a0Noem\u2019s office started exploring a compromise<\/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 In the 2022 legislative session, the House\u00a0rejected a legalization bill that the Senate had passed<\/a>, effectively leaving it up to activists to get on the ballot again.<\/p>\n A Marijuana Interim Study Committee, headed by legislative leaders, was established to explore cannabis policy reform, and the panel in November 2021 recommended that the legislature\u00a0take up legalization<\/a>. The House-defeated legislation was one of the direct products of that recommendation.<\/p>\n \u2014 The governor separately signed a bill into law in February that will require patients to check off a box on medical marijuana card applications affirming that they\u2019re aware that federal law prohibits cannabis consumers from buying and possessing firearms<\/a>.<\/p>\n Currently\u00a0more than 11,500 people in South Dakota hold medical marijuana cards<\/a>\u2014nearly double the 6,000 cardholders that state officials expected to enroll in the program by 2024.<\/p>\n Massachusetts Joint Committee Urges Lawmakers Not To Pass Psychedelics Legalization Initiative, Teeing Up Final Push For Ballot Placement<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis \/\/ Side Pocket Images.<\/em><\/p>\n The post South Dakota Marijuana Activists \u2018Extremely Confident\u2019 They\u2019ll Turn In Enough Signatures To Put Legalization Initiative On Ballot This Week<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
South Dakota activists are \u201cextremely confident\u201d they\u2019ve collected more than enough signatures to qualify a marijuana legalization initiative for the state\u2019s November ballot. South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) will deliver the signatures to the secretary of state\u2019s office on the turn-in deadline on Tuesday, the campaign announced onContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":74995,"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\/74994"}],"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=74994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74996,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74994\/revisions\/74996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: South Dakota Marijuana Activists \u2018Extremely Confident\u2019 They\u2019ll Turn In Enough Signatures To Put Legalization Initiative On Ballot This Week<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"