It’s déjà vu all over again for the South Dakota cannabis legalization movement. Yesterday, May 3, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) turned in over 19,000 signatures to put recreational cannabis on the state ballot…again.In a remarkable turn of events, South Dakota will be forced to re-do an entire legalization campaign, thanks to the state’s anti-pot—and anti-democratic—governor, Kristi Noem (R), and the state’s GOP-led Supreme Court. In 2020, South Dakota passed legalization by a vote of 54-46 (and simultaneously passed medical marijuana by a margin of 70-30). But Governor Noem, a staunch prohibitionist, used state funds to facilitate a lawsuit against Amendment A, the legalization ballot measure. The state Supreme Court supported the lawsuit, and killed Amendment A in November on the absurd grounds that it covered several subjects, and not just one (GOP lawmakers and judges have used similar arguments against marijuana voter initiatives in Nebraska, Florida, and Mississippi).“Governor Noem is similar to most other politicians in South Dakota in that she does not think voters are capable of making their own decisions about matters of public policy,” campaign director Matt Schweich told Leafly. “In my opinion, she’s wrong.”
Max Savage Levenson, Leafly, 05/04/2022 14:45:00