Advocates in South Dakota recently turned in a batch of signatures to get their adult-use cannabis initiative on the ballot in November.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) collected 29,030 signatures and submitted them on May 7, which was the deadline set by the Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office. Out of that amount, 17,508 must be verified in order for the initiative to appear on the ballot. “Today is the culmination of seven months of hard work by advocates and volunteers across South Dakota,” said SDBML executive director Matthew Schweich. “We are very confident that we have collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for this November’s ballot.”

On X, the organization expressed its excitement and confidence that they had collected more than enough signatures in order for the initiative to qualify.

Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota president Deb Peters also commented on the milestone with hope. “Things all seem to be moving in the right direction for South Dakota to finally win the freedom they voted for a few years ago,” Peters said. “At the federal level, things are moving towards a responsible rescheduling and dozens of states are seeing the tax benefits of recreational cannabis legalization. It’s inspiring to see this industry come together and work so hard. We’re looking forward to Election Day.”

If passed, the initiative would allow adults over 21 to buy and possess up to two ounces of cannabis (or 16 grams of concentrates), while also cultivating six plants per person (with a 12-plant maximum for a single household). Possession of cannabis products cannot exceed 1,600 mg of THC.

Meeting this goal was partially due to the secretary of state’s office approving the organization to pay canvassers to pass out ballot material and collect signatures, in addition to the organization’s volunteers, in December 2023. The campaign material they passed out included the title and ballot description.

Johnson’s office has until August 13 to validate the signatures, according to The Washington Post.

SDBML campaign director Matthew Schweich described South Dakota’s history with adult-use legalization as “turbulent,” but there are numerous reasons for voters to support the 2024 measure. “I think for me, the strongest reason at its core is that if we’re going to allow alcohol to be legal in our society, then it makes absolutely no sense to punish people for using cannabis because alcohol is more harmful to the individual and to society than cannabis,” Schweich said.

In 2020, voters approved an adult-use cannabis initiative (Amendment A) and a medical cannabis initiative (Measure 26). Shortly after the votes were tallied, Gov. Kristi Noem expressed her disappointment. “I was personally opposed to these measures and firmly believe they’re the wrong choice for South Dakota’s communities,” Noem said at the time. We need to be finding ways to strengthen our families, and I think we’re taking a step backward in that effort.”

In February 2021, the adult-use initiative was nullified in court for violating the single subject rule for amending the state constitution. “Amendment A is a revision as it has far-reaching effects on the basic nature of South Dakota’s governmental system,” said Judge Christina Klinger. “The failure to submit Amendment A through the proper constitutional process voids the amendment and it has no effect.” It was later struck down in the Supreme Court in November 2021 as well.

Advocates continued onward in 2022 with another adult-use initiative (Measure 27), however voters decided not to show support and it didn’t pass. Polls conducted prior to the vote suggested that 51% of voters were planning on voting against the initiative, while only 40% were planning on supporting it. Final tallies show that 52.92% voted no, while 47.08% voted yes.

The medical cannabis initiative was not challenged back in 2021, but it took a while for legislators to implement rules necessary to get the program up and running. Patients were finally able to apply for a medical cannabis card starting in November 2021. As of August 2023, the South Dakota Department of Health shared that it has issued 11,500 cards since 2021, with 6,000 cards projected to be issued in 2024. “We’ve doubled the amount that we were projecting to see in three years within two years,” said the state’s medical cannabis program administrator, Jennifer Seale.

Although progress has been minimal, there have been other small victories in South Dakota. In July 2023, two law enforcement officers were forgiven for their past cannabis use. The South Dakota Law Enforcement Officers Standards Commission heard their cases, although both applicants described their cannabis use as a mistake. “I’m not going to fabricate an excuse. It was a mistake. I was in college, my freshman year,” said applicant Kody Beckers. “Looking back at it now was a blessing in disguise for me. I turned my whole act around.”

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Despite the failure of a recreational marijuana legalization measure to gain the approval of a majority of voters in last month’s midterm elections, activists in South Dakota are already planning for a new bid to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2024. 

The group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws has taken the first official step to launch a new cannabis legalization bid for 2024 by filing a draft of the proposed ballot initiative with the state’s Legislative Research Council, according to media reports. The move comes less than two months after a recreational pot legalization measure known as Initiated Measure 27 failed at the polls in the November elections, garnering just over 47% of ballots cast.

If it had been passed, Measure 27 would have legalized the possession and use of cannabis and marijuana paraphernalia. The ballot initiative also would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess or distribute up to one ounce of marijuana. Those living in a jurisdiction without a licensed marijuana retailer would have been allowed to grow up to three cannabis plants in a secure location at home.

Activists who campaigned for this year’s unsuccessful ballot proposal believe that the lower voter participation typical of midterm elections compared to those that include a race for U.S. president may have been a factor in the defeat of Measure 27.

“We think the only reason it lost is because of really low turnout… we are eager to restore the will of the people,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana laws, which also led the campaign to pass the 2022 cannabis legalization ballot measure.

The failure of Initiative 27 came despite a similar proposal gaining a solid majority of votes only two years earlier, when President Joseph Biden beat his predecessor Donald Trump at the polls. A 2020 ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis passed with 54% of the vote, but a legal challenge supported by Republican Governor Kristi Noem led to the state Supreme Court invalidating the measure on procedural grounds.

Cannabis Reform Opponents Also Preparing For 2024

Opponents of cannabis reform believe that the issue of recreational marijuana legalization has already been settled at the polls, despite the invalidated successful ballot measure only two years ago. Republican state Representative Fred Deutsch, who also serves as the treasurer for the cannabis prohibitionist group Protecting South Dakota Kids, is opposed to another bid to legalize marijuana in the 2024 elections.

“They brought it, and they brought it, and they brought it… they said we should respect the will of the voters throughout the campaign,” said Deutsch. “Well, apparently, they are not going to respect the will of the voters… and they are going to bring it back again.” 

Deutsch added that he intends to sponsor a bill in the next legislative session that would prohibit similar initiatives from being placed on the ballot in consecutive election cycles. Additionally, Protecting South Dakota Kids plans to create a nonprofit group with the same name and hire a lobbyist to work in the state capital full-time during the 2023 legislative session in order to counter the efforts of cannabis reform advocates.

“This last year in Pierre, the pro-marijuana lobbyists outgunned us five to one, six to one… I didn’t count them, but they were swarming the Capitol,” said Deutsch. “The marijuana industry puts a lot of money into hiring these guys, and we hope to push back just a little bit.”

Proponents of another attempt to legalize adult-use cannabis in South Dakota believe that the success of the measure is likely to hinge on the ability of activists to raise the money to mount an effective race in 2024. Media reports cite “lackluster fundraising” as a factor in this year’s loss.

“The biggest hurdle is making sure you can run a well-funded campaign, and it is too early to say whether we can or can’t,” said Schweich. “But we are going to try and move through the process and build up a network of people who can donate generously and make sure that we do have a well-funded campaign.”

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Two years ago, South Dakota was a symbol of the radical shift in attitudes toward marijuana use in America—a deep red, Trump-loving state that had defied conventional wisdom and embraced weed.

But next month, the Mount Rushmore State could deal a reality check to the legalization movement.

Voters there are set to decide on Initiated Measure 27, which would legalize personal possession of marijuana for adults aged 21 and older in the state. Recent polling suggests that the electorate is split.

A new South Dakota State University poll released this week found that 47% of voters in the state are opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana, while 45% support the idea. Eight percent said they aren’t sure.

Initiated Measure 27 represents something of a do-over for advocates, after an amendment to legalize recreational cannabis was approved by South Dakota voters in 2020 only to be struck down by the courts following a legal challenge mounted by the state’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

Fifty-four percent of voters in the state approved Amendment A, but the state Supreme Court ultimately overturned it last November, ruling that it violated the South Dakota constitution’s “one subject” requirement for constitutional amendments.

Amendment A sought to change the state law on recreational marijuana, medical cannabis, and hemp. (Voters in South Dakota also approved a separate ballot proposal in 2020 that specifically legalized medical cannabis).

The state constitution “not only includes a single subject requirement but also directs proponents of a constitutional amendment to prepare an amendment so that the different subjects can be voted on separately,” Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote in the majority opinion.

“This constitutional directive could not be expressed more clearly—each subject must be voted on separately—and simply severing certain provisions may or may not reflect the actual will of the voters,” Jensen wrote. “Therefore, we cannot accept Proponents’ suggestion that excising the medical marijuana and hemp provisions from Amendment A in favor of retaining the provisions regulating and legalizing recreational marijuana is an appropriate remedy. Amendment A is void in its entirety.”

Noem, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” she said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law.”

Initiated Measure 27 qualified for the South Dakota ballot in May, after the campaign behind it, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, turned in enough verified signatures to the secretary of state’s office.

The campaign has taken a populist approach, saying that the measure will “restore the will of the people by legalizing cannabis in South Dakota for a second time.”

But this week’s poll from SDSU wasn’t the first sign that 2022 could be much different than 2020.

A survey released in late August from the local news nonprofit South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota found that 54% of voters in the state were against recreational cannabis legalization, while 44% said they are in favor.

With just a little over three weeks to go before Election Day, legalization advocates are now preparing to barnstorm South Dakota.

Matthew Schweich, the director for “South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws,” announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the campaign is kicking off an 18-city statewide tour this weekend. 

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The South Dakota Secretary of State announced on Wednesday that a ballot measure to legalize cannabis for adults has received enough verified signatures to qualify for the November election, giving the state’s voters another chance to legalize recreational pot at the ballot box. Secretary of State Steve Barnett also announced that the proposal sponsored by the group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) will be titled Initiated Measure 27 for this year’s general election.

The Secretary of State’s office reported that the SDBML campaign had collected a total 31,588 signatures. An analysis of a random sample of the signatures determined that approximately 79.2% were validated as coming from South Dakota registered voters. Based on the results of the random sample, 25,023 signatures were deemed valid by state officials, far more than the 16,961 signatures currently required to qualify a measure for the ballot.

“We are very pleased that we’ve qualified for the ballot and we are extremely thankful to everyone who signed our petitions, our volunteers, our staff and our supporters,” SDBML director Matthew Schweich told the Argus Leader. “We look forward to being on the ballot in November and we’re confident we can win again and restore the will of the people of [S]outh Dakota.”

Under the proposal, adults aged 21 and older would be permitted to possess and buy up to one ounce of weed and grow up to three cannabis plants at home. Public consumption, cultivation of more than three plants, and some other cannabis-related activities would still be against the law, but violators would only face civil penalties for such offenses.

Successful 2020 Ballot Measure Struck Down in South Dakota

A more comprehensive ballot measure, Amendment A, was approved by 54% of South Dakota voters in 2020. But after legal challenges supported by Republican Governor Kristi Noem, an opponent of recreational cannabis legalization, the ballot measure was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

Unlike Amendment A, Initiated Measure 27 does not attempt to establish a regulatory framework for commercial cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, and sales or levy a tax on the cannabis industry. Instead, this year’s ballot measure legalizes possession and purchases of cannabis and leaves the details up to state lawmakers. Activists hope that the more than 8,000 extra signatures collected will help dissuade opponents from filing new legal actions to stop legalization.

“One of the main reasons why we maintained such ambitious goals for our signature drive was to ensure that we had a healthy margin, so we could deter our opponents from filing a lawsuit,” Schweich said. “This was the plan to have this buffer and be sure there would be no more lawsuits over cannabis initiatives in South Dakota.”

But the effort to legalize recreational pot in South Dakota faces a new challenge from a proposal on the ballot for the primary election next month. Under Amendment C, future ballot measures would require 60% of the vote to pass if they enact a tax or require state appropriations of $10 million or more in any of the first five years of enactment. If Amendment C is passed by voters in the June primary election, it would go into effect before the November general election. The effect that would have on Initiated Measure 27 is unclear.

“We must defeat Amendment C on June 7,” Schweich said. “Amendment C is a shameful and cowardly attack on the constitutional ballot initiative rights of the people of South Dakota. This convoluted proposal, created by politicians in [the South Dakota capital of] Pierre, has the potential to cripple the initiative process and could even be used to undermine our 2022 cannabis legalization measure. We cannot allow politicians to get away with this.”

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The number of patients registered to use medical cannabis in South Dakota has jumped in recent weeks following a mass registration event held in April.

South Dakota voters legalized the medicinal use of cannabis with the approval of a ballot measure in 2020 that passed with nearly 70% of the vote, and late last year the state Department of Health began accepting applications for medical cannabis identification cards for patients who had received a recommendation from their doctor. But after more than five months, the health department had issued fewer than 500 identification cards to eligible patients. Cannabis advocates with South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws expected to see thousands of registered patients in that time.

“I think they’re going incredibly slow,” Melissa Mentele, the primary drafter of Initiated Measure 26, the 2020 ballot measure that legalized medical pot in South Dakota, told the Argus Leader.

South Dakota’s medical cannabis law requires patients with qualifying medical conditions to receive a recommendation to use weed medicinally from a physician licensed by the state. Doctors must meet with their patients in person to issue the recommendation, unlike many states that allow telephone or video consultations.

South Dakota Marijuana Spring Fling Certifies New Patients

To help those who can benefit from medical cannabis, a Michigan-based company organized a three-day event in April to connect doctors with potential medical patients. But Molefi Branson, the founder of MyMarijuanaCards.com, had difficulty finding local doctors to certify patients after sending out hundreds of inquiries to physicians across the state. Statewide, only 96 doctors had registered with the health department’s online portal, a required step to certify patients for South Dakota’s medical cannabis program.

“Despite being available since November, only a few South Dakota residents have been able to obtain a state-issued medical cannabis card due to the limited number of doctors authorized to certify patients in the state,” Branson said in a statement from the company.

As a service to patients, Branson’s company recruited doctors based in other states including Illinois and Missouri to obtain a license to practice medicine in South Dakota so they could write recommendations during a mass screening. Dubbed the Marijuana Spring Fling, the three-day event took place in downtown Sioux Falls from April 26 through April 28.

“The demand is so high and we had zero luck with any practitioners in South Dakota wanting to put their neck out for patients,” Branson said. “So we had to get them licensed here.”

Before the medical weed card registration event launched, the health department was issuing an average of two medical cannabis identification cards per day. As of April 26, the agency had approved only 419 cards since it began processing applications on November 8. In the less than three weeks since the Marijuana Spring Fling, the health department has issued an average of 16 medical cards per day, with the total number issued jumping more than half to 652, according to the most recent data available.

Major Healthcare Systems Wary of Medical Pot

Medical cannabis advocates say that the major healthcare systems in South Dakota, Sanford Health and Avera Health, have not supported the state’s medical weed program and have failed to provide information about the number of doctors who have been certified or how many recommendations they have written.

“These major health systems are creating such a barrier,” Mentele said. “Realistically, we should have 10 times that in the state of South Dakota.”

Both health care systems have publicly taken a neutral stance on medical cannabis, saying that they do not support or oppose its use. Issuing medical cannabis recommendations is at the discretion of doctors.

“It is up to each individual Sanford provider to determine the use of medical marijuana in regards to each patient’s individual care plan and what they feel is medically best for their patients,” said Dr. Joshua Crabtree, clinic vice president for Sanford Health’s Sioux Falls region.

The details of South Dakota’s medical cannabis program have also made some physicians wary to provide recommendations to use cannabis medicinally to their patients. Under the law, doctors who certify patients must attest that medical pot will have a therapeutic or palliative effect on the patient.

In March, the state legislature passed and Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill to amend the medical cannabis program. Under the change in law, doctors will only have to certify that the patient has one of the serious medical conditions that qualify a patient to use weed medicinally. Medical cannabis advocates and health care officials expect more patients to be approved for the program after the change in law goes into effect on July 1.

“We continue to evaluate the medical cannabis program in South Dakota and changes to the program, including some of the changes made during this last South Dakota Legislative Session,” Crabtree said.

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