South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has released the final language for the ballot explanation of a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana and create dual-use licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries.
The initiative will go on next year’s general election ballot if supporters gather 17,509 valid signatures from registered South Dakota voters.
State law requires the attorney general to prepare a fair and neutral explanation of all initiated measures for the ballot. Only 6 comments were received during a required 10-day period after Jackley released the draft version of the explanation.
Under the initiative, individuals 21 or older could possess, grow, sell, ingest, and distribute marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia.
It also authorizes the South Dakota Department of Health to issue dual-use licenses to medical marijuana dispensaries that would allow them to sell marijuana to persons 21 years or older for either medicinal or recreational use.
Voters in 2020 approved two marijuana initiatives, one for medical cannabis and one for both medicinal and recreational use.
Opponents successfully challenged the dual measure as violating a provision of the South Dakota constitution limiting such measures to a single subject with the courts ruling it covered 2 subjects – medicinal and recreational.
The medicinal-only measure was allowed to take effect with the state setting up the existing dispensary system