Legal recreational marijuana fails to advance in South Dakota House

(The Center Square) – The decision to legalize recreational marijuana may fall to South Dakota voters after a bill to legalize and regulate the sale of it was defeated by the House State Affairs Committee.

After an unsuccessful motion by House Minority Leader Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, to pass Senate Bill 3, Rep. Tim Goodwin, R-Rapid City, proposed to move the motion to the 41st legislative day, an act that effectively defeated the bill.

The state Senate barely passed the bill last month. Eight legislators voted down the bill during the House committee meeting Monday with only three voting in its favor.

The matter still may end up on the ballot in November, which would not be the first time voters in the state would have their say on the issue.

In 2020, voters passed Constitutional Amendment A, which would have legalized the recreational use of marijuana and provided for the use of medical marijuana and the sale of hemp. The vote was overturned by a state Supreme Court judge who called the amendment unconstitutional.

Proponents for SB 3 pointed to the constitutional amendment vote as evidence it was what the people of South Dakota wanted.

“I do believe the people of South Dakota knew what they were voting for with recreational marijuana,” Smith said. “I believe it’s time to tax and regulate this. I believe setting up that structure as a legislature is better for us than what we will have the opportunity to do if it goes again to the vote of the people and passes again.”

A petition is circulating to get a measure on the November ballot that would legalize the possession, use and distribution of marijuana, according to the secretary of state’s office, but proponents argued there are hurdles that could prevent the matter from being brought to the people for a vote.

“We don’t know if that’s going to happen,” said Jeremiah Murphy, a lobbyist for the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota. “I think plenty of signatures have been gathered, but there’s a lawsuit pending in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals of the federal court that can make that deadline past. There’s a lawsuit that could keep that issue off the ballot in November. So don’t count on this being up for a vote in November and the voters having a chance to end this again.”

Some lawmakers said they were uncomfortable taking the measure forward.

“I really feel bad voting for something that’s against law enforcement and against federal law,” Goodwin said.

One of the people who spoke against the bill was Dick Tieszen, who represented the South Dakota Sheriffs’ Association. He said legalizing marijuana in the state would not succeed in stamping out illegal sales as some proponents argued it would.

“They suggest to you that there is an urgency to capture the taxes that are being lost to what we would all believe is criminal profitability,” Tieszen said. “They suggest that by legalizing this, that won’t get away. Do you really believe that criminal profitability will end if we passed recreational use of marijuana in South Dakota? I don’t. I believe it will still be here. We will have invited more. The criminals aren’t going to go away just because we legalize recreational marijuana.”

Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square