South Dakota voters to decide measure legalizing medical marijuana
The South Dakota Secretary of State’s office announced Dec. 19 that supporters of an initiative to establish a medical marijuana program in the state qualified the measure for the 2020 ballot.
If approved, the measure would establish a medical marijuana program for individuals who have a debilitating medical condition as certified by a physician. The initiative defines a debilitating medical condition as a "chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following:
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cachexia or wasting syndrome;
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severe, debilitating pain;
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severe nausea;
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seizures; or
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severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis."
The state Department of Health could also add additional qualifying conditions.
Patients would be allowed to possess three ounces of marijuana, marijuana plants, and products made from the plants.
A group sponsoring a separate measure to legalize recreational marijuana reported submitting more than 50,000 signatures on Nov. 4, 2019, and are awaiting signature verification by the secretary of state. This proposal would legalize the recreational use of marijuana and require the legislature to pass laws providing for medical marijuana and the sale of hemp by April 1, 2022. An initiated state statute must have 16,961 valid signatures—5% of the votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election—to be certified for the ballot in 2020.
In South Dakota, if there are two conflicting measures on the same ballot, and both are approved, the one that receives the most ‘yes’ votes supersedes the other where provisions conflict.
Thirty-three states and Washington, D.C. have passed laws legalizing or decriminalizing medical marijuana. Additionally, 13 states have legalized the use of cannabis oil, or cannabidiol (CBD)—one of the non-psychoactive ingredients found in marijuana—for medical purposes.
New Jersey voters will decide a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana for people aged 21 or older in 2020. That measure would also legalize the cultivation, processing, and sale of retail marijuana.
Other states where measures concerning medical marijuana may appear on the ballot in 2020 include Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, and Nebraska.
From 1996 through 2018, voters decided 74 measures in South Dakota in even-numbered election years, approving 39% of them.
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