Recreational marijuana appears on South Dakota ballots again

South Dakotans will be asked for the third time to vote for or against legalizing recreational marijuana use on Nov. 5.

Initiated Measure 29, if adopted, would allow South Dakotans 21 and older to “possess, grow, ingest, and distribute marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia,” according to the Attorney General’s statement. Under the measure, individuals can also grow up to six marijuana plants, with a maximum of 12 plants per household. The statement says driving while high will remain illegal and cites other circumstances when marijuana may be prohibited.

Rick Tupper, associate vice president of Campus Safety, reaffirmed his statements from a previous article that smoking marijuana would be prohibited at Augustana under the no smoking policy but that other forms of ingesting marijuana, like edibles or gummies, would not be against campus policy as long as they did not cause further issues.

South Dakota for Better Marijuana Laws is leading the campaign to support IM29. Opposing the measure is Protecting South Dakota Kids. The two sides debated at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota on Sept. 19. In the debate, the proponents of the measure argued that the effects of alcohol are far worse than the effects of marijuana, and the opponents argued that marijuana is a gateway drug that could lead to far worse drug addictions.

Reynold Nesiba, economics professor and South Dakota State Senator of District 15 in Minnehaha County, said addiction is a public health crisis and that more effort needs to be put toward rehabilitation services for addictions, including alcohol and methamphetamine, rather than criminalization.

“What we need is far more resources being put in to meet people’s mental health and addiction [needs],” Nesiba said. “I’d much rather see those resources that we are currently using in the corrections system and put them into public health. I don’t think arresting our way out of marijuana use is working.”

In 2020, South Dakotans were asked to vote on Constitutional Amendment A – which would have legalized recreational marijuana – and Initiated Measure 26 – which legalized medical marijuana use on July 1, 2021. 

A majority of voters were in favor of both bills, but South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem argued that because of 2018’s Constitutional Amendment Z, which introduced a single-subject rule, it would be unconstitutional to put both bills into law. Circuit Court Judge Christina Klinger ruled that the bill violated Amendment Z and would be a revision of the Constitution rather than an amendment.

South Dakota for Better Marijuana Laws appealed the circuit court’s decision to the South Dakota Supreme Court, but a 4-1 vote upheld the lower court’s decision. 

In 2022, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws again qualified to bring another measure, Initiated Measure 27, to the ballot. The bill would have legalized recreational marijuana for anyone over the age of 21 but was rejected by a vote of 47.08% to 52.92%. 

Emily Wanless, government professor and chair of the Department of Government and International Affairs, said a significant issue with IM27 was its wording.

“There was no provision that it would raise any revenue,” Wanless said. “They knowingly put it on the ballot and sold it as something that would generate money but also had been told that the way they had written it meant that it would be revenue- neutral.”

According to Wanless, there is a national movement for states to legalize recreational marijuana through ballot measures. It is difficult for many liberally-leaning bills to pass in a state with an “uber-conservative, solidly-one party” legislature, so the ballot measure system works well in South Dakota, Wanless said.

Wanless and Nesiba said, this time around, circumstances are different. Both said presidential elections have the highest turnout of any elections, and Wanless said more Democrats, independents and moderates in particular show up to vote.

“When you limit turnout in a very conservative constituency, as was the case in 2022, [legalizing recreational marijuana] fails,” Wanless said. “This go-around, we’re back on the presidential cycle – one in which people are motivated by other issues like abortion. So while the ballot measure proponents said they will continue to put this before the voters, this is probably one of the best shots they will have.”

Furthermore, some people concerned only with the passage of recreational marijuana may turn out to vote when they otherwise would not, Nesiba and Wanless said.

“‘Who doesn’t vote?’ Young people and lazy stoners,” Wanless said. “You put weed on the ballot and lazy stoners and young people are gonna turn out to vote.”

IM29 is joined on the ballot by amendments F, G and H; Initiated Measure 28 and Referred Law 21. Wanless worries that, despite the number of questions being consistent with past South Dakota ballots, voters may experience voter fatigue. 

Voter fatigue is the result of electorates asking voters to vote too often or on too many issues at a time. Fatigue may cause a roll-off on the South Dakota ballot, Wanless explained, in which voters fill in the presidential candidate of their choice but skip lower-order questions, including the amendments, measures and referred laws.

People who don’t have strong opinions on an issue default to checking “no,”Wanless said.

Senior Grace Bradley, a resident of Rapid City, South Dakota, said she voted in favor of the measure through her mail-in ballot, citing that other similar substances are not criminalized like marijuana.

“I don’t think weed is fantastic, but I also don’t think nicotine and alcohol are fantastic, and [those] using alcohol and nicotine aren’t criminalized,” Bradley said. “People use recreational drugs just like they use alcohol, and some people can abuse it, but that means they need mental health help. That doesn’t mean they need to be sent to jail.”

Freshman Landen Bartels sides with Protecting South Dakota Kids and believes kids may be put in danger if IM29 is passed.

“I think that if IM29 is legalized that it wouldn’t really affect the adults as much as kids,” Bartels said. “It’ll become more accessible and available to underage kids.”

Nesiba said he hopes IM29 passes come November.

“I don’t condone marijuana use, I don’t condemn it either,” Nesiba said. “What I do condemn is the state of South Dakota spending so many resources and so much money to arrest people unnecessarily. I think it is time to decriminalize this.”