South Dakota’s attorney general has approved final summary language for a 2024 marijuana legalization ballot initiative—but advocates are taking issue with key parts of the description and are now considering bringing the matter to court.
Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) released the final explanation on Thursday. While his office received public comment from the cannabis campaign, advocates’ main contentions with the draft version went unresolved.
There are a few significant problems, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) Director Matthew Schweich told Marijuana Moment on Thursday.
First, while the explanation was revised to omit the word “sell” in reference to what the marijuana initiative would allow, it still says that adults 21 and older could “distribute” cannabis, despite the fact that the measure was intentionally drafted to exclude commercial sales in order to avoid a constitutional challenge.
Schweich also pointed out that the attorney general added the word “recreational” to the title, which he said was “biased and unfair.” In some corners, that word carries a negative connotation that could bias voters against the measure, and so the campaign would have preferred it to simply say that it legalizes cannabis for adults.
Lastly, the final explanation concludes with a line
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