The governor of South Dakota says that it’s her job to oversee the implementation of marijuana legalization if voters approve it at the ballot this November. But it’s a job that critics say she deliberately shirked after voters passed a legalization measure just two years ago.
Gov. Kristi Noem (R) made the latest comments at an event last week, attempting to explain why she was taking a different approach to citizen-led reform this round by saying that the 2022 initiative “is written more appropriately towards the Constitution.”
Advocates aren’t quite buying it, though. The lawsuit that led the state Supreme Court to invalidate a 2020 legalization measure that voters approved at the ballot originated in her office. Now that she’s up for reelection, some suspect that the pivot is an attempt to align herself with a popular issue and divert attention from her former obstruction.
To avoid another legal challenge, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) did take a more narrowly tailored approach to legalization with the new 2022 initiative, omitting provisions that deal with taxes and regulations like the earlier version and leaving those decisions up to the legislature.
But the idea that Noem—who vetoed a hemp reform
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