South Dakota Approves Medical Cannabis Initiative for 2020

South Dakota voters will vote on medical cannabis legalization during the 2020 General Election after Secretary of State Steve Barnett validated that the campaign, New Approach South Dakota, had submitted enough signatures to qualify the initiative.

“There are no words that any of us could say right now to put the feelings we have into perspective. Thank you all for the support, for signing our petitions, for registering to vote and for sticking with us. We did it together [and] we are so grateful for all of you. Let’s push for a strong united campaign to pass this much needed law for the people of SD.” – New Approach South Dakota, in a Dec. 19 Facebook post

The proposal includes home-grow provisions – the number of which would be set by the state but would require a physician recommendation for home cultivation and a three-plant minimum, according to a Daily Republic report. Patients would be required to register with the state Department of Health and possess up to 3 ounces; cardholders from out-of-state would be allowed to obtain medical cannabis in South Dakota.

In South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s statement on the measure – which is common for ballot initiatives in the state – the initiative would likely need clarification by the Legislature or the courts.

The group needed to get 16,961 valid signatures to get the initiative on 2020 ballots. It obtained 25,524, or 75 percent of those collected by the group, based on random sampling.

The initiative is the first cannabis-related campaign to get approval for the 2020 General Election.