Medical marijuana initiative to be on 2020 ballot

The Secretary of State’s Office says the necessary amount of signatures were collected and verified to get a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot for next year.  This means that voters in the state will decide in 2020 if medical cannabis is right for the state. 

Melissa Mentele with New Approach South Dakota, a grassroots pro marijuana activist group, says this measure residents will be voting on has been crafted with years of research, study, and input from multiple interested parties. 

Pass or fail, Mentele says getting this medical marijuana initiative on the ballot is a success for New Approach.  The group got the necessary amount of signatures in 2018 to get medical marijuana on the ballot, but a discrepancy with the signatures removed it from consideration.  Mentele says that failure only energized the movement more. 

The future for marijuana, medical or otherwise, in the state of South Dakota is anything but certain.  Governor Kristi Noem has a hard line stance against the substance, even going so far as to oppose legalizing industrial hemp because she believes it will ultimately lead to legalizing marijuana. 

(Thanks, Dakota Broadcasting)