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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Supporters of legal cannabis are hoping the third time is a charm. The group ‘South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws’ is running another petition campaign across the state to once again put the issue of recreational marijuana on the ballot for voters to decide.
“This is my third ballot initiative campaign in South Dakota in support of Cannabis reform,” South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws Campaign Chair Matthew Schweich said.
His first two campaigns were successful– getting Amendment A to legalize recreational marijuana and Initiated Measure 26 legalizing medical marijuana– on the ballot during the 2020 election. Both measures were approved by voters, with recreational passing by more than 30,000 votes.
“We passed Amendment A in a presidential election with a very large turnout and I feel like that represented the will of the people,” Schweich said. “It was overturned on a technicality. We felt it was necessary to restore the will of the people right away.”
That led to the group’s second ballot initiative in 2022, once again putting recreational marijuana before the voters after the courts overturned 2020’s Amendment A.
“When we wrote Measure 27, we didn’t yet have the ruling from Amendment and so we basically replicated Amendment A and put it into a statutory initiative instead,” Schweich said.
That measure made it on the ballot in 2022 but lost by nearly 20,000 votes. Schweich believes the low voter turnout during the midterm election worked against their campaign. So this year, cannabis supporters are back on the streets working to put a much more simplified version of the issue on the ballot once again.
“One challenge is voters saying, ‘why do this again?’” Schweich said. “The populace support is definitely there. We’ve been hearing from lots of voters all over the state volunteers and it’s going really well. The issue we’re encountering is that there’s a lot of confusion, especially when it comes to our ongoing signature drive. Many people think that they’ve signed this petition, but in fact, they signed a petition either in 2022 or even 2020.”
The campaign has launched a new online tool for people to check and see if they have signed the most recent petition drive. This week the campaign announced they have collected more than 12,500 signatures, about half of what they hope to collect by the May 7th deadline.
This weekend, volunteers across the state will be hosting drive thru petition signing events at six locations.
Sioux Falls
5005 W 12th St., Sioux Falls, 57107
27097 S Tallgrass Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57108
Rapid City
2120 W Main St., Rapid City, SD 57702
840 Timmons Blvd Suite 7, Rapid City, SD 57703
Brookings
1004 6th St, Brookings, SD 57006
North Sioux City
1323 River Dr., North Sioux City, SD 57049
