SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Adult-use recreational marijuana is on the ballot in South Dakota for the third time this election. Advocates for and against the issue sat down with KELOLAND’s Tom Hanson for Inside KELOLAND to discuss the matter.
The full episode of Inside KELOLAND will air at 10:30 p.m. Sunday night.
Former State Rep. Rhonda Milstead with Protecting South Dakota Kids (PSDK) kicked off the discussion.
“Marijuana and kids are two things we don’t want to mix,” Milstead said in her opening statement. “Marijuana has been a schedule one drug since 1970 — there’s a reason for that. There’s not enough research out there to move it anywhere.”
Milstead argued that even if the government moved marijuana to a schedule two drug (the same category as fentanyl), it would still be a drug with the potential for abuse.
A move of marijuana from schedule one to schedule two may be unlikely, but a move to schedule three (where drugs such as codeine cough syrup reside) could be in the works following movement from the federal government.
“Someone asked me the other day what it would look like if marijuana was legal in South Dakota. There’s nothing good that will come of that,” said Milstead. “Marijuana is something that enslaves — it’s not something that gives anybody freedom — it is unsafe; it is unhealthy and we don’t want that for South Dakota.”
Matthew Schweich with South Dakotans For Better Marijuana Laws spoke next, beginning by pointing out that 24 other states have legalized recreational marijuana.
“Including red states like Alaska, Montana and Ohio,” said Schweich. “Policy is working well in those states. That’s why not a single one of those states has repealed the policy.”
Schweich said he too wants to protect South Dakota kids.
“I want to protect them from dealers — right now dealers are selling cannabis in South Dakota,” he said. “They’re not checking IDs. They don’t ensure any product manufacturing safety or product labeling — there’s an alternative. It’s called regulating cannabis. Taking it out of the hands of criminals and putting it behind the counters of licensed, tax paying, regulated businesses.”
Schweich went on to rattle off a series of statistics from his notepad, listing off studies from Colorado and Washington that he said shows legalization has decreased the use of marijuana among high school students.
KELOLAND’s Tom Hanson then asked Schweich if legalization guarantees regulation.
Schweich said that in this case, it does not.
“This initiative does not guarantee regulation,” he said. “When we wrote measure 29, we were forced to follow the guidelines set by the state Supreme Court when they ruled against Amendment A.”
In the 2020 election, Amendment A was a measure intended to legalize marijuana for both recreational and medical use. Though it was passed by a majority of voters, the courts overturned the measure, ruling that because it dealt with both medical and recreational, it violated the state’s single-subject clause.
“We could not write a broad policy, so this initiative is just about individual freedom — if we pass measure 29, our expectation and hope is that the legislature will then work to pass an implementation bill that will allow us to regulate the sales of these products,” Schweich said.
As a former lawmaker, Hanson asked Milstead if she believed the legislature would do that.
“It could fall to the legislature,” she said, “but we have to be very honest and very real here across this country. Youth use has increased. You know, the minute you legalize something, you’re telling children that it’s OK, whether it’s children or teens. Those numbers go up.”
Milstead went on to say that the black market for marijuana persists in states that have legalized. In California, she claimed the illegal market for marijuana is four times larger than the legal market.
Kids have apps on their phone so that they can get marijuana.
Rhonda Milstead, Protecting South Dakota Kids
“The black market is not going to go away. The black market will be in South Dakota and it will grow once it’s legalized. You take two piles of marijuana,” Milstead said. “You can’t tell which one is legal and which was not legal. Kids have apps on their phone so that they can get marijuana. They can get something from a dealer. That’s not going to change. Why are they going to go somewhere and pay $500 an ounce or whatever outrageous price it is when they can get it off the street for something else?”
Schweich pushed back on this.
“There are medical cannabis dispensaries selling ounces of cannabis for $100. So this idea that they’re going to be astronomically expensive is countered by real world evidence here,” he said. “I also note that the South Dakota Senate passed a full legalization bill a few years ago, and so that tells you the legislature is willing to be pragmatic on this issue.”
Schweich next went on to bring up studies from Colorado, Washington and the Journal of American Health that he says show that youth use has gone down in states with legal marijuana.
“Taking cannabis out of this illicit market — shifting it is the approach that works,” he said, though he acknowledged that the black market would not disappear overnight.
“This is an entrenched criminal enterprise that’s existed for a century. So it’s not reasonable to expect it to disappear overnight,” Schweich said, adding that he believes South Dakota can learn form the lessons of other states to eliminate the illicit market sooner.
Responding to the optimistic view of Schweich, Milstead expressed a view that marijuana is already not well regulated in South Dakota.
“We allow people to grow medical marijuana in their own homes,” Milstead said. “We have children. Somebody just testified on the news last week that at times the hospitals in Rapid City don’t have enough medical equipment for children that are getting exposed to marijuana.”
Under state law, medical marijuana cardholders are permitted to grow up to three cannabis plants in their own home. No more than six total plants are allowed per residence if there is more than one cardholder in the household.
Milstead said that it’s not just about kids.
“It harms adults as well. Marijuana is meant to be used as something that takes you somewhere else. It’s mind altering. And that doesn’t empower somebody. It doesn’t — it’s not a resource. It’s not to make them better,” she said.
With her next statement, Milstead quoted abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
“With children up until the age of 25, if they’re using marijuana, it’s an irreversible damage to their brains — Frederick Douglass, he said it’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” Milstead said.
Douglass made this statement as part of a dialogue with white slave owners in which he sought to express in the immorality of slavery.
You can watch the full segment of Inside KELOLAND in the player at the top of this story. Digital Reporter Rae Yost also joined Hanson for a brief explanation of Referred Law 21.
