The Rapid City Jnl reports
As South Dakota anticipates a state Supreme Court decision on whether recreational marijuana will become legal in July, state lawmakers and city governments are moving forward with their own pot plans.
Officials across the state have warmed to the idea of legalization since voters passed a constitutional amendment in November legalizing marijuana for adults. Some cities want to own and operate recreational marijuana dispensaries, a lobbyist for municipalities told a committee of state lawmakers studying adult-use recreational marijuana on Tuesday. And even if the Supreme Court keeps the drug from being legalized, state lawmakers are planning to craft a legalization bill ahead of next year’s legislative session.
Bartels, who is the chair of the Legislature’s Adult-Use Marijuana Study Subcommittee, said the Supreme Court’s ruling will largely determine the job of the committee. If marijuana gets the go-ahead from justices, lawmakers will focus on cleaning up state law to accommodate pot and study its implications on issues such as property taxes and driving laws. If pot legalization is struck down, Bartels said the committee would focus on writing a proposal to legalize pot next year.
He said the bill would be a “good, center of the road” proposal that would look to avoid some of the pitfalls the constitutional amendment suffered, though he acknowledged the bill would not be a sure bet in the Republican-dominated Legislature.
