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Search Results: south dakota (25)

South Dakota Voters May Legalize Medical Marijuana In November

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: South Dakota Coalition for Compassion

​Encouraged by their near miss four years ago, medical marijuana supporters say they have a better chance this year to persuade South Dakotans to legalize the plant for treating pain, nausea and other health problems.

A similar measured failed in 2006, getting about 48 percent of the vote. It was the only time in American history that medical marijuana lost a statewide popular election.
But a coalition of patients, doctors, nurses and others will campaign this summer, explaining how marijuana can help people with serious illnesses, said organizer Emmett Reistroffer, reports Chet Brokaw of The Associated Press.
“We feel like once people learn about the therapeutic uses, they will compassionately support the measure,” Reistroffer said. “If we help them understand marijuana is a medicine, we think we’ll gain their votes.”
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Medical Marijuana Likely On South Dakota Ballot This Year

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: Oregon NORML
Medical marijuana has never lost the popular vote in a statewide election — except in South Dakota.

​South Dakotans will probably get to vote (again) on legalizing medical marijuana this November.

Cannabis advocates on Monday filed petition signatures seeking a statewide vote on a proposal to legalize marijuana in South Dakota for medical use in treating pain, nausea and other health problems, reports KELO.
Nearly 32,000 signatures — almost double the 16,776 valid signatures needed to make the November ballot — were turned in to the secretary of state’s office in Pierre, according to one of the organizers, Emmett Reistroffer of Sioux Falls.
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Marijuana Measures Defeated In Cali, Oregon, S.D., Arizona

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Legal, Safe Access Fails In Four States


​It was a harsh day for marijuana supporters across the West as ballot initiatives went down to crushing defeats.
Voters in California on Tuesday said no thanks to Proposition 19, which would have legalized, taxed and regulated marijuana. Meanwhile Arizonans turned down medical marijuana by a thin margin; Oregon voters said no to dispensaries; and South Dakotans, for the second time and by an even larger margin than the first time, declined to legalize cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Arizona’s Prop 203 vote on medical marijuana was very, very close at 7:15 am Pacific on Wednesday. With 2,236 of 2,239 precincts reporting, and more than 99 percent of the vote counted, No held a razor-thin lead, 50.25 percent to 49.75 percent. This represented a spread of just 6,000 votes out of about 1.3 million votes counted.
California’s Prop 19 to legalize marijuana was defeated 54 percent No to 46 percent Yes.. With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Prop 19 was losing by eight points, just over half a million votes (3,891,521 No to 3,349,237 Yes). Servers were overwhelmed Tuesday night at the California Secretary of State’s website.
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Here’s Where To Keep Up With Cannabis Election Results

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: AZ4NORML

​Voters in California, Arizona, South Dakota, and Oregon have a chance today to change their states’ marijuana laws.

Will citizens grasp their opportunity to make history? We’re soon to find out.

Here are handy resources to keep up with the election results in all four states:
The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 would legalize possession of limited amounts of marijuana by adults, allow a 5×5-foot growing space, and permit local governments to regulate and tax commercial sales.
Keep up with Prop 19 returns at the California Secretary of State’s results page here.
The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act would permit state-registered patients to buy cannabis legally from licensed dispensaries. Patients living more than 25 miles from the nearest dispensary would be allowed to cultivate their own marijuana.
Keep up with Prop 203 results at the Arizona Secretary of State’s results page here. You’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the page; Prop 203 results are the third from the bottom.
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Voters In Four States To Decide Marijuana Measures Today

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: NORML
California! Arizona! South Dakota! Oregon! Light up the polls – smoke the vote!

​It’s Election Day 2010, and among the issues facing voters in California, Arizona, South Dakota, and Oregon are measures which would change the marijuana laws in those states.

California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, which would legalize the adult possession of limited amounts of marijuana, allow a 5×5-foot growing space, and permit local governments to regulate its commercial production and retail sale.
 “If passed, the measure would be the most expansive modern law ever enacted regarding the adult use, production, and distribution of marijuana,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Learn more about Prop 19 here (the site was responding slowly Tuesday morning, likely indicating the enormous amount of voter interest in the issue):
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S.D. Highway Patrol Electioneering Against Medical Marijuana?

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: KELOLAND.com
The South Dakota Highway Patrol isn’t officially allowed to interfere with elections. But they found a way around the rule.

​South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative, Measure 13, is fending off a new foe: the state’s Highway Patrol.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol saved “news” about marijuana busts from the summer — supposedly related to “out of state medical marijuana” — to release two weeks before the election, Michael Whitney of JustSayNow.com told Toke of the Town on Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the South Dakota Highway Patrol is interfering with the state’s medical marijuana ballot initiative,” Whitney told us Wednesday afternoon.
“Just Say Now is working with Measure 13’s campaign to fight back,” Whitney said.
Measure 13, which would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis in South Dakota for patients with a doctor’s authorization, is in a tight race going down to the wire on November 2.
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S.D. Medical Marijuana Supporters Rally For Measure 13

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: South Dakota Coalition for Compassion

​About 100 people gathered in Rapid City, South Dakota Tuesday evening for the Rally for Compassion, sponsored by the South Dakota Coalition for Compassion, which has spearheaded the campaign for Initiated Measure 13, which calls for the legalization of medical marijuana in South Dakota.

South Dakota voters will have a chance to vote on Measure 13 in November, and Coalition for Compassion campaign director Emmett Reistroffer urged rally attendees to spread the truth about the initiative, reports Lynn Taylor Rick at the Rapid City Journal.

“There are some opponents out there lying (about the measure),” Reistroffer said. He encouraged rally attendees to set the record straight.
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S.D. Tea Party Leader: Medical Pot Leads To Widespread Laziness

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By on Medical, News

Tea Party of South Dakota

Allen Unruh: “They would not want to work”

​”One of the side effects is, they would not want to work.” ~ Allen Unruh, organizer for a local South Dakota Tea Party group

Supporters of a measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana for medicinal use in South Dakota on Monday sought to assure the public that it would not create pot dispensaries or open the door to full legalization.

“This is about ill people,” said Tony Ryan, a retired police officer whose wife suffers from multiple sclerosis. “It’s only about ill people. It’s not a free-for all.”
​The rally also came on the same day that conservative firebrand Allen Unruh, an organizer for a local Tea Party group, denounced the medical marijuana measure as a back-door effort to legalize cannabis, which Unruh complained would lead to “widespread laziness” among users.
“One of the side effects is, they would not want to work,” Unruh said. “Unemployment is already through the roof.”
(Damn, I don’t really feel like doing the rest of this story, man. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Just kidding!)
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Federal Pot Case Against Oregon Teen to be Dropped

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By on News

The case was an anomaly in the legal state.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop charges against Devontre Thomas, a 19-year who faced prosecution for being caught with a very small amount of weed at a federally run boarding school for Native Americans in Oregon.

A Massachusetts court ruled that smoking MED violated a man’s probation.

Two men face criminal charges connected with the failed attempt to open a cannabis resort on a reservation in South Dakota.

Following a robbery at a Portland dispensary, police said Oregon pot shops are not attracting a disproportionate amount of crime .

The DEA’s criteria for whether a home contains a grow operation are very broad.

The New York Times reports on Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s unapologetically brutal war on drugs.

In Connecticut, schoolchildren will used seized grow lights to produce food.

The Kind investigates the judging of High Times Cannabis Cups, and speaks to Max Montrose, a connoisseur and critic of the high stakes process.

Vice learns about life as a “ trim bitch” on an illegal weed farm. The money is good, but conditions aren’t and sexual harassment is a problem.

Rapper Snoop Dogg is the executive producer of the new MTV weed comedy “Mary + Jane.”

Recently retired NFL player Eugene Monroe has a new column at The Cannabist.

Frankie Schnarrs, owner of Frankie’s Sports Pub in Olympia, Wash. said he’ll continue to allow patrons to use cannabis despite a recent fine and suspended liquor license, which he’s also ignoring. “I want them to take my license from me. They can go to Hell,” he told a reporter. “Get out of here. Get off my property.”

The Guardian hangs out with three elderly British women in Amsterdam, while they try pot for the first time. They enjoyed themselves at a playground, swinging on the swings.

Artist Tony Greenhand is well paid to roll joints that resemble guns, animals and other elaborate shapes.

Leafly looks back at jazz great Louis Armstrong’s long fondness for cannabis, which he called “the gage.”

Butane extraction has reached the U.K.

Cannabis tampons.

Police Drug Tests Are Often Unreliable, Report Finds

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By on News

Just your average, .32-gram joint here.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

A ProPublica investigation finds that field drug tests widely-used by police are unreliable and can turn up false positives.

A study in JAMA Psychiatry found that cannabis use disrupts the reward processing mechanism in the brain. The journal editorializes that more research into the plant’s effects on the brain is urgently needed.

Smoking cannabis and tobacco together, a practice more common in Europe than the U.S., may contribute to dependency on both, a study found. See the study here.

In Canada, border authorities have cracked down on shipments of CBD oil. In Australia, some children with epilepsy will have access to the CBD-based drug Epidiolex before trials are complete.

The average joint contains .32 grams of marijuana, researchers have learned. This is an important figure for tax assessments and public health studies, the Washington Post says.

The .32 number was obtained by a statistical analysis of arrest data. In the past, researchers have tried to learn it by asking subjects to compare joint-size to common objects or having subjects roll joints with oregano.

Uruguay’s law allows pharmacists to sell weed, but most don’t want to. A small political party in Japan wants to lift the national ban on MED research.

Synthetic cannabis is still very dangerous.

President Obama’s clemency initiative has commuted the sentences of more than 300 offenders with a focus on non-violent drug offenders. The New Yorker asks why nearly 12,000 prisoner petitions remain undecided.

A case in South Dakota highlights the practice of urine tests obtained by force, with a catheter. State Attorney General Marty Jackley (R) defended the practice on legal grounds, but said “I don’t think anyone wants to go through that methodology.”

The Texas Tribune tells the story of a U.S. Border Patrol agent who got romantically involved with a marijuana smuggler.

The Kind profiles Jeff Mizanskey, who until his release last year was the only man in Missouri serving life for a non-violent marijuana offense. He spent 21 years in prison.

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