Travel writer wants South Dakota to legalize

Travel with Rick Steves airs on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio on Sunday mornings. He lives in Edmonds, Washington and has been publicly advocating for ending cannabis prohibition since the 1980s.

As the board chair of NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), I speak out publicly across the country on why rather than arresting folks for marijuana, we should embrace a “pragmatic harm reduction” approach so effective in Europe that treats drug abuse as a health and education challenge. That’s why I am asking you to support Measure 27 to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older in South Dakota. Voters in South Dakota have added reason to approve Measure 27 – it will send a clear message to politicians who continually seek to undermine the state’s ballot initiative process. As you know, 54% of South Dakota voters approved legalization in 2020 before the law was repealed in court on a technicality. Measure 27 is an opportunity to restore the will of the people. [Pierre Capital Journal]

Tribal sovereignty binds the hands of states competing for federal resources.

Mary Jane Oatman is executive director of the Intertribal Cannabis Industry Association. She spoke earlier this month at the organization's conference in Milwaukee as did Rich Tall Bear Westerman (Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate).

Tall Bear Westerman has three separate state licenses for dispensaries in South Dakota. He plans to open his operations, Green Tatanka, in November 2022, where he leases state property on state land. He pointed out that when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988 was being discussed, every casino project was approved if it created a small business economy. However, some say that cannabis presents a second opportunity where tribes can help their entrepreneurs, and this time there are some advantages: land. [Native News Online]

Under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act the Tohono O’odham Nation won its lawsuit with the State of Arizona and in 2017 it opened a casino in Glendale outside its established boundaries. So, in 2018 the Oglala Lakota Oyate bought fifty acres just off I-90 outside their Nation then legalized cannabis for all adults in 2020. According to the Lakota Times Oglala Lakota College has the equipment to test cannabis but so far the cost of constructing a lab in Pine Ridge has proved to be prohibitive. 

The Picuris and the Pojoaque Pueblos have entered agreements with State of New Mexico to market cannabis product outside tribal borders. The Tewa words wõ poví translate to “medicine flower” and so far half of Pojoaque's clients are from Texas and other red states.

So far, the State of South Dakota has issued about 4,000 cards for patients in the therapeutic cannabis program and Genesis Farms opened the first dispensary in Sioux Falls and has plans for another in Mitchell.