SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – In another effort to campaign as we get closer to election day, the Yes on 29 campaign held a press conference on Thursday.
The Initiated Measure would legalize recreational marijuana if passed.
Maybe the third time is a charm for recreational marijuana in the state of South Dakota. After a lawsuit in 2020 and a failed vote in 2022, Yes on 29 is optimistic about this yearâs effort.
The event lasted less than half an hour, but reporters got the chance to hear from campaign manager Brad Jurgensen and a former South Dakota Highway Patrol Trooper who spoke on his experiences policing marijuana.
Alan Welsh, who was a trooper for 28 years, said that at one point he believed that marijuana was a dangerous gateway drug but soon realized that it was not what itâs made out to be.
âJust here to say, thatâs BS, it doesnât work like that, when I started looking and thinking for myself, itâs no, if it were a gateway drug, the gateway is keeping it on the black market,â Welsh said.
The push for legalized marijuana is not only being made for the sake of interested citizens but for the state as well, according to one local state representative.
âMore than 200 individuals are currently incarcerated in South Dakota on non-violent drug charges, if medical and recreational are both legalized and weâre able to release those individuals and expunge their records, that saves us thirty-seven thousand dollars per person per year towards our DOC,â Rep. Kadyn Wittman (D) Sioux Falls said.
The state is currently in the process of budgeting for a new prison to handle current staffing issues at the South Dakota Menâs Penitentiary.
The Yes on 29 campaign also told Dakota News Now that they are ready to have a celebration party after the election.
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 Reporters heard testimony from a former highway patrol officer who said he didn’t like having to police people with marijuana crimes, but he had to.  Read More Â