It's been a marijuana roller coaster in South Dakota. Back in November of 2020, the citizens of South Dakota voted to legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes.

Amendment A which legalizes recreational and medical marijuana passed with 54 percent of South Dakotans vote in favor of the amendment and it was set to go into effect on July 1st of 2021.

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And just as many businesses were gearing up to accommodate the sale of legalized pot in South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem had Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom and South Dakota Highway Patrol Superintendent Rick Miller file a petition questioning the legality of the legalization.

According to Dakota News Now, the plaintiffs filed claiming that “the measure takes on multiple subjects, which violates the state’s one-subject rule requiring amendments to address only one topic at a time. Second, they argued the measure was a revision rather than an amendment - essentially, a fundamental change to the constitution - which would require a three-fourths vote from both chambers of the state legislature.”

The Rapid City Journal quoted Governor Kristi Noem as saying: “In South Dakota, we respect our Constitution. I look forward to the court addressing the serious constitutional concerns laid out in this lawsuit.”

Oral arguments will start on Wednesday morning April 28. There is no word on when a decision will be announced.

It appears that South Dakota taxpayers will be fronting the bill for both sides of the litigation.

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