Top South Dakota court overturns ballot bid to legalise recreational cannabis

Legal recreational cannabis in South Dakota will have to wait following the state Supreme Court’s controversial decision to invalidate Amendment A, a recreational cannabis ballot initiative passed by voters in November 2020.

Ultimately, the supreme court agreed with a lower court’s decision that the initiative violated the state’s requirement that initiatives may only address a single subject. The court rejected the defendants’ claims that the initiative covered only cannabis and found that three distinct subjects were addressed – recreational cannabis, medical cannabis, and hemp.