The Legislature in Pierre seems to be having difficulty in settling on a course of action when it comes to marijuana. The voters finally approved legalizing medical and recreational marijuana, I say “finally” because this issue has been on the ballot in one form or another, on and off since the 1990’s. Governor Noem opposes legalization, which is the correct position in my view. However, the people have voted for this change in policy. What will our leaders in Pierre do?
This situation reminds me of my time as a legislator, and I’ll get back to the marijuana issue in just a tick. I spent twelve years in the South Dakota Legislature. At first I was a State Senator from 1993 to 2000 and then, after I termed out in the Senate, a State Representative from 2001 to 2004. During that time there were a number of ballot initiatives and referred measures that South Dakotans voted for that conflicted with the collective wisdom of the Legislature and sitting Governors. One initiated measure that I especially recall is the schools starting after Labor Day.
Many schools around the State had attendance policies that penalized students for unexcused absences. Unfortunately, most schools started at the beginning or middle of August depending on which school district a student was in. The State Fair, and related 4H activities, took place during the beginning of the school year culminating on Labor Day. For some reason, while students were excused for fall activities like tennis and football, 4H activities at the fair were not excused. Rural communities and farm families were up in arms thus the initiated measure.
The measure, mandating school start after Labor Day, passed by a popular vote of the electorate. Immediately there was pressure from school and educational groups to go back to the earlier start date. The later start date impacted when fall sports could begin and when schools could let out for the summer. It had a ripple effect on when teacher contracts could lock teachers in place for a particular district for the next school year and so on. The later start date meant a later dismissal date impacting the tourism industry, which at that time was the #2 industry in South Dakota behind #1 agriculture. The tourism industry wanted their young, fresh faced, eager employees on the job by Memorial Day and that wasn’t going to happen with school still in session because of an after Labor Day start and subsequent later finish to the school year. Consequently, the political pressure was intense to change the date and to eliminate the mandate to start after Labor Day from the get-go.
There was a six year campaign to change the date beginning almost immediately after the initiated measure vote was certified. Other legislators and I resisted because the People had voted in the change. After a while, when schools changed their attendance policies and the relentless pressure from the tourism and educational folks didn’t let up the start date was eventually changed.
We’re seeing a similar dynamic play out over marijuana legalization in the Legislature over the past couple of sessions. The People voted to approve medical and recreational marijuana legalization, a mistake in my opinion. However, they voted to approve it. The question is, does the Legislature honor the will of the People or do they go with the science and keep marijuana illegal?
Research published in 2020 by the National Health Service in Britain, called the Genetics and Psychotic Disorder study, has found that frequent marijuana use causes psychosis. It’s like lung cancer in smokers. One doesn’t immediately have lung cancer due to smoking; it develops over time until “suddenly” one has cancer. The same is true for psychosis and marijuana.
In 2017, the National Academy of Medicine released a report called “The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids” and concluded; “Cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.” The study also suggests that adolescents that use marijuana increase their risk of developing schizophrenia as much as six times more than teens who never use marijuana. Crime data shows that men with schizophrenia are five times more likely to commit violent crime. In addition, the National Academy of Medicine tested the efficacy of cannabis in the treatment of disease and found no evidence, other than a placebo effect, that the drug has any useful application as a therapy and in some cases may make the condition it’s supposed to treat worse.
Another study published in a 2013 paper in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that teens who used marijuana (but not alcohol as well) were three times more like to be physically aggressive than non-users and teens that used both marijuana and alcohol were six times more likely to be physically aggressive. Marijuana legalization, even for medical reasons, is a terrible idea.
So, if the Legislature is going to follow the science and deny marijuana legalization despite the will of the People they should articulate that clearly and publically state their reasons for doing so. If the Legislature is going to honor the vote of the People then they should do so at once without any additional delay.
If the Legislature is going to legalize marijuana for recreational as well as medical use then they need to go one step further and expunge the criminal records of people arrested simply for marijuana possession. It makes no sense to keep folks out of the labor market generally and certain jobs specifically for a “crime” which is no longer a crime. What will it be; the Will of the People or “We know best”? It’s time to decide.