Attorney General Jackley tells committee that SD cannot stop flow of drugs into the state

PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — South Dakota can only slow–not stop–the flow of drugs into the state.

That’s according to Attorney General Marty Jackley.

Jackley told the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning that “until Washington does something about the border, that’s where methamphetamine and fentanyl are coming from.”

“We’ve confiscated 10 pounds (4.54 kg) of fentanyl,” Jackley said. While he said that doesn’t sound like much, “We’ve confiscated enough fentanyl to kill every South Dakotan several times over.”

Jackley also says that because of artificial intelligence, child pornographers are stealing photos and videos of children on social media and turning them into pornography.

“Looking at AI, it is a good thing,” Jackley said. “But bad people do bad things with good things. I don’t have the tools to address it.”

Thus, he wants revisions to the state’s child pornography laws to address the “deep fakes.”

Jackley says South Dakota is safe compared to the rest of the U.S., “but there are things we can do to make it safer.”