South Dakota introduces medical marijuana and affirmative defense bills

NORML is pleased to announce that House Bill 1127, an act ”to provide safe legal access to medical marijuana for certain qualified persons,” has been introduced in the legislature.  A separate measure, House Bill 1128, allowing for certain marijuana patients to present a medical necessity defense is also pending before the legislature.

Local affiliates South Dakotans for Safe Access and SoDakNORML strongly support both measures.

If approved, House Bill 1127 would allow authorized patients to possess up to six ounces of cannabis and/or twelve plants. You can read additional information about this bill and its status here. 

Please take a moment today to contact your elected officials and urge them to support HB 1127. A pre-written letter has been included below for your convenience.

SUBJECT: Please support our patients: Yes on House Bill 1127

I’m writing to urge your support for House Bill 1127.

This bill seeks to enact statewide legal protections shielding those seriously ill patients who use cannabis therapeutically with a doctor’s recommendation from criminal prosecution. At the same time, it will not alter or interfere with already existing state laws discouraging the non-medical, recreational use of marijuana.

The use of marijuana as medicine is a public health issue; it should not be part of the war on drugs. According to a recent national survey of U.S. physicians conducted for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, nearly half of all doctors with opinions support legalizing cannabis as a medicine. Some 80 state and national health care organizations, including the American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association and The New England Journal of Medicine, support immediate, legal patient access to medical cannabis.

Most recently, the largest association of doctors of internal medicine and the second largest medical association in the country, the American College of Physicians, released a policy paper in support of medical cannabis, stating, “The ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.”

Thirteen states – Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington - have enacted laws protecting medical marijuana patients from state prosecution. These laws are operating primarily as lawmakers intended and have not led to widespread abuses among adolescents or adult recreational users.

I believe it is unconscionable to deny this effective medicine to sick and dying patients, and I strongly urge you to support the medical use of marijuana in South Dakota and to vote ‘yes’ on HB 1127.