South Dakota Could Become Next State to Protect Medical Marijuana Patients
When Val Hannah was a combat medic in the Persian Gulf War, she was exposed to Sarin, a toxic nerve agent frequently used in chemical warfare. The exposure caused her to develop a degenerative illness similar to multiple sclerosis; it causes constant muscle and neurological pain, making simple tasks painful and sometimes even impossible.
Val has used medical marijuana to cope with the muscle spasms and pain, and has found marijuana has worked where other drugs have failed.
But the government continues to wage a war on people like Val. In September 2004, while traveling from one Veterans Affairs hospital to another, she was arrested for possessing 20 grams of medical marijuana (enough for three days of use) and spent a harrowing night in jail without medical treatment.
Fortunately, help may be coming soon for Val, who lives in South Dakota, and others like her. On November 7, South Dakotan voters will have the opportunity to decide if they want to continue arresting and prosecuting patients who use marijuana for medical purposes. If a majority of voters passes the initiative, South Dakota would become the 12th state to allow safe and legal access to medical marijuana -- and the first in the Midwest to do so.
The widespread support among South Dakotans for safe and legal access to medical marijuana shows how mainstream the issue has become: A 2002 Lucas Organization poll found that 64% of South Dakota residents support allowing seriously ill patients to use marijuana if recommended by a doctor.
Two organizations, South Dakotans for Safe Access (SDSA) and South Dakotans for Medical Marijuana (SDMM), are working to turn this sentiment into law. On May 2, the two groups handed in about 24,000 signatures to qualify the medical marijuana initiative for the November ballot. On the last day of May, the Secretary of State confirmed that the petition contained the required amount of valid signatures, and the initiative is now set to appear on the November ballot.
The proposal is based on the initiative that passed in Montana in 2004. If passed, the medical marijuana initiative would set up a registry system within the State Department of Health that would allow qualifying patients and caretakers to avoid arrest and prosecution, similar to the program that just went into effect in Rhode Island. The initiative also includes a "medical necessity" defense for people who have not yet obtained a registry card. Under this provision, people who are arrested and tried would be able to argue to a jury that they qualify as a patient under the initiative.
