South Dakota residents will decide in November whether or not to support adult-use cannabis legalization in a vote for or against Initiative Measure 27, which will be on the ballot. Moving closer to the elections, groups opposing marijuana legalization are lobbying hard.
Last Thursday, the grassroots organization Protecting South Dakota Kids presented a panoply of negative results they believe legalization would usher in, reported Aberdeen News.
Representatives for the organization, including its chairman James Kinyon, retired highway patrolman Ed Moses and Kristi "Cricket" Palmer attended the event at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Moses began the meeting with several statistics about marijuana legalization, such as:
- Increase in teen consumption;
- Higher rates of cream vomiting which some states have reported;
- Negative effects on brain functioning caused by long-term use.
"Children are not protected with this," Moses said, also expressing concerns about medical marijuana, which was legalized some two years ago.
"It can cause a permanent drop in intelligence," Moses said. "It also interferes with the exchange of information between neurons."
Moses referred to several studies that claim marijuana can cause a drop in IQ, higher rates of psychosis and mental health disorders.
Still, ‘Less Harmful Than Alcohol’
Following the presentation, Matthew Schweich, IM 27 campaign manager told the American News that while the passage of the measure would make recreational marijuana legal, it is up to the states to create laws governing sales and to regulate the industry.
"We don't create an industry. We make it legal," he said. "Find me one person in the state that says the South Dakota Legislature is going to pass relaxed legislation for edibles."
Schweich noted that most of the arguments against legalization are emotional and anecdotal, although he recognized health risks exist.
"Cannabis can have negative effects in the long term, but it's less harmful than alcohol. You can't die from cannabis poisoning," he said.
Others Agree Against Cannabis
Protecting South Dakota Kids’ presentation came several weeks after two Sioux Falls officials insisted that cannabis legalization promotes crime and violence.
Mayor Paul TenHaken referred to three myths from cannabis supporters of Measure 27. He disagreed that state prisons are full of people with cannabis convictions, contending that crime would not drop if marijuana was legal, but rather the opposite would occur.
TenHaken noted that the black market is flourishing even in places where marijuana is legal.
"Why would you, as someone with a legal cannabis license, how can you compete against someone who says, 'I'm going to bypass the laws, I'm going to bypass the permits, I'm going to bypass all the other things and just grow illegally, I don't have to pay the taxes," the mayor said.
TenHaken also touched on the issue of revenue, insisting that communities are not seeing any benefit from cannabis sales. "Any revenue that is realized is used to deal with the unintended consequences, treatment issues, crime issues that (are the result) of legalization."
Photo: Courtesy of Nicolas Ladino Silva on Unsplash
