Mary Fitzgerald expressed strong opposition to both of South Dakota’s marijuana initiatives when she was running for Legislature. Now that voters have passed both of those initiatives, which will make marijuana legal and taxable in South Dakota come July 1, 2021, Representative-Elect Fitzgerald (R-31/St. Onge) indicates she plans to file three bills to curb our pot-thusiasm:
Representative-elect Mary Fitzgerald said Monday that South Dakota needs laws on driving while under the influence of marijuana, banning use of marijuana in a motor vehicle, and requiring a state license for making substances such as hash oil.
…“We have to put something in place because we don’t have anything right now to protect us,” she said. “We have to have some way to protect the people of South Dakota from this” [Bob Mercer, “New Legislator Wants Restrictions on Pot,” KELO-TV, 2020.11.30].
Representative-Elect Fitzgerald perhaps exaggerates the legal vacuum. Amendment A Section 2 explicitly preserves existing laws that prohibit or otherwise regulate “(4) Operating or being in physical control of any motor vehicle, train, aircraft, motorboat, or other motorized form of transport while under the influence of marijuana” and “(6) Smoking marijuana within a motor vehicle, aircraft, motorboat, or other motorized form of transport, while it is being operated.” SDCL 32-23-1, which outlaws driving under the influence of marijuana, thus remains on the books now and after July 1.
Amendment A Section 7 also directs the Department of Revenue to make rules and regulations governing all sorts of pot-licensing issues, including “(7) Restrictions on the manufacture and sale of edible products to ensure consumer and child safety.” Amendment A thus not only leaves in place any current regulations concerning consumer products, it appears to require exactly the action that Fitzgerald envisions for hash oil, hash brownies, and Gaia-knows what else.
If those protections aren’t enough, Amendment A leaves the door open for Fitzegerald to pursue her proposed agenda of increased government regulation. Of course, Governor Noem will probably veto any such regulations, since, when it comes to public health and safety, she opposes using the heavy hand of government and instead trusts South Dakotans to exercise personal responsibility…
Mary , Mary quite contrary.
How does your garden grow?
With little bells and cockleshells and
Cannabis plants all in a row.
Mary, Mary
Not quite very
Smart
It looks like the people of South Dakota need protection from Mary who seems to want to rule over them.
After 40-some years of living with the impenetrably-dense John Fitzgerald, Mary appears to believe–with no evidence provided–that she has something to offer the likewise-dense citizens of Lawrence County. Just shoot me.
My good friend Bob is righter-than-right about the Cohabitating Fitzgeralds being insaner than most. But the government is no doubt going to regulate the bejeebuz out of the hash oil, hash brownies, toking paraphernalia from the Head shops, and the hookah hose manufacturers. And I bet you that Ifrit’s Hookah Lounge gets tagged with a $100,000 license to stay in business, too.
Mary Fitzgerald suggests a blood alcohol-type test for drivers, suggesting we look to Colorado for information. Blood tests for marijuana are, however, problematic.
“Results: The average time from law enforcement dispatch to blood draw in cases of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault was 2.32 h (SD ± 1.31 h), with a range of 0.83 to 8.0 h and a median of 2.0 h. Data from DUI traffic arrests found that between 42 and 70% of all cannabinoid-positive traffic arrests tested below 5 ng/ml THC in blood, which is the legal limit in Colorado and Washington.
Conclusion: Given the current delays to blood testing in cases of arrests for vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in Colorado, many blood tests are unlikely to confirm that drivers who are impaired from smoking marijuana have THC levels above established legal limits.”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15389588.2015.1052421
“She also wants to require a state license for manufacturing marijuana concentrates such as hash oil products using flammable solvents such as butane or propane.
She said the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, also known more generally as THC, can be extracted from marijuana plant material using those solvents that are flammable and explosive.
“It’s very easy to make but it’s also very dangerous,” Fitzgerald said.”
https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/new-s-d-legislator-wants-restrictions-on-pot/
THC can be extracted using numerous solvents, some flammable and some not so flammable. No reason to resort to gases such as propane and butane. Everclear is a popular home option; for a gooey mess, people also use coconut oil. Numerous other options.
https://www.alchimiaweb.com/blogen/complete-guide-solvent-cannabis-extracts/
She seems bent on legislation and is shooting in all directions to get it.
Mary appears as a product of the Nancy Reagan, failed police, prosecutorial, prison industrial complex. These people are too aggravating to progress to ignore. No amount scientific evidence will change them. They’ll ignore the failed war on drugs. They’ll ignore the military heroin pipelines to the US from SE Asia. They’ll ignore the CIA selling drugs for arms in central America and sponsoring the crack epidemic in the US. They’ll ignore the generation-plus long record of nations that decriminalized drugs resulting in less use, fewer drug crime, fewer addicts. Their learning curve is flat. Their minds are closed. We have to work around them until they die off.
John, “failed” depends on your point of reference. For the corporations lining their pockets from that inmate warehousing, police arming, and race baiting/fear mongering, business has been pretty, pretty good.
The original sin of this nation still raises its ugly head in the hearts of those STILL willing to profit on the misery of others — especially “the others.”
The cannabidol in cannabis does not impair driving. That’s the ingredient in cannabis for medicinal purposes.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/12/02/Cannabidiol-CBD-in-cannabis-does-not-impair-driving-landmark-study-shows.html#.X8aT05nLNQw.reddit
THC ‘s driving impairment is mild, lasting about 4 hours. (Perhaps little different from communion wine.)
People need to get educated. It’s not the ditch weed they grew up in era.
The levels are as light as a Tylenol or having a beer. With that said, if you study the product, you will have different confirmations such as the legal limit for alcohol. “Weed” isn’t weed anymore and could be classified as different substance such as medicine. However our law makers such as “Karen” here is jumping right in with
“Omg we have no laws! Let’s make some up now” without actually understanding the product.
“’Omg we have no laws! Let’s make some up now’ without actually understanding the product.”
John and Mary have experience with the product. Of that, I have personal knowledge. But they have experience with many facets of life without having “understanding” of them.
T: In what way is marijuana as “light as Tylenol or having a beer?” Perhaps at exceptionally minimal dosages, is that what you mean? Marijuana itself has come a long way since ditchweed or the Mexican seed blocks of the 1960s in terms of potency and THC concentration.
A study just this month demonstrated that THC concentrations in marijuana have increased by 14% from 1970 to 2017. This is not due to selective breeding but to an increasingly greater share of sensimilla (the female, seedless cultivars) on the market. Interestingly, the researchers found no increase of CBD during this time. (I’m rather surprised at the latter as THC and CBD are structural isomers, ie., they have identical molecular formulae).
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.15253
This will blow noem’s and Mary’s minds. The UN and World Health Organization ratified decriminalization of cannabis.
Now Columbia considers legalizing the cocaine industry as a less expensive alternative to pouring money into policing it. Further, by legalizing the cocaine industry, Columbia could turn a liability into a tax-able, revenue producing asset. (Not unlike similar approaches seen when Amazon turned business costs in revenue producing business lines.)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/epdv3j/colombia-is-considering-legalizing-its-massive-cocaine-industry