Representative and theocrat Fred Deutsch (R-4/Florence) says he’s getting tons of thank-yous for his role in fighting Initiated Measure 27, the marijuana-legalization proposal that South Dakota voters rejected last week:
“Thank you for all you did to keep marijuana out of South Dakota!” writes Marj in her psalmy note.
Um, Marj, I hate to break it to you, but no one—no legislator and no law—is keeping marijuana out of South Dakota.
Marj’s fantasy of a pot-free SD is pricked by Deutsch’s own party boss, Dan Lederman. According to Joe Sneve’s report in The Dakota Scout, SDGOP chairman Lederman runs Dakota Health and Wellness, one of South Dakota’s certified cannabis cultivators.
Growing pot, peddling bail bonds, promoting cage-fighting, lobbying for CO2 pipelines and the Saudis, leading South Dakota Republicans—wow! Does Dan Lederman have any non-toxic vocations?
Deutsch’s campaigners branded IM 27 as an effort to protect kids against a big push by big out-of-state marijuana businesses. But perhaps the No on 27 campaign had as much to do with protecting the SDGOP party boss’s corner of the South Dakota marijuana market.
Bless their hearts. Recall that the former guy’s AG rescinded the Cole memo and freed tribal nations to pursue cannabis economic development in states like southern Dakota. So, expect my home state’s attorney general to sue the Biden administration for reasons we can only imagine.
https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2022/11/16/lawmakers-look-to-restrict-expansion-of-medical-cannabis-conditions/
Miranda Gohn finances an entire anti-cannabis crusade on how Big Dope drives the demon weed psychosis but Dan Lederman gets a pass?
Not one cannabis question on the 2022 Colorado ballot. No tweaks to the “smooth as silk” system, which serves as the template for most states who are legalizing. No cities, town, or villages voting to repeal. Miranda Gohn and her “Gohn Squad” couldn’t get anything but ridicule in CO so they took the lies they wrote about us to SD and made bank off who knows who.
We did have three alcohol questions on the card, though. I voted to NOT allow liquor store owners to own more than one liquor license. I voted to allow restaurants to deliver wine and mixed cocktails along with food orders sent on delivery. That one failed. And I voted to allow wine sales in grocery and convenience stores.
In short, “Weed is steady, Scottie.”
PS: 2021 state revenue from the Devil’s Lettuce was a record $423.5 million on $2.19 billion in sales. (Visit Colorado ~ You know, for the scenery)
In the legislatures of South Dakota, the liquor lobby has several friends who sit amongst the bodies. A new one joins this year. If the liquor lobby could get the bone cracker caucus behind them, they would run the state.
Yes, Grudz, you are correct…Liquor lubes the Republican machine.
Dan Lederman used to be taller than he is wide but not any more.
https://www.thedakotascout.com/p/gop-chairman-doubling-as-marijuana
Why anyone would want to be on a list that could lead to harassment in Kristi Noem’s South Dakota remains a mystery.
A Black Hills town named for a war criminal has snuffed therapeutic cannabis operations but will burn a native insect in effigy once again.
https://myblackhillscountry.com/content/city-wont-allow-cannabis-cultivation-manufacturing
Larry – can confirm. Law Enforcement is eager to get the database.
“SDGOP party boss’s corner of the South Dakota marijuana market.”
This ^ is correct.
27 would have been the biggest upset in political history.
It was the SD deep state throwing its riled-up Christian constituency in hopes they wouldn’t investigate election rigging from birth (first the mind, then the ballot, and if that fails, the counting machines).
No way in hell 27 would have ever passed, even if it had enough votes in my opinion.
It was also poorly written, to make things worse.
But I’m already seeing another draft coming around the bend that looks like it hits the sweet spot.
This fight is over, but most people don’t realize it, yet.
Focus on election integrity.
If you think our elections are clean, fight to keep them that way to pursuing the same strategy as those who think the elections are dirty: hand-count the precincts, create jobs to count (a good thing even for conservatives since elections are up-stream of some pretty bad or good things).
That is all.
“hrowing its riled-up Christian constituency” a bone
(sorry for the typo)
Sorry but both sides are following the wrong path.
There are likely endless possibilities between zero-sum games, i.e. rather than unfettered legalization versus draconian criminalization.
And yet it seems the masses are again being led towards radicalization, the “far-left” versus the “far-right”, both pursuing extremist policies.
South Dakota can’t even get a grip on it’s growing alcohol and tobacco problems, nor it’s growing problems with meth, opioids, and other controlled substances. How the hell do you all expect marijuana to work in a culture of such wide-spread and constant addiction & dependency?
I have honestly never seen to many addicts in my life.
Nor witnessed as much enabling of those addictions as I have in SD (including by the “state”, via entities such as the DOC, BOP, et al., whom have employed a seemingly lenient & failing “revolving-door” correctional system).
I have never met so many people that cannot handle the responsibilities that “freedom” requires.
Nor so many people that can’t seem to consider the notion of consequences of one’s actions.
South Dakota, as one of the least populated states in the U.S., is absent many of the social conditions that negatively affect other states, with much larger cities and populations, in that SD has the opportunity to form closer, better, more caring, compassionate and unified communities. Communities where more people can get to know, understand, and watch out for one another, rather than ignore those problems that individual humans are bound to face.
And yet far too many citizens and authority figures are absolutely failing in that regard.
A formal, legalized system, absent underlying change in social structures, is not the answer that pro-legalization folks dream of.
But neither is total criminalization, and continued increase in prison populations.
Living in a place like Yankton, and watching the endless parade of Parolees, most of whom have and continue to face serious substance abuse problems, simply caught & then released back into the community, absent any real rehabilitation or continued help, is recipe for disaster.
Is marijuana a “gateway” drug?
It depends on the individual. And adopting a “one-size-fits-all” strategy is a set-up for failure.
Working around many of those Parolees, most of whom have serious substance abuse problems, I’ve seen far too many that start back on marijuana (which is now easier than ever to procure), only to resume their previous dependencies on harder & harder drugs.
Much like marijuana proponents often like to tout only the “benefits” of weed, remaining ignorant of the inevitable negative consequences that will arise, addicts of much harder & more harmful drugs, like meth, opioids, cocaine, etc. often fail to recognize the consequences of those drugs as well.
But the same could be said of the masses of drunks in SD.
One thing is for certain – there are an awful lot of people in South Dakota that are desperately seeking “escapism”, via either alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or other substances, rather than being taught and learning better coping skills.
And for such a relatively sparse population, there is certainly a lot of anger (likely contributing to those dependency problems).
Land of the free?
Ben Franklin (as Poor Richard) wrote “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Virtue is effectively absent in South Dakota, despite the state’s advantages for such.
As such, South Dakota in on-track to become a nanny state (failure of a society to adequately address problems in a civil/social manner often results in the necessity of increasing laws).