SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - A pair of bills dealing with medical marijuana will come up before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning in Pierre.
New Approach South Dakota is a proponent of the measures, and State Director Melissa Mentele of Emery says passage of the bills would be a victory for South Dakotans who rely on medical cannabis. She calls Senate Bill 57 "the safe haven bill."
Mentele says the measure covers patients who have moved to Colorado, Oregon or another legal state, and done their due diligence for being prescribed medical marijuana. She says the bill will protect them when they return to South Dakota to visit friends or family.
She says the bill does not put any legalization into place in the state, just protection.
The second measure would remove cannabidiol oil, derived from cannabis, from schedule one allowing for it's sale in South Dakota. Mentele says the oil is already being sold in the state.
She says CBD is legal in all fifty states but South Dakota does prosecute for it. She says she's "not really sure how that works." She says it's sold in smoke shops across the state. Basically any shop that sells tobacco or vaping supplies, sells CBD oil, according to Mentele.
Senate Majority Leader Blake Curd of Sioux Falls doesn't give the bills much of a chance for passage. Curd says the bills have little chance of getting through the Senate. He says there will be significant resistance from the law enforcement community and the attorney general's office.
He says it will be a "very long run for what will be short slide in the Senate."
