South Dakota Bill To End Felony Drug Ingestion Law Heads To Governor

“Voting for this bill and decriminalizing drug use will send a mixed message to our children.”

By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight

The way forward for South Dakota’s drug ingestion legislation—typically described as probably the most extreme within the nation—is within the palms of Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden.

The House of Representatives voted 37-33 on Thursday on the Capitol in Pierre to go a invoice that may, with Rhoden’s signature, cut back the usage of managed substances from a felony to a misdemeanor for the primary two offenses.

The state is the one one within the nation with a legislation that permits a failed drug check for a felony-level narcotic to function the idea for a jail sentence. Marijuana ingestion is at all times a misdemeanor. Under Senate Bill 83, all different types of ingestion would grow to be a misdemeanor till the third offense.

A Rhoden spokeswoman informed South Dakota Searchlight that he’ll take into account the invoice “once it reaches his desk.”

The governor beforehand signaled a willingness to contemplate different approaches to prison justice.

“My philosophy is that the best way to fight crime is to hire more officers, not to increase penalties,” Rhoden informed a joint session of the state House and Senate final month. “Increasing penalties just means we have to build even more prisons.”

The latter level hearkens to a yearslong debate over how finest to take care of overcrowding within the state’s correctional amenities.

A invoice to fund building of a 1,500-bed, $825 million males’s jail in Lincoln County has didn’t earn lawmaker assist within the face of opposition from its neighbors, its hefty price ticket and considerations about its measurement.

On the day the House opted to ship him the ingestion change proposal, Rhoden inked an government order to create a working group he hopes will discover “a path forward” for a jail or prisons.

Critics of the state’s ingestion legislation, who’ve tried to repeal or in any other case regulate its severity practically yearly since 2019, argue that the legislation stigmatizes dependancy and makes the issue worse. Ingestion additionally contributes to the state’s jail inhabitants, they are saying, and saddles customers with felonies that make it tougher to seek out jobs, get housing and keep sober.

“If you have ever loved somebody who has been trapped in that cycle of substance use, you can understand how them being charged with a felony is not going to help them get better,” mentioned Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls. “It is not going to help them find rehabilitation. If anything, it leads to further shame and demonization.”

Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, was the invoice’s prime sponsor within the House. Sen. Tamara Grove, R-Lower Brule, launched the bill within the Senate.

Mulder has pushed for restrictions on marijuana-like merchandise created from delta-8 THC, in addition to on an intoxicating substance referred to as kratom and on foreign-made nicotine vape merchandise. He talked about his ardour for these points throughout the debate on ingestion, however mentioned “I work in addiction treatment,” and “what we are doing is not working.” Mulder is the managing director of Volunteers of America-Dakotas.

“We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect different results,” Mulder mentioned.

The present legislation’s backers argue that medicine within the hand and medicines within the system are one in the identical and should be handled as such.

“We need to make a powerful statement today from the South Dakota House of Representatives that drugs are dangerous to the public, to their health and to their safety,” mentioned Rep. Mary Fitzgerald, R-Spearfish. “Voting for this bill and decriminalizing drug use will send a mixed message to our children.”

Those charged with ingestion sometimes get a number of possibilities to finish therapy and probation earlier than they go to jail, the prevailing legislation’s backers say. The legislation can even assist prosecutors safe convictions by way of plea deal in circumstances the place a person has extra critical fees.

But Rep. Liz May, R-Kyle, was amongst a number of lawmakers to say that the present strategy has achieved little to maneuver the needle towards rehabilitation. Lawmakers have created 9 new felonies this session alone, she mentioned, as a substitute of spending cash on rehabilitation.

“If you keep putting felonies on the books, we’re going to have to build another prison,” May mentioned. “So I would strongly encourage everybody: Get this off the books. Let’s try something different.”

This story was first published by South Dakota Searchlight.

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