The Initiative
The medical marijuana initiative would have made South Dakota the 12th state to remove the threat of arrest and jail for patients who need to use marijuana for medical purposes. South Dakota's initiative was closely based on the medical marijuana law that Montana voters enacted in 2004.
What would the medical marijuana initiative have done?
- protected seriously ill patients -- and their caregivers -- who possessed and cultivated limited amounts of marijuana with their doctors' certification from arrest and prosecution by state authorities;
- created registry identification cards, so that law enforcement officials would have been able to easily tell who was a qualified patient and who was not, and established penalties for false statements and fraudulent ID cards;
- protected doctors from being punished for advising their patients that -- in their sincere professional judgment -- the benefits of the medical use of marijuana for the patient would exceed the risks;
- allowed patients and their caregivers who were arrested to raise a medical defense in court; and
- prohibited the public use of marijuana and driving under the influence of marijuana, among other common sense restrictions.
Download: Full Text of the Initiative (Requires Adobe Reader) |
