South Dakota: Medical Marijuana Advocates Look to Send Issue to Public Vote

By Journal Staff

An organization promoting the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes in South Dakota plans to turn in more than 29,000 signatures this week to bring the issue to a public vote.

Emmett Reistroffer of Sioux Falls, director of communications for the South Dakota Coalition for Compassion, said the organization will turn in the petitions Wednesday to the secretary of state’s office in Pierre.

The group is months ahead of the filing deadline. And, provided that most of the names on the petitions are valid, it will be well above the 16,776 signatures needed to put the issue on the 2010 general election ballot.

Reistroffer said the organization was “extra careful” in the way it gathered the petition signatures, after the problems that opponents of an expanded smoking ban encountered last year with invalid signatures in their petition drive.

Related: South Dakota Coalition for Compassion
http://www.sdcompassion.org/


Source: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_4e1304f4-046b-11df-9c47-001...