In 2020, Constitutional Amendment A legalized both medical and adult-use cannabis and paved the way for lawmakers to begin to regulate the hemp industry. The amendment passed with 54% support from South Dakotan voters, however a year later, the South Dakota Supreme Court overturned the initiative because it violated the "single subject" requirement for constitutional amendments. Since the amendment included three different subjects (medical cannabis, adult-use cannabis, and hemp), the court argued that citizens were not able to vote individually on the three subjects.

Following this ruling, a seperate measure was introduced to legalize mdeical-use cannabis. The measure recieved 70% of the vote and legalized medical marijuana.

Two years later, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) submitted signatures in May of 2022 to the Secretary of State to place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state's November 2022 ballot. The measure was defeated with 52.92% of voters saying no.

A similar initiative was submitted again two years later in 2024 to legalize adult-use cannabis. This time around, 56% of voters rejected the initiative.

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There is no notable activity at this time.

With a population of ~900K, attractive assets will be based on each municipality. The state is not overwhelmingly in support of a legal cannabis market yet, and given its past record, there are no reasons to expect any major shifts. It’s hard to see many scaled and profitable operations here. Successful operators are vertically integrated with retail in the most populated cities.