Report urges lawmakers to take public health approach on legal Cannabis
South Dakota Votes on Recreational Cannabis: Health Experts Advocate for Public Health Approach.
As South Dakotans approach a vote on recreational cannabis, a new paper makes recommendations to policymakers on implementing its legality. The American College of Physicians suggests lawmakers take a public health approach to cannabis control in places where recreational use is legal. That could soon include South Dakota, if voters approve a ballot measure in November.
David Hilden chairs the College’s Health and Public Policy Committee and says that kind of approach considers not just the effects of legalization on people who use cannabis, but on communities at-large.
"States that legalize cannabis should consider: What framework are you giving for marketing? For advertising? What safeguards are in place for the content of your cannabis? What about the effects on our roadways?"
South Dakota voters approved medical and recreational cannabis use in 2020. But in a case that went to the state’s Supreme Court, the recreational-use vote was overturned on a technicality over how changes are made to the state’s constitution.
Hilden says people both for and against cannabis legalization tend to have "fairly firm beliefs" that it’s either a safe or dangerous substance. The safety of its use likely lands more in the middle, he says, and he wants governments to support research around what’s still unknown.
"Voters don't have all of that information at their fingertips, and so it is up to state governments, public health agencies, the federal government, to do that scientific inquiry into the benefits and the harms, and then put some safeguards in place."
This Election Day will be the third time recreational cannabis use has gone to voters in South Dakota.
