South Dakota Constitutional Modification A outcomes: Marijuana legalization accepted

South Dakota has voted to legalize marijuana.

The state’s Constitutional Modification A, which voters accepted on Election Day, legalizes marijuana possession and use for adults 21 and older. It additionally permits people to develop as much as three vegetation in the event that they reside in a jurisdiction with no licensed marijuana retailers. And it permits distribution and gross sales, with a 15 p.c tax. Native jurisdictions will be capable of ban marijuana companies inside their borders.

Individually, South Dakota additionally legalized medical marijuana on Election Day — organising a system that can let sufferers with debilitating circumstances receive the drug underneath state regulation.

Marijuana stays unlawful underneath federal regulation. However beginning with President Barack Obama’s administration, the federal authorities has typically allowed states to legalize hashish with minimal federal interference.

Earlier than Election Day, 11 states and Washington, DC, had legalized marijuana, though DC doesn’t enable leisure gross sales. Change has moved rapidly throughout the US: A decade in the past, zero states allowed marijuana for leisure functions. Right here’s what the map regarded like earlier than Election Day:

Supporters of legalization argue that it eliminates the harms of marijuana prohibition: the a whole bunch of 1000’s of arrests across the US, the racial disparities behind these arrests, and the billions of {dollars} that movement from the black marketplace for illicit marijuana to drug cartels that then use the cash for violent operations all over the world. All of this, legalization advocates say, will outweigh any of the potential downsides — similar to elevated hashish use — that may include legalization.

Opponents, in the meantime, declare that legalization will create an enormous marijuana business that can market the drug irresponsibly. They level to America’s experiences with the alcohol and tobacco industries particularly, which have constructed their monetary empires largely on the backs of the heaviest customers of their merchandise. They usually argue ending prohibition might end in way more individuals utilizing pot, probably resulting in unexpected detrimental well being penalties.

In South Dakota, voters have sided with legalization supporters.

For extra on the talk over marijuana legalization, learn Vox’s explainer.