South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden has signed a bill that will loosen his state’s felony ingestion statutes, which are among the nation’s strictest laws on drug use.
Senate Bill 83 reduces first- and second-offense ingestion of controlled substances from class five felonies to class one misdemeanors. Maximum penalties for the charges, which typically stem from urine test results, will fall from five years in prison and a $10,000 fine to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Rhoden penned a letter to lawmakers explaining his decision to sign the bill and affixed it to a press release announcing he’d signed it and 18 other bills into law on Wednesday.
The letter noted law enforcement’s stiff opposition to the bill, but also that third and subsequent offenses will remain felonies, and that South Dakota needs to focus more squarely on rehabilitation. His “difficult decision” to sign the bill, he said, “cannot be the end of the discussion.”
“We need all three branches of government – the legislature, the executive branch, and the judiciary – to continue working toward solutions,” he wrote. “We must expand treatment opportunities and make sure that the punishment fits the crime.”
Next steps for courts, prisons
He also wrote that the Unified Judicial System (UJS) will “assemble a task force” to look into the state’s treatment resources and its treatment courts.
