South Dakota will become second border state selling marijuana

Soon, two states that border Iowa will offer recreational marijuana for sale.

Illinois started selling pot to Iowans in January, while next year, South Dakota will begin to grow, tax and sell it. South Dakota voters approved an initiative on Tuesday allowing medical marijuana, and a constitutional amendment allowing recreational use.

Drey Samuelson, spokesman for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, says it was a big victory.  “Ten years ago, there was a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot and it lost two-to-one,” Samuelson says, “and a very similar initiative ten years later now passed by a margin greater than two-to-one. Attitudes are changing, just like people change.”

Both initiatives will take effect in South Dakota on July 1st of next year. Between now and then, that state’s legislature will have to determine how to launch and regulate the new industry, including whether people from neighboring states — like Iowa — may purchase the products.

“The…