“I am a little nervous about our total signature count. I think it’s really important that supporters of cannabis reforms are not complacent.”
By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight
Cannabis advocates in South Dakota hope the weekend’s unofficial pot holiday and its associated concerts and dispensary discounts will improve the odds of getting recreational marijuana on the general election ballot in November.
April 20 is widely celebrated in the cannabis community as 4/20, and dispensaries in South Dakota took advantage of the date to offer special deals to medical marijuana patients.
The number began its evolution from an inside joke into an international code for pot culture after 1971. That was the year a group of high school kids in California began to meet at 4:20 p.m. after school to smoke marijuana. One of those students wound up working with the band The Grateful Dead, whose members and fans adopted the shorthand. The number eventually caught the attention of a reporter for the marijuana-centric High Times magazine, who put it in the publication and presented it to a wide audience.
Events double as petition drives
The events in South Dakota extend beyond dispensaries. Big’s Bar in Sioux Falls hosted its
