South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem immediately vetoed a bill to legalize industrial hemp in that state once she received it Monday.
Noem said in her veto message that “normalizing” hemp was part of a bigger strategy to make marijuana legalization inevitable.
She says the bill would make law enforcement’s job more difficult.
Democratic Rep. Oren Lesmeister, the bill’s sponsor, says the veto wasn’t surprising, but that some of Noem’s comments were.
An attempt to override Noem’s veto failed Tuesday afternoon in the state legislature.
The 20-13 Senate vote was short of the two-thirds needed to overcome Noem’s veto.
It came after the House easily voted to override Noem earlier in the day.
Senate Democratic leader Troy Heinert says the bill was right for South Dakota’s producers and residents who want to use, grow and manufacture the product.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says at least 41 states have enacted hemp growing and production programs.
The 2018 federal farm bill legalized cultivation of industrial hemp nationally.
