Ingesting remains a felony

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PIERRE – Ingesting illegal drugs like methamphetamine will remain a felony in South Dakota after the Senate Judiciary Committee defeated a bill to move ingesting down to a misdemeanor. 

SB115 would have made the first offense a Class 1 misdemeanor, the second offense within 10 years would have mandatory jail time and a third offense within 10 years would be a Class 6 felony. Currently ingesting is a Class 5 or Class 6 felony depending on the drug. 

“This bill, I believe, is absolutely consistent with Gov. Noem’s request that legislators try to deal with the methamphetamine issue we’re having throughout South Dakota,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Craig Kennedy, D-Yankton. 

Kennedy said that South Dakota has more than 350 prison inmates serving sentences for ingesting, many of them in the women’s prison which is full. According to Legislative Research Council figures, passing SB115 would save the state $23 million over 10 years and counties $7.6 million over 10 years. 

Once the prison sentence is done, Kennedy said, it’s almost impossible for a former inmate to get a job, find a place to live or get a bank loan. 

“We’ve created a mountain that almost no one can climb,” Kennedy said. “You cannot incarcerate your way out of this problem.”

Justin Bell, representing the S.D. Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, said South Dakota is the only state that handles ingestion as a felony. It’s likely that someone imprisoned on an ingesting charge will hang out in prison with other addicts, Bell said. 

“It doesn’t work to put people in prison for ingestion charges,” Bell said. “You make a better criminal.”

Opposing the bill was Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg who noted that a felony conviction is required to take part in the state’s drug court program. “It delays treatment,” Ravnsborg said of SB115.

Dick Tieszen, representing the S.D. Sheriffs’ Association, told the committee that the threat of a felony is one way for law enforcement to get an addict to tell them where the drugs are coming from. 

“It’s a valuable tool,” Tieszen said. “Please don’t take it away.”

Changing ingestion from a felony to a misdemeanor was the equivalent of ignoring the state’s drug problem, Tieszen said. 

“That’s the ostrich approach to the problem,” Tieszen said. “It’s not a felony crime, so it’s not a problem.”

On a 5-2 vote the committee endorsed a motion to move the bill to the 41st legislative day, a tactic that kills legislation.