IM 26 – Drug Policy Reform
South Dakota
Reduced drug possession penalties (partially rolled back by legislature).
Strong Reform Potential
This initiative shows strong predicted outcomes across most impact dimensions. Minor gaps in political feasibility or implementation complexity are the primary risk factors. With adequate resourcing and stakeholder alignment, high success probability.
Drug Policy Reform Context
The war on drugs built mass incarceration.
Drug offenses are the single largest driver of federal incarceration and a major driver in most states. Decades of research show criminalization does not reduce use or trafficking — it criminalizes poverty and addiction. Decriminalization, treatment courts, and harm reduction programs consistently outperform incarceration on public health, recidivism, and cost metrics.
Impact, Operations and Cost
This reform shows meaningful projected impact for South Dakota. It addresses core systemic drivers with evidence-supported mechanisms, though targeted improvements to its weakest dimensions would significantly increase effectiveness. As of 2020, this initiative is enacted into law and accumulating outcome data.
Drug policy reforms operate on a spectrum from full decriminalization to supervised use facilities, with the most common reforms including treatment court expansion, reclassification of possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, removal of mandatory minimum sentences for possession, and diversion to treatment rather than prosecution. Treatment courts provide structured supervision with treatment conditions and graduated sanctions. Harm reduction programs including needle exchange and naloxone distribution operate independently of criminal justice but often link to diversion programs.
Drug treatment programs cost between $1,800 and $6,800 per participant annually. Drug courts cost approximately $4,000 per participant. These compare to incarceration costs of $38,000 per year nationally and significantly lower the downstream burden on emergency and healthcare systems from untreated addiction.
Legislative reclassification of offenses requires 12 to 24 months for passage and implementation. Drug court expansion takes 12 to 18 months per new court. Outcome data on treatment completion, relapse rates, and arrest recurrence is typically reportable at 12 to 24 months post-enrollment.
- →50 percent reduction in relapse rates among drug treatment court completers versus incarcerated peers
- →Treatment costs one-seventh the cost of incarceration per person annually
- →Significant reduction in drug-related arrests and court caseloads following decriminalization
- →Improved public health outcomes including reductions in overdose deaths in regions with harm reduction programs
Similar Reforms in Other States
Data Sources
Program data sourced from state legislative records and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Impact metrics from Bureau of Justice Statistics, RAND Corporation criminal justice research, Vera Institute, and The Sentencing Project. AltReform scores generated by our ML model trained on 20+ years of state-level reform outcomes. Statistics are the most recent available (2021–2024).