Marijuana legalisation in South Dakota faced another speedbump on Wednesday after the Supreme Court of the state backed a ruling of a lower court that nullified a voter-passed amendment to the state constitution. 

Kristi Noem, the Governor of South Dakota and a member of the Republican party, spearheaded the legal battle to make sure the amendment does not go through the judicial barriers. Though the Republican governor opposed marijuana legalisation as a social ill, her government’s arguments in court centered on technical violations to the state constitution, according to reports from Associated Press.

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The court sided with those arguments, ruling that the measure would have violated the state’s requirement that constitutional amendments deal with just one subject and would have created broad changes to state government, according to reports from Associated Press.

The measure, which is called Amendment A, was ratified by more than half of the voters to pave way for use of marijuana –medical, recreational and hemp cultivation. However, Colonel Rick Miller, the Superintendent of Highway Patrol filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Republican Governor.

The use of marijuana and its byproducts have followed a track of being accepted countrywide, with a Gallup Poll suggesting that nearly 70% of Americans were in support of legalisation.

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In November, four states — South Dakota, Montana, Arizona and New Jersey– moved to approve the legalisation of recreational marijuana. So far, at least 15 states and Washington DC, have taken similar steps.

In July next year, a voter passed law in the state of South Dakota will legalise the usage of marijuana for medical purposes. States that have already approved medical usage include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Flordia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada.

(With AP inputs)