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SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse

Meth Fight Incl. Drug Reform, SDHP

Kealey Bultena
/
SDPB
Governor Dennis Daugaard delivers the 2017 State of the State address.

South Dakota’s governor says he wants to fight methamphetamine by punishing bad behavior and reinforcing the good.

Governor Dennis Daugaard says he wants to offer incentives to beat addiction. He says he supports allowing offenders who complete court-ordered treatment in a year one opportunity to reduce a felony to a misdemeanor. Daugaard says he also supports mandatory jail time for people on probation or parole who fail drug tests.

"South Dakota is seeing a big increase in meth-related arrests and convictions," Daugaard says. "For the most part, meth is no longer being manufactured in homegrown laboratories; it is being produced on an industrial scale and being trafficking into South Dakota from outside our state."

Daugaard says he and the state’s attorney general want an additional task force to combat trafficking. That panel includes four new highway patrol officers who would work with agents of the state’s Division of Criminal Investigation. The governor proposes using money from the highway fund to support those new troopers.

Kealey Bultena grew up in South Dakota, where her grandparents took advantage of the state’s agriculture at nap time, tricking her into car rides to “go see cows.” Rarely did she stay awake long enough to see the livestock, but now she writes stories about the animals – and the legislature and education and much more. Kealey worked in television for four years while attending the University of South Dakota. She started interning with South Dakota Public Broadcasting in September 2010 and accepted a position with television in 2011. Now Kealey is the radio news producer stationed in Sioux Falls. As a multi-media journalist, Kealey prides herself on the diversity of the stories she tells and the impact her work has on people across the state. Kealey is always searching for new ideas. Let her know of a great story! Find her on Facebook and twitter (@KealeySDPB).