Medical marijuana retail licenses will be a hot commodity in Sioux Falls.

The Sioux Falls City Council Tuesday night signed off on a proposal coming from Mayor Paul TenHaken's office that will cap the number of retail stores that can operate in the city at five. And though councilors halved the $100,000 license fee that City Hall wanted, another late change allowing the sale of the licenses on the secondary market is expected to drive the value of a license up even hirer.

"The Sioux Falls City Council, by making a license worth $50,000 and transferrable, has just made dispensary licenses into liquor licenses," said Drew Duncan, a Sioux Falls attorney and lobbyist for clients in South Dakota's gambling and alcohol industry, via social media following the 7-1 vote.

A South Dakota legislative subcommittee recommended on Wednesday that the state’s medical marijuana regulations prohibit the home cultivation by patients.

A recommendation from the South Dakota Legislative subcommittee comes from a group of lawmakers working to draft rules to limit provisions of Initiated Measure 26 (IM26), a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana that was passed by nearly 70 percent of South Dakota voters in the November 2020 general election.

Rapid City Officials have drafted an ordinance allowing the installation of a medical marijuana dispensary for every five thousand people. Considering the population of Rapid is near 75 thousand, that works out to 15 dispensaries.

Assistant City Attorney Carla Cushman says, “Some people will miss out. In the ordinance there’s a provision that if an additional dispensary becomes available, either because our population, or maybe some of the licenses have become inactive or not renewed, there’s a variety of things that might happen -- then, there’s a process where we can issue some new licenses once they become available.”

PIERRE, S.D. — As the November deadline for proposed laws concerning legalized medical cannabis approaches, the South Dakota Department of Health is holding a public hearing to consider the adoption and amendment of proposed rules for South Dakota medical cannabis program.

The hearing will be held on Aug. 18, 2021 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. CDT, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. MDT in Conference Room 3 of the Kneip Building, 700 Governor’s Drive in Pierre. Anyone interested in testifying for or against the proposed rules may do so by appearing in person or remotely at the hearing.

South Dakota’s Native American Tribes not only legally opened a medical cannabis dispensary without consulting the state, but this past week, advocates also filed four different recreational legalization initiatives for consideration on the ballot later this year.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe was the first tribe in the nation to legalize cannabis following a memo published by the Department of Justice in 2014. Even though medical cannabis is legal in South Dakota now, as of July 1, 2021, sales aren’t expected to begin until July 1, 2022 due to Governor Kristi Noem not having enough time to “study the issue and implement a program,” she said in February, according to the Associated Press.

South Dakota has (finally) joined the growing list of US states with a medical cannabis program – sort of.

South Dakota Initiated Measure 26 (IM-26), the Medical Marijuana Initiative, was on the state’s ballot on November 3, 2020. 69.92% of voters supported establishing a medical marijuana program  for individuals with a debilitating medical condition.

In what has been an excruciating process, voters have finally had their wishes respected.

Legal Cannabis Laws Are Now In Effect In These 3 States

It’s been an eventful time for cannabis legislation in 2021. This has been made apparent with the fight for new laws legalizing cannabis. Particularly for states where recreational or medical use goes into effect in three new states on Thursday. In states like Connecticut and Virginia, legislators have passed laws enacting recreational marijuana.

South Dakota’s voter-initiated medical cannabis law took effect today. Seventy percent of voters approved the ballot initiative, Measure 26, on Election Day.