The stakes were high — and scary — at a South Dakota community center card game. A group of seniors inadvertently ate a batch of cannabis brownies brought by a 73-year-old woman who didn’t know that her adult son had baked them with THC butter. The incident happened last Tuesday in Tabor, a town with a population of 423 people, according to an affidavit obtained by The Smoking Gun. Police responded to several calls of a “possible poisoning” and found that all the patients had been playing cards at the Tabor Community Center and were “under the influence.”

When I took my deep drag yesterday morning on the Legislature’s big marijuana bong, I noted in passing that Representative Will Mortenson’s Republican friends (and Republicans are the prime sponsors of all 26 marijuana bills in the hopper) appear to be ignoring his advice to leave marijuana policy alone until after voters get their say on the marijuana initiative that he is sure will make the November ballot. Mortenson expressed this wish even though marijuana initiative organizers had not at the time of his writing over a month ago yet submitted their initiative petition for a repeat vote on legalizing marijuana.

Medical marijuana business license applications are now available in Aberdeen. 

The application forms went live on the city's website Tuesday. As of late Wednesday afternoon, City Attorney Ron Wager said, no applications had come in.

Given the track record of other cities like Sioux Falls, the dispensary spots might get taken quickly. In Aberdeen, the city council has set a maximum of six dispensary licenses.

Here are five things to know about applying for a medical marijuana business license in Aberdeen.

It's going to be a lengthy process

The application lists the steps and documentation needed in order for it to be considered complete. 

cloudPWR, a leading cloud software provider for government agencies and enterprise business, in partnership with Accela, another leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, launches a cloud-based medical cannabis program registry for the South Dakota Department of Health. The fully digital registry system will be used for processing and managing applications from patients and their caregivers, as well as cannabis license applications from businesses.

The South Dakota Supreme Court has sided with the state’s anti-pot governer, overturning a broad state cannabis initiative passed by voters last year, saying the amendment violates the state constitution. The court ruled 4-1 last week that the initiative, Amendment A, approved by ballot in November 2020, violates a narrow “single-subject” rule that applies to constitutional amendments.

The decision at least temporarily imperils adult-use marijuana in South Dakota but does not change laws in effect that allow medical marijuana and industrial hemp. As a whole, the amendment embraced those two sectors along with adult-use marijuana.

An executive board has adopted a report from a committee dispatched by the Legislature to study draft legislation on medical and adult-use cannabis.

A South Dakota legislative board has adopted a report from a committee dispatched by the Legislature to study draft legislation on medical and adult-use cannabis in the state.

The committee drafted nearly two dozen bills that would change South Dakota’s medical cannabis program, according to The Globe, as well as an adult-use legalization bill that committee chairman Bryan Breitling told the news outlet would be a “fail-safe” if the state’s Supreme Court upholds a lower court injunction against South Dakota’s voter-approved Amendment A.

In South Dakota, among the most complex states when it comes to cannabis, localities are moving ahead on medical as broader reforms loom.

South Dakota might just be the most complicated cannabis state in the U.S. 

Last November, the state was the first in the nation where voters legalized for both medical and adult use on the same Election Day. But, since then, the adult use measure has remained under legal fire, while medical was allowed to proceed.

After months of uncertainty, officials announced Monday that qualified medical cannabis patients in South Dakota are now able to apply for a patient card.

Eligible patients in South Dakota can officially file applications to receive a medical cannabis card under a new law that has had a clumsy rollout.

A notice posted Monday on a state government website dedicated to the new medical cannabis program said that physicians “can now access the medical cannabis patient portal and begin certifying medical cannabis patients.”

“Once certified by a physician, patients will then be able to access the online application process and complete their applications,” the notice said. “Approved applicants will have a medical cannabis patient card mailed to them.”

Representatives of medical and adult-use marijuana businesses in Constantine attended the Constantine village council meeting Oct. 18 with questions about a presentation to the council last month by Scott Dianda and Ed Santangelo of Tranquility Fields Retail, regarding opening a consumption lounge in the village. 

Tranquility Fields representatives call the proposed business “a night club for marijuana use," and said entertainment would be provided, and refreshments and marijuana would be ordered locally and delivered. 

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.