After a series of controversial remarks about alleged drug trade on reservations, three more Native American tribes in South Dakota banned Gov. Kristi Noem from setting foot on their reservations, bringing the total number of tribal reservations to ban her to seven. 

The Associated Press reports that tribes are reacting to remarks from the governor, essentially saying that their reservations are havens for drug dealers selling fentanyl and other drugs, and that tribal leaders are allegedly not doing anything about it.

“We’ve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and that’s why they attack me every day,” Noem said at a forum. “But I’m going to fight for the people who actually live in those situations, who call me and text me every day and say, ’Please, dear governor, please come help us in Pine Ridge. We are scared.’ ”

The rift between Noem and tribes in her state continues to divide the two.

Noem posted on X a video of Chris Hansen from TruBlu investigating the trade of fentanyl, which includes some footage from Native American reservations in South Dakota. “Tribal leaders should take action to ban the cartels from their lands and accept my offer to help them restore law and order to their communities while protecting their sovereignty,” she posted. “We can only do this through partnerships because the Biden Administration is failing to do their job.”

The Oglala, Rosebud, Cheyenne River, and Standing Rock Sioux tribes already took action to ban her off their reservations. Last week, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (SWO) tribe banned Noem from their lands, and when the SWO tribe banned her, the 13,057 square-miles of South Dakota land held by tribal nations that have already banned here amounted to nearly 17% of the state’s total area. 

The Pine Ridge Reservation (Oglala Lakota) makes up 3,469 square-miles, while the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota comprises 4,267 square-miles, and a portion of the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota comprises 2,530 square-miles. The portion of the Lake Traverse Reservation (Sisseton Wahpeton) in South Dakota is about 1,400-square-miles, and the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota comprises 1,391-square-miles.

The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to ban Noem from their land in southeastern South Dakota just a few days later. Since there are nine tribal reservations in the state, just a few other remaining Native American tribes in the state haven’t banned her yet.

It’s not the first time the tribes have been at odds with Noem. In 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock took place and again during the COVID-19 pandemic when state leaders set up coronavirus checkpoints at reservation borders to keep out unnecessary visitors. She was temporarily banned from the Oglala Sioux reservation in 2019 after the protest dispute.

Things in general haven’t fared well between South Dakota’s Native Americans when it comes to European contact. In 1890, soldiers from the United States Army shot and killed hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at the Wounded Knee massacre—simply to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.

Noem as a Vice Presidential Running Mate

Noem was eyed as a potential Vice President running mate for Donald Trump, but her controversial comments could change that. Dallas-based political observer Cal Jillson said this tribal dispute hits different because Noem appears to be “stoking it actively, which suggests that she sees a political benefit.”

“I’m sure that Gov. Noem doesn’t mind a focus on tensions with the Native Americans in South Dakota because if we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about her shooting the dog,” Jillson told the Associated Press.

Last month, a clip from her new book No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward revealed that the governor gunned down her puppy dog when it proved incapable of being trained.

“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor wrote in her new book, adding that the female dog had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant. This particular passage sparked outrage. Noem wrote about making “hard choices” like shooting Cricket, as well as a goat on her property.

“We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” Noem posted on X in response. “Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

Noem’s new controversy with nearly every Native American reservation in the state is putting the public eye back on her remarks once again.

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Advocates in South Dakota recently turned in a batch of signatures to get their adult-use cannabis initiative on the ballot in November.

South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) collected 29,030 signatures and submitted them on May 7, which was the deadline set by the Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office. Out of that amount, 17,508 must be verified in order for the initiative to appear on the ballot. “Today is the culmination of seven months of hard work by advocates and volunteers across South Dakota,” said SDBML executive director Matthew Schweich. “We are very confident that we have collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for this November’s ballot.”

On X, the organization expressed its excitement and confidence that they had collected more than enough signatures in order for the initiative to qualify.

Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota president Deb Peters also commented on the milestone with hope. “Things all seem to be moving in the right direction for South Dakota to finally win the freedom they voted for a few years ago,” Peters said. “At the federal level, things are moving towards a responsible rescheduling and dozens of states are seeing the tax benefits of recreational cannabis legalization. It’s inspiring to see this industry come together and work so hard. We’re looking forward to Election Day.”

If passed, the initiative would allow adults over 21 to buy and possess up to two ounces of cannabis (or 16 grams of concentrates), while also cultivating six plants per person (with a 12-plant maximum for a single household). Possession of cannabis products cannot exceed 1,600 mg of THC.

Meeting this goal was partially due to the secretary of state’s office approving the organization to pay canvassers to pass out ballot material and collect signatures, in addition to the organization’s volunteers, in December 2023. The campaign material they passed out included the title and ballot description.

Johnson’s office has until August 13 to validate the signatures, according to The Washington Post.

SDBML campaign director Matthew Schweich described South Dakota’s history with adult-use legalization as “turbulent,” but there are numerous reasons for voters to support the 2024 measure. “I think for me, the strongest reason at its core is that if we’re going to allow alcohol to be legal in our society, then it makes absolutely no sense to punish people for using cannabis because alcohol is more harmful to the individual and to society than cannabis,” Schweich said.

In 2020, voters approved an adult-use cannabis initiative (Amendment A) and a medical cannabis initiative (Measure 26). Shortly after the votes were tallied, Gov. Kristi Noem expressed her disappointment. “I was personally opposed to these measures and firmly believe they’re the wrong choice for South Dakota’s communities,” Noem said at the time. We need to be finding ways to strengthen our families, and I think we’re taking a step backward in that effort.”

In February 2021, the adult-use initiative was nullified in court for violating the single subject rule for amending the state constitution. “Amendment A is a revision as it has far-reaching effects on the basic nature of South Dakota’s governmental system,” said Judge Christina Klinger. “The failure to submit Amendment A through the proper constitutional process voids the amendment and it has no effect.” It was later struck down in the Supreme Court in November 2021 as well.

Advocates continued onward in 2022 with another adult-use initiative (Measure 27), however voters decided not to show support and it didn’t pass. Polls conducted prior to the vote suggested that 51% of voters were planning on voting against the initiative, while only 40% were planning on supporting it. Final tallies show that 52.92% voted no, while 47.08% voted yes.

The medical cannabis initiative was not challenged back in 2021, but it took a while for legislators to implement rules necessary to get the program up and running. Patients were finally able to apply for a medical cannabis card starting in November 2021. As of August 2023, the South Dakota Department of Health shared that it has issued 11,500 cards since 2021, with 6,000 cards projected to be issued in 2024. “We’ve doubled the amount that we were projecting to see in three years within two years,” said the state’s medical cannabis program administrator, Jennifer Seale.

Although progress has been minimal, there have been other small victories in South Dakota. In July 2023, two law enforcement officers were forgiven for their past cannabis use. The South Dakota Law Enforcement Officers Standards Commission heard their cases, although both applicants described their cannabis use as a mistake. “I’m not going to fabricate an excuse. It was a mistake. I was in college, my freshman year,” said applicant Kody Beckers. “Looking back at it now was a blessing in disguise for me. I turned my whole act around.”

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The South Dakota Department of Health has issued roughly 11,500 cards since the medical marijuana program launched in 2021––shattering the department’s projections of 6,000 cards issued by 2024. 

“We’ve doubled the amount that we were projecting to see in three years within two years,” said Jennifer Seale, the administrator of South Dakota’s medical cannabis program, as quoted by the local news outlet South Dakota Searchlight.

Seale made the comments in testimony on Monday before the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee in the state legislature. 

Members of the committee expressed concern at the ease with which patients have gained access to medical marijuana cards. 

One member of the committee, Republican state House Rep. Fred Deutsch, has been outspoken in his opposition to recreational marijuana legalization, while also criticizing what he believes is a lack of safeguards in the state’s medical cannabis program. 

“Doctors can make a hell of a lot of money just opening up their ‘Doc in a Box Shop,’ and that concerns me. That should concern everybody. I mean, come on. If we’re talking about medical marijuana, we should allow people that really need it to have access to it, and we should prevent people that don’t need it from getting access to it as well,” Deutsch said in June.

Earlier this year, Deutsch obtained a medical cannabis card himself to demonstrate the ease of access.

“I support easy access to medical marijuana when doctors and patients follow the law. I now have a medical card because my doctor didn’t follow the law,” Deutsch said on Twitter in June.

At Monday’s hearing, Deutsch recounted the visit to the clinic that resulted in the medical cannabis prescription. Local TV station KELO provided details on Deutsch’s comments:

“[Deutsch] said he could clearly hear the conversations between the nurse practitioner and the people seeking cards. ‘There was no privacy whatsoever. HIPAA was out the door.’ According to Deutsch, the nurse practitioner looked at his medical records, noted that he had been in a traffic accident, asked whether he still felt pain, and certified him for a patient card for a year. Deutsch said he then asked her whether using marijuana could conflict with any of his current medicines, but she said he needed to talk to his primary doctor. She told him he needed to ask other questions of the shops that sell marijuana. After seven or eight minutes, the meeting was done: ‘I left feeling, ‘A hundred seventy bucks – there was no examination.’’”

In the state’s legislative session earlier this year, lawmakers considered a pair of proposals that would have imposed restrictions on so-called “pop-up” medical marijuana clinics, where patients can obtain a card with ease.

The two bills would have “made myriad changes to cannabis law in the state: banning certain advertisements for prescription services; requiring certain actions by doctors and other providers to establish a ‘bona fide’ relationship and allowing prescription to occur only in certain facilities, most of them related to medical care in some manner,” the Forum News Service reported at the time.

But both pieces of legislature were soundly rejected by the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

In January, South Dakota lawmakers approved a bill to widen the list of qualifying conditions for medical cannabis treatment in the state. The legislation also shifted the authority to set those qualifying conditions from the South Dakota Department of Health to the state legislature.

Voters in South Dakota approved a measure at the ballot to legalize medical cannabis for eligible patients in 2020.

While the law officially took effect in 2021, the first state-licensed dispensaries opened for business last year. 

The state’s 2020 ballot also included a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state.

Although a majority of voters approved the amendment, it was later overturned by the South Dakota Supreme Court––a ruling that delighted the state’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who spearheaded the lawsuit to get the law struck down.

But after the court’s ruling in 2021, Noem made a point to draw a distinction between the overturned recreational pot measure and the medical cannabis program.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” Noem said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law. This decision does not affect my Administration’s implementation of the medical cannabis program voters approved in 2020. That program was launched earlier this month, and the first cards have already gone out to eligible South Dakotans.”

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Longtime pot opponent South Dakota State Representative Fred Deutsch (R-Florence) repeatedly worked hard to narrow the state’s medical cannabis system as much as possible, and now aims to test the system after getting a card himself. 

Who is this guy? Deutsch urged his fellow representatives to vote against a bill adding several qualifying conditions to the state’s medical cannabis program, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and fought against other provisions like popup clinics. Deutsch claimed that studies show cannabis leads to an uptick in suicide.

After a few past attempts to limit the state’s program failed, the representative wants to test the state medical cannabis system to see if he can find any flaws. Deutsch told The Dakota Scout that he obtained a South Dakota medical cannabis card, but not to buy cannabis.

KOTA reports that in an earlier interview, the Tea Party Republican expressed some of his concerns over the details of the state’s medical cannabis system.

“States are called the laboratories of democracy,” Deutsch said. So, each laboratory we can see the kinds of outcomes they’ve attained from the laws they’ve written.”

He continued, “Doctors can make a hell of a lot of money just opening up their ‘Doc in a Box Shop,’ and that concerns me. That should concern everybody. I mean, come on. If we’re talking about medical marijuana, we should allow people that really need it to have access to it, and we should prevent people that don’t need it from getting access to it as well.”

Deustch also said that he aims to eliminate home growing altogether and only allow dispensaries to distribute, where cannabis can be tested and approved, to ensure that the black market is kept under control.

The vast majority of dispensaries—medical and adult-use—are checking patrons for ID. Data published in the journal Addictive Behaviors that adult-use retailers across five U.S. cities were in strict compliance with laws requiring patrons to show identification and proof of legal age.

South Dakota’s Road to Medical Cannabis

South Dakota stands out among other states’ because its adult-use cannabis law was approved and then overturned. South Dakota legalized cannabis for medical use in 2021, but cannabis can only be purchased by patients with medical cannabis cards.

Despite voting to approve a challenged adult-use cannabis bill two years earlier, for the second time, in 2022, voters in South Dakota rejected a measure to legalize adult-use cannabis.

“The voters said yes to establishing a medical marijuana system, and they said no to establishing a recreational marijuana system,” Deutsch said at the time.

In 2020, the South Dakota voters approved Initiated Measure 26 and approved medical cannabis with 69% of voters in favor of the measure. A majority of voters in South Dakota also approved a ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis. Constitutional Amendment A was approved with 54% of the vote, according to election records. However, a lawsuit filed last year by Gov. Kristi Noem and two highway patrol officers prevented the bill approved by voters from ever seeing the light of day. The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled on Nov 24, 2021, that the measure couldn’t be implemented because it violated a requirement that constitutional amendments deal with just one subject.

Since then, Deutsch has been working to narrow the scope of the state’s medical cannabis program.

Deutsch was prime sponsor of four medical cannabis bills seeking to add regulations and personally led the fight against popup clinics. But last February, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee rejected HB1129 and HB1172.

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Lawmakers in South Dakota on Thursday took a step toward making significant changes to the state’s medical cannabis program.

The Republican-controlled state Senate approved a bill that would broaden the list of qualifying conditions for a medical marijuana prescription, while also transferring the power to set those conditions from the South Dakota Department of Health to the state legislature.

The bill passed by a vote of 20-15, according to local news station KELO, and the legislation now moves to the state House of Representatives, where Republicans also maintain a sizable majority. 

Under South Dakota’s medical cannabis law, a patient with one of the following “debilitating conditions” may use medical cannabis once he or she obtains approval from the Department of Health: A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe, debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe and persistent muscle spasms. 

The legislation that was approved by the state Senate on Thursday would broaden the list of debilitating conditions to also include the following: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or positive status for human immunodeficiency virus; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Multiple sclerosis; Cancer or its treatment, if associated with Crohn’s disease; Epilepsy and seizures; Glaucoma; or Post-traumatic stress disorder. 

The bill also removes language in the law that gives the Department of Health the authority to determine which debilitating conditions will be covered. 

The measure was endorsed by a special legislative committee charged with providing oversight to the state’s medical cannabis law, which was approved by voters in 2020. 

The chair of that committee, Republican state Sen. Erin Tobin, “said taking away the department’s authority to set conditions and putting it with lawmakers instead gave her more confidence to prescribe medical marijuana for a patient,” KELO reported. 

KELO reported that Tobin noted that “the department doesn’t have a medical professional on its staff to decide on conditions.”

“This is something the Department of Health needs,” Tobin said, as quoted by KELO.

Legislators who objected to the proposal argued that the measure that was approved by South Dakota voters in 2020 explicitly gave the authority to the Department of Health.

South Dakota’s medical cannabis law officially took effect in the summer of 2021, but the state’s first licensed dispensary did not open until last year. 

Some Republican lawmakers in the state have been wary of the new medical cannabis law, contending that it could be a gateway to recreational pot use. 

Voters in the state rejected an initiated measure in November that would have legalized recreational marijuana in South Dakota, a disappointing outcome for advocates who believed they had triumphed two years prior. 

In 2020, voters there approved both the medical cannabis measure and an amendment that would have legalized recreational marijuana. 

The amendment drew an immediate legal challenge from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and the state Supreme Court ultimately struck it down in November of 2021. 

Noem celebrated the ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” Noem said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law. This decision does not affect my Administration’s implementation of the medical cannabis program voters approved in 2020. That program was launched earlier this month, and the first cards have already gone out to eligible South Dakotans.”

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After leading a successful legal challenge against a voter-approved recreational pot amendment, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem says she won’t stand in the way the second time around. 

Voters in the state will decide next week on Initiated Measure 27, a proposal to legalize personal possession of marijuana for adults aged 21 and older. 

Noem, a Republican who is up for re-election this year, remains opposed to marijuana legalization. But at a campaign town hall in Rapid City on Thursday, the governor said she would uphold the will of voters if they pass Measure 27.

“If it passes, it’s going to be implemented. That’s just the facts,” Noem told voters, as quoted by the Rapid City Journal.

Fifty-four percent of South Dakota voters approved an amendment in 2020 that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state. But Noem helped lead a legal challenge that ultimately led to the state Supreme Court striking down the amendment. 

At the campaign stop last week, Noem defended her actions, saying that the law would have run afoul of the state constitution. 

“I raised my right hand and said that I would uphold the state Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. The basis of every decision comes from that,” Noem said, according to the Rapid City Journal.

Advocates were confident that Measure 27 could match the showing of the 2020 amendment, but polling has indicated that its passage is anything but a certainty.

In August, a Mason-Dixon poll found that 54% of South Dakota voters are against legalization, while 44% are in support.

A South Dakota State University poll released earlier this month found that 47% of voters in the state are opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana, while 45% support the idea and another eight percent are unsure. A poll from Emerson College released last week painted an even bleaker picture, showing 50% of voters intend to vote no Measure 27 compared with about 40% who intend to vote yes. 

Noem is facing a challenge from Democrat Jamie Smith, who has frequently criticized the governor for overturning the 2020 amendment. The poll from Emerson College showed Noem with a large lead over Smith heading into Election Day. 

The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled last November that the 2020 proposal, Amendment A, violated the constitution’s single subject requirement. (The amendment sought to legalize recreational and medical marijuana, along with hemp.)

“This constitutional directive could not be expressed more clearly—each subject must be voted on separately—and simply severing certain provisions may or may not reflect the actual will of the voters,” said Chief Justice Steven Jensen in the majority opinion. “Therefore, we cannot accept Proponents’ suggestion that excising the medical marijuana and hemp provisions from Amendment A in favor of retaining the provisions regulating and legalizing recreational marijuana is an appropriate remedy. Amendment A is void in its entirety.”

Noem celebrated the ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” she said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law. This decision does not affect my Administration’s implementation of the medical cannabis program voters approved in 2020. That program was launched earlier this month, and the first cards have already gone out to eligible South Dakotans.” 

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Two years ago, South Dakota was a symbol of the radical shift in attitudes toward marijuana use in America—a deep red, Trump-loving state that had defied conventional wisdom and embraced weed.

But next month, the Mount Rushmore State could deal a reality check to the legalization movement.

Voters there are set to decide on Initiated Measure 27, which would legalize personal possession of marijuana for adults aged 21 and older in the state. Recent polling suggests that the electorate is split.

A new South Dakota State University poll released this week found that 47% of voters in the state are opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana, while 45% support the idea. Eight percent said they aren’t sure.

Initiated Measure 27 represents something of a do-over for advocates, after an amendment to legalize recreational cannabis was approved by South Dakota voters in 2020 only to be struck down by the courts following a legal challenge mounted by the state’s Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

Fifty-four percent of voters in the state approved Amendment A, but the state Supreme Court ultimately overturned it last November, ruling that it violated the South Dakota constitution’s “one subject” requirement for constitutional amendments.

Amendment A sought to change the state law on recreational marijuana, medical cannabis, and hemp. (Voters in South Dakota also approved a separate ballot proposal in 2020 that specifically legalized medical cannabis).

The state constitution “not only includes a single subject requirement but also directs proponents of a constitutional amendment to prepare an amendment so that the different subjects can be voted on separately,” Chief Justice Steven Jensen wrote in the majority opinion.

“This constitutional directive could not be expressed more clearly—each subject must be voted on separately—and simply severing certain provisions may or may not reflect the actual will of the voters,” Jensen wrote. “Therefore, we cannot accept Proponents’ suggestion that excising the medical marijuana and hemp provisions from Amendment A in favor of retaining the provisions regulating and legalizing recreational marijuana is an appropriate remedy. Amendment A is void in its entirety.”

Noem, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate, celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” she said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law.”

Initiated Measure 27 qualified for the South Dakota ballot in May, after the campaign behind it, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, turned in enough verified signatures to the secretary of state’s office.

The campaign has taken a populist approach, saying that the measure will “restore the will of the people by legalizing cannabis in South Dakota for a second time.”

But this week’s poll from SDSU wasn’t the first sign that 2022 could be much different than 2020.

A survey released in late August from the local news nonprofit South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota found that 54% of voters in the state were against recreational cannabis legalization, while 44% said they are in favor.

With just a little over three weeks to go before Election Day, legalization advocates are now preparing to barnstorm South Dakota.

Matthew Schweich, the director for “South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws,” announced at a press conference on Wednesday that the campaign is kicking off an 18-city statewide tour this weekend. 

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A marijuana legalization initiative in South Dakota is in serious danger of going up in smoke this November, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by the pollster Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy on behalf of the local news nonprofit South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, found that a majority of Mount Rushmore State voters are opposed to the legalization of recreational cannabis. 

A little more than 54% of voters said they are against legalization, while just under 44% said they are in favor.

The polling data represents a potential source of concern for legalization activists in South Dakota, who have expressed confidence that the state’s voters will do what they did in 2020 and approve a recreational cannabis proposal at the ballot.

In 2020, 54 percent of South Dakota voters approved Amendment A, which would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state and laid the groundwork for a regulated weed industry.

But the amendment was subject to a legal challenge, led by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, and was ultimately struck down by the state Supreme Court last November.

Organizers quickly went back in the field, ultimately getting a new legalization proposal on this year’s ballot. 

The new proposal, Initiated Measure 27, legalized possession of cannabis for adults in the state, but defers to the legislature on many of the regulatory details.

Matthew Schweich, the campaign director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, said in May that the group collected more than 8,000 signatures above the qualification threshold to ensure that it would qualify.

“One of the main reasons why we maintained such ambitious goals for our signature drive was to ensure that we had a healthy margin, so we could deter our opponents from filing a lawsuit,” Schweich told the Argus Leader at the time. “This was the plan to have this buffer and be sure there would be no more lawsuits over cannabis initiatives in South Dakota.”

Following the release of the new poll last week, Schweich said he was confused more than anything.

“When I look a little deeper, I found things that do not make sense to me,” Schweich told local news station KELO. “Some of the numbers don’t really make sense and conflict strongly with previous data that we’ve seen.”

KELO reported that “Schweich pointed out that certain elements within the News Watch/USD poll do not jibe with past indicators of support for legalization in South Dakota.”

“I see this as a flawed poll, but one that I still need to keep in the back of my head as motivation to keep working hard,” Schweich told KELO. “I’m not going to dismiss this poll entirely, and it’s a reminder that we have to work really hard and not take anything for granted because in recent times, it’s gotten harder and harder to predict what an electorate will look like.”

A poll late last year found that a slim majority of South Dakota voters disapproved of Noem’s handling of cannabis legalization, while only 39% said they approved.

During a campaign stop earlier this month, Noem said that she will implement the new cannabis law if a majority of voters approve Initiated Measure 27 in November.

“From what I’ve seen, this amendment this year that will be on the ballot is written more appropriately towards the Constitution,” Noem said, as quoted by the Argus Leader.

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It has been more than a year since the new medical cannabis law in South Dakota officially took effect, but there are still no state-approved dispensaries serving patients.

That is about to change.

Next week, when Unity Rd. opens its doors in Hartford, South Dakota––a town of about 3,300 located just outside Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city––it will make history as the first state-licensed medical cannabis dispensary in the Mount Rushmore State.

“We were really pushing hard to get that number one on the door to be the first legal, state-issued license,” B.J. Olson, one of the co-owners of Unity Rd., told the Argus Leader newspaper. “That doesn’t happen, unless you have your foot on the gas from the beginning.”

“We bought the property, we began building the building with no piece of paper, and worst case, we decided we’re gonna build a beautiful structure to lease to somebody and best case, we’re going to be the first dispensary in the state,” said Adam Jorgenson, the other co-owner.

According to the Argus Leader, “Unity Rd. is a franchise and also has shops in Oklahoma and Colorado.”

Voters in South Dakota overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure in 2020 that legalized medical cannabis treatment in the state.

The law officially took effect on July 1, 2021, well before the state had begun issuing licenses for would-be dispensaries. But members of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe opened a dispensary shortly after the official start date last summer, bringing tension between the tribe and the state.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and other state officials have said that they will not recognize medical cannabis cards issued to individuals who are not members of the tribe.

The Argus Leader reported that, as of February, “the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe [had] issued about 8,000 medical marijuana cards to tribal and non-tribal members,” and that, “although several county- and city-level law enforcement agencies and state’s attorneys have eased up on arrests and prosecutions for possession of small amounts of marijuana all together, others, like the Flandreau Police Department are not honoring some tribal-issued medical cards.”

The tribe said at the time that more than 100 people who had been issued tribal medical cannabis cards had been arrested since the dispensary opened last July.

Unity Rd. will “offer a number of products including flower, vape cartridges, topicals, pre-rolls and edibles,” according to the Argus Leader, although initially “only flower will be sold, but the business expects to add products in a couple of weeks.”

The state’s medical cannabis law has faced a sluggish rollout. As of April, there were barely 400 patients who had been enrolled in the program, while only 90 doctors statewide were allowed to approve the use of medical cannabis for their patients.

South Dakota voters also approved an amendment in 2020 that legalized recreational cannabis, but that law was ultimately overturned by the state Supreme Court after it drew a legal challenge by Republican Gov. Kristi Noem.

Noem, a possible 2022 GOP presidential contender, celebrated the ruling.

“South Dakota is a place where the rule of law and our Constitution matter, and that’s what today’s decision is about,” Noem said at the time. “We do things right—and how we do things matters just as much as what we are doing. We are still governed by the rule of law. This decision does not affect my Administration’s implementation of the medical cannabis program voters approved in 2020. That program was launched earlier this month, and the first cards have already gone out to eligible South Dakotans.”

South Dakota will have another shot at legalizing recreational cannabis this fall, however, with a new measure qualifying for the November ballot.

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