Proposals To Crack Down on ‘Pop Up’ Weed Clinics Rejected by South Dakota Lawmakers

An attempt to curb so-called “pop-up” medical cannabis clinics in South Dakota was rejected by state lawmakers on Wednesday.

Forum News Service Report The state Senate Committee on Health and Human Services voted against two bills that “would have made countless changes to cannabis laws in the state, banning certain advertising of prescription services. It requires certain actions by physicians and other providers to establish and permit prescriptions to occur only at certain facilities, most of which are medically related in some way. ”

South Dakota voters approved a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana treatment for eligible patients in 2020.

The new law will officially take effect in 2021, and the first state-licensed pharmacies opened to customers last year.

Since then, many “pop-up” clinics have opened, offering medical cannabis prescriptions to patients in just minutes.

Supporters of two bills that were rejected by a state Senate committee on Wednesday said the dispensaries “allow people seeking medical marijuana to earn cards without proper professional testing, which is inherent in the law.” ” he claims. According to Forum News Service.

Both bills were rejected by “wide margins.” Forum News Service reported: Opponents of the measures said “increased oversight and potential punishment would result in undermining the proportion of health care providers who opt for medical marijuana programs. Clinics.”

“This program is brand new and we don’t want to go back into the law just by saying ‘we have to stop this now,'” said Winer state senator Erin Tobin, quoted by Forum News. service. “Because we know it’s a problem. We’ll get there.”

But the proposal’s main proponents said pop-up clinics would “blur the line” between medical and recreational pots.

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana was defeated by voters in South Dakota last year.

“Voters voted in favor of establishing a medical marijuana system and against establishing a recreational marijuana system,” said State Rep. Fred Deutsch, a supporter of the bill.

Mount Rushmore has recently had a complicated history with regards to cannabis policy. Despite rejecting a recreational pot proposal last year, voters in South Dakota approved an amendment to end the pot ban in 2020.

However, the amendment faced immediate legal challenges led by the state’s Republican governor, Christy Noem, and was ultimately rejected by the South Dakota Supreme Court in 2021.

“South Dakota is where the rule of law and our constitution matter, and that’s what today’s ruling is about,” Noem said during the court’s ruling. “We do things right, and how we do things is as important as what we do. We are still governed by the rule of law. This decision will not affect my administration’s implementation of approved medical cannabis program voters in 2020.

The state Senate voted last month to expand the list of eligibility criteria for medical cannabis treatment.

Under the original law, the following patients are eligible for treatment: severe debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe and persistent muscle spasms.

A bill passed last month expands the list to include: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or human immunodeficiency virus-positive status. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; multiple sclerosis; cancer or its treatment when associated with Crohn’s disease; epilepsy and seizures; glaucoma; or post-traumatic stress disorder.