The Medical Marijuana Subcommittee of the South Dakota Legislature met on Wednesday August 4, 2021. The South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) reviewed their draft medical marijuana program rules and presented on their rule process.
The committee questioned the Department of Health on the list of debilitation medical conditions. DOH indicated that the proposed rules are based on the conditions listed in the statutes passed under Initiated Measure 26 (IM26). DOH additionally added conditions approved in at least 20 other state medical marijuana programs following feedback received from stakeholders during the town hall process. The committee questioned how medical evidence for efficacy was used in adding conditions. DOH indicated that due to the status of marijuana federally, there is a lack of federally funded research on marijuana and topics such as efficacy and potency of THC for certain medical conditions. DOH did place a limit of 100 mg of THC per serving. THC amounts will be required to be labeled on the packaging.
The committee also discussed possession limitations. DOH indicated that dispensaries will not be allowed to dispense more than 3 ounces to an individual within a 14 day period under South Dakota’s medical marijuana program. The department plans to use a seed to sale tracking system to track possession.
Senator Breitling questioned DOH in relation to caregivers and medical facilities. DOH indicated that is allowable for a designated caregiver to be an employee of the medical facility, but that DOH will require permission from a facility administrator prior to approving an individual to act as a caregiver in the course of their employment duties. DOH indicated that they do not have plans to develop further regulations related to medical facilities at this time.
The committee ended with discussion related to next steps. Three workgroups will meet throughout the month of August to draft recommendations of the subcommittee and potential legislation. The subcommittee will review the recommendations of the workgroups at its September 1 meeting and will finalize recommendations on October 27 with the Joint Marijuana Interim Study Committee. The committee expects to bring legislation resulting from committee recommendations with broad consensus support to the Special Session on November 9. Other legislative changes may be brought to the next regular legislative session in January 2022.
The DOH presentation and a recording of the committee meeting is available here.
