Fewer than 450 patients certified in South Dakota’s medical cannabis program

South Dakota’s fledgling medical cannabis program remains slow to build, with a local news report this week saying that just over 400 patients have been certified since enrollment began late last year.

That comes via the Sioux Falls newspaper Argus Leader, which reported that as of Tuesday, “the Department of Health had only issued 419 medical marijuana cards to patients.”

According to the newspaper, this prompted MyMarijuanaCards.com, a nationally recognized telehealth company, to host “the first-ever three-day mass screening of patients in downtown Sioux Falls,” South Dakota’s largest city, on Tuesday. The event runs until Thursday.

“Although they have been available since November, few South Dakota residents have been able to obtain a state-issued medical cannabis card because only a limited number of physicians in the state are authorized to certify patients,” said Molefi Branson, founder of MyMarijuanaCards.com. towards Argus leader.

It’s not just patients who are slow to enroll. Last month, local television network KELO reported that “only 90 physicians in South Dakota were licensed to validate the use of medical marijuana on their patients,” accounting for “just 4.07% of the state’s 2,214 total active physicians.”

Branson said there are aspects of South Dakota’s medical cannabis registration process that could cause patient registrations to lag behind.

The Argus Leader reported that “Branson said that South Dakota’s medical marijuana law requires South Dakotans to receive certification from a physician licensed to practice medicine before they can be considered for a card through the [state Department of Health]’, and that the ‘law of the state also requires that screenings take place in person, not by telephone or video conference as is permitted in several other states’.

The newspaper also noted a reluctance “among South Dakota’s health care systems to direct their physicians to certify patients, [which] made certification a challenge for many, including a handful of customers who attended Tuesday’s event.”

It’s been a turbulent year and a half for cannabis reform efforts in Mount Rushmore state. There, voters approved two voting measures in 2020 — one legalizing recreational cannabis for adults and another approving medical cannabis — but the ensuing 18 months have seen controversy for both.

The recreational cannabis law was struck down by the Supreme Court last year after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem filed a legal challenge.

The court agreed that the cannabis amendment violated the state’s constitution.

“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 in a statement following the November verdict. “We do things right – and how we do things is just as important as what we do. We are still subject to the rule of law. This decision does not affect my administration’s implementation of the medical cannabis program, which was approved by voters in 2020. This program launched earlier this month and the first cards have already been shipped to eligible South Dakotans.”

The medical cannabis law officially went into effect last July, but there is still one dispensary in the state, located on a tribal reservation in Flandreau, South Dakota.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, who run the dispensary, claim their medicinal cannabis cards should be treated as legal, but Noem’s administration has said it would only recognize cards issued to members of the tribe.

In February, tribal officials said more than 100 people who were issued medical cannabis cards were arrested. The tribe said at the time it issued thousands of cards to tribal and non-tribal members.