South Dakota anti-pot lawmaker gets medicinal weed card to test system

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

who is this guy Deutsch urged his fellow lawmakers to vote against a bill that would add several eligibility conditions to the state’s medical cannabis program, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and campaigned against other regulations like pop-up clinics. Deutsch claimed that studies showed that cannabis leads to an increase in suicide rates.

Having failed in the past at attempts to restrict the state’s program, the representative wants to test the state’s medicinal cannabis system to see if he can find any shortcomings. Deutsch told The Dakota Scout that he received a medical cannabis card in South Dakota but was not allowed to buy cannabis.

@kydyn_Whittman I support easy access to medical marijuana when doctors and patients obey the law. I now have a health card because my doctor did not obey the law. As a legislator, why are you opposed to following the law?

— Rep. Fred Deutsch (@FredDeutsch) June 4, 2023

KOTA reports that the Tea Party Republican expressed some of his concerns about the details of the state’s medicinal cannabis system in a previous interview.

“States are referred to as laboratories of democracy,” said Deutsch. So we can see in each lab what results they got with the laws they wrote.”

He continued, “Doctors can make a hell of a lot of money opening their ‘Doc in a Box Shop,’ and that worries me.” That should concern everyone. I mean come on When we talk about medical marijuana, we should give access to people who really need it, and we should prevent people who don’t need it from getting access.”

Deustch also said he intends to end home cultivation altogether and only allow distribution in pharmacies where cannabis can be tested and approved to ensure the black market remains under control.

The vast majority of pharmacies – both medical and adult – verify the identity of their patients. Data published in the journal Addictive Behaviors shows that adult consumption retailers in five US cities strictly adhered to laws requiring customers to present ID and proof of legal drinking age.

South Dakota’s path to medicinal cannabis

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

Although voters in South Dakota voted to pass a contested adult-use cannabis law two years earlier, in 2022 they rejected a measure to legalize cannabis for adult use for the second time.

“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, South Dakota voters approved the initiated measure 26 and approved medicinal cannabis, with 69% of voters supporting the measure. A majority of South Dakota voters also approved a ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis. According to the election documents, Constitutional Amendment A was approved with 54% of the votes. However, a lawsuit filed last year by Gov. Kristi Noem and two highway patrol officers prevented the voter-approved bill from ever seeing the light of day. The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled on November 24, 2021 that the measure could not be implemented because it violated the requirement that constitutional amendments must address only one issue.

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

Deutsch was a lead sponsor of four medical cannabis bills introducing new regulations and personally led the fight against pop-up clinics. But last February, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee rejected HB1129 and HB1172.