The South Dakota Senate empowers the legislature to set conditions for medicinal pots

South Dakota lawmakers took a step Thursday toward a significant change to the state’s medicinal cannabis program.

The Republican-controlled state Senate approved a bill that would expand the list of requirements for a prescription for medical marijuana while transferring the authority to set those requirements from the South Dakota Department of Health and Human Services to the state legislature.

According to local news station KELO, the bill passed by a 20-15 vote and the legislation now goes to the state House of Representatives, where Republicans also have a sizeable majority.

Under South Dakota’s medicinal cannabis law, a patient with any of the following “debilitating conditions” may use medicinal cannabis once he or she has received approval from the Department of Health and Human Services: A chronic or debilitating illness or medical condition, or its treatment, involving one or more causes the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe, debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe and persistent muscle spasms.

The law, approved by the state Senate on Thursday, would expand the list of debilitating conditions to also include: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or human immunodeficiency virus positive status; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Multiple sclerosis; cancer or its treatment if related to 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 power to determine which debilitating conditions are covered.

The measure was approved by a special Legislative Committee tasked with overseeing the state’s medicinal cannabis law, which voters passed in 2020.

The chair of that committee, Republican Sen. Erin Tobin, “said that having the department’s authority to set conditions and instead delegate them to the legislature gave her more confidence to prescribe medical marijuana to a patient,” KELO reported.

KELO reported that Tobin noted that “the department does not have a physician to decide on conditions.”

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

Lawmakers who objected to the proposal argued that the measure, approved by South Dakota voters in 2020, specifically gave the Department of Health and Human Services the authority.

South Dakota’s medical cannabis law officially went into effect in the summer of 2021, but the state’s first licensed dispensary only opened last year.

Some Republican state lawmakers have been wary of the new medical cannabis law, claiming it could be a gateway to recreational marijuana use.

State voters in November rejected a measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana in South Dakota, a disappointing result for supporters who believed they had triumphed two years earlier.

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

The change drew an immediate legal challenge from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and the state Supreme Court eventually overturned it in November 2021.

Noem celebrated the verdict.

“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 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.”