Garcia and Carley To Get the Boot from MMOC After Primary Losses; Won’t Attend Future Meetings

Josephine Garcia and John Carley are about to lose what little power they had left. Following their humiliating primary defeats on June 2, both are expected to be removed from the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC) in the coming weeks.

This is standard procedure in South Dakota. When (shit talking) legislators lose their primaries, the Legislative Executive Board typically moves quickly to strip them from interim committee assignments. Garcia, who served as Chair, and Carley, who served as Vice-Chair, are now lame ducks. Their short, disastrous tenures on the MMOC are effectively over.

Why This Matters

The MMOC was already damaged goods under their leadership. The committee became so dysfunctional and controversial that the House of Representatives voted 41-26 earlier this year to abolish it. Garcia’s habit of muting public commenters she disliked and Carley’s well-documented absenteeism during critical votes turned the committee into a running joke. Removing them now is less about punishment and more about basic housekeeping — the Legislature has no interest in letting rejected politicians continue playing oversight games for the rest of the year.

WeedPress Will Miss the Entertainment

To be honest, WeedPress was genuinely looking forward to attending future MMOC meetings. There is something darkly satisfying about watching two politicians who treated the committee like their personal fiefdom suddenly have to sit through meetings knowing they no longer have jobs after this year. Garcia’s authoritarian muting habits and Carley’s “I had an eye appointment” excuses made for excellent material. Their removal robs us of the opportunity to document their continued irrelevance in real time.

It would have been entertaining to watch them try to maintain any shred of authority while everyone in the room knew voters had already fired them.

The Inevitable Outcome

Garcia and Carley are done. Their one-term careers in the Legislature are over. The MMOC they helped damage will continue without them, likely with new members who actually have to face voters again in the future. Whether the committee itself survives another legislative session remains to be seen, but at least it will no longer have to carry the dead weight of two politicians who proved they were unfit for the responsibility.

South Dakota voters made their decision on June 2. The Legislative Executive Board is simply finishing the job by removing Garcia and slimy creep Carley from a committee they clearly had no business running in the first place.