Chapter 34-20G puts South Dakota’s medical cannabis program at the Department of Health. Chapter 36-11 governs the practice of pharmacy and prescription drug orders. Chapter 34-20B separately places state controlled-substance registration with the department. The April order did not publish a new assignment.
The first three pages in this series separated the patient from the shop, asked which establishment certificate is the federal license, and asked how a written certification relates to part 1306.¹ This page is the Pierre desk map.
Two agencies already exist. One runs the medical cannabis program. One regulates the practice of pharmacy. A third statutory lane sits in the same department that runs the program: state controlled-substance registration. The unpublished work is whether the April 28, 2026 federal order moved any of that work from one desk to another.² It did not publish that move. Neither did chapter 34-20G. This page does not invent a pharmacy takeover. It sets the statutes next to each other.
What Health already owns
SDCL chapter 34-20G is the medical cannabis statute. The Department of Health issues registry identification cards.³ It registers medical cannabis establishments and issues registration certificates under § 34-20G-55.⁴ It inspects establishments.⁵ It promulgates Article 44:90 under § 34-20G-72.⁶ The Department’s own program materials describe the same list: cards, establishment certification, inventory tracking, and inspections.⁷
The same department also sits on the controlled-substance side of Title 34. SDCL § 34-20B-29 requires any person who prescribes, manufactures, distributes, or dispenses a controlled drug or substance in this state to obtain a registration “issued by the department.”⁸ SDCL § 34-20B-27 is the scheduling-recommendation statute this series already treated as a Health determination, not a Pharmacy determination.⁹
The published map on the Health side is therefore two files, not one: the 34-20G program file and the 34-20B controlled-substance registration file. That is not an inference from the April order. It is the text of Title 34.
What Pharmacy already owns
SDCL chapter 36-11 is the pharmacy practice act. The practice of pharmacy means interpretation and evaluation of prescription drug orders, patient counseling, and compounding, distributing, labeling, and storage of drugs.¹⁰ It “does not authorize a pharmacist to prescribe drugs as a practitioner or to dispense drugs without a prescription drug order.”¹¹ The Board of Pharmacy promulgates Article 20:51. Those rules define a controlled drug by reference to chapter 34-20B and require a pharmacist to dispense only pursuant to a valid prescription with the conventional elements: patient name and address, drug, strength, dosage form, quantity, and directions.¹²
The statute itself anticipates overlapping professional authorities. Section 36-11-2.2 defines pharmacy practice without restricting a person separately licensed under another South Dakota law when that person acts within that authorized scope.¹³ Medical cannabis establishments are licensed by another law. That law is chapter 34-20G.
A search of SDCL chapters 34-20G and 36-11, and of Articles 44:90 and 20:51, as of September 11, 2026, did not locate a published assignment of medical-cannabis dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers, or testing facilities to the Board of Pharmacy.¹⁴
The third statute that is not a desk transfer
SDCL § 22-42-4.1 is a criminal provision. Except when dispensed directly by a practitioner other than a pharmacist, “no controlled drug or substance included in Schedule III or Schedule IV may be dispensed without a written or oral prescription.”¹⁵ A violation is a Class 5 felony.¹⁶
Read the trigger. The statute applies to a substance “included in Schedule III or Schedule IV.” That is the state schedule in chapter 34-20B.¹⁷ Federal Schedule III does not, by itself, rewrite the South Dakota schedules.¹⁸ Marijuana remains listed on the state Schedule I side of chapter 34-20B until the Legislature acts.¹⁹ Section 22-42-4.1 is therefore not, on the current state text, a command that every 34-20G dispensary now operate as a pharmacy filling part 1306 scripts.
It is a state-scheduling question, not a published transfer of the medical-cannabis desk. If South Dakota eventually places a relevant marijuana category in Schedule III, § 22-42-4.1 becomes an obvious provision to analyze. That is a later file.
Three questions the desks have not answered together
1. Who inspects the shop after a DEA registration?
Health inspects medical cannabis establishments under chapter 34-20G and Article 44:90.²⁰ The Board of Pharmacy inspects pharmacies under chapter 36-11 and Article 20:51.²¹ If a South Dakota dispensary later holds a DEA dispenser registration, the federal file still has to land on a state desk. Pierre has not published which desk that is.
2. Who holds the registration required by § 34-20B-29?
That registration is issued by the department under chapter 34-20B.²² The medical-cannabis registration certificate is issued by the same department under § 34-20G-55.²³ Whether the 34-20B registration and the 34-20G establishment registration operate as one coordinated file, two separate files, or sequential requirements is unpublished. The Board of Pharmacy is not the issuing agency named in § 34-20B-29.
That is the paper trail:
• 34-20G establishment registration → Health
• 34-20B controlled-substance registration → the department
• 36-11 pharmacy practice → Board of Pharmacy
• Federal DEA registration → DEA
That is the map the public record should make clear.
3. Does “dispense” in 36-11 mean the same thing as “dispense” in 34-20G?
A pharmacist dispenses pursuant to a prescription drug order.²⁴ A medical cannabis dispensary dispenses to a cardholder.²⁵ Article 3 asked whether a written certification is a part 1306 prescription. It is not, on the current texts.²⁶ Stacking the pharmacy definition of dispense onto a 34-20G dispensary is the same stacking error in a different building.
What this page does not decide
It does not decide that the Board of Pharmacy now regulates medical cannabis establishments.
It does not decide that Health has exclusive jurisdiction over every controlled-substance consequence of the April order.
It does not decide § 22-42-4.1 as applied to a future state Schedule III listing.
It does not decide tax treatment, safety-sensitive employment, or dual registration when DOH and DEA disagree. Those remain later pages.
It does not treat a patient card as a shop license, or a certification as a prescription. Those were pages one and three.²⁷
The checklist
1. The published medical-cannabis desk is the Department of Health under SDCL chapter 34-20G and Article 44:90.²⁸
2. The published prescription-drug-order desk is the Board of Pharmacy under SDCL chapter 36-11 and Article 20:51.²⁹
3. The registration required by § 34-20B-29 is issued by the department, not by the Board of Pharmacy.³⁰
4. Section 22-42-4.1 requires a prescription to dispense a substance included in the state Schedule III or IV. It does not, on the current listing, reassign 34-20G dispensaries to pharmacies.³¹
5. Pierre has not published a crosswalk that moves any 34-20G function to chapter 36-11 because of the April order.
6. Silence is not a ban. It is the gap.
Health cards the patient and certificates the shop. Pharmacy regulates prescription drug orders. The department issues the registration required by § 34-20B-29. The April order recognized a state certification pathway notwithstanding part 1306.³² It did not republish the South Dakota organizational chart. Keep the desks labeled until someone publishes a new label.
Footnotes
¹ Jason Karimi, A Patient Card Is Not a Shop License, WeedPress (Sept. 11, 2026); Jason Karimi, The April Order Asks for a License. Pierre Issues Four Certificates., WeedPress (Sept. 11, 2026); Jason Karimi, A Written Certification Is Not a Part 1306 Prescription, WeedPress (Sept. 11, 2026).
² Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Food and Drug Administration Approved Products Containing Marijuana From Schedule I to Schedule III; Corresponding Change to Permit Requirements, 91 Fed. Reg. 22,714 (Apr. 28, 2026) [hereinafter April Order].
³ S.D. Codified Laws §§ 34-20G-1(6), (23), 34-20G-29.
⁴ Id. § 34-20G-55.
⁵ Id. § 34-20G-69.
⁶ Id. § 34-20G-72; S.D. Admin. R. art. 44:90.
⁷ S.D. Dep’t of Health, Med Cannabis Establishments, https://doh.sd.gov/programs/medical-cannabis/med-cannabis-establishments/.
⁸ S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20B-29.
⁹ Id. § 34-20B-27; Jason Karimi, South Dakota’s Schedule I Statute Requires a Department Determination Before the Legislature Gets a Rescheduling Recommendation, WeedPress (Sept. 5, 2026).
¹⁰ S.D. Codified Laws § 36-11-2.2.
¹¹ Id.
¹² S.D. Admin. R. 20:51:05:00, 20:51:05:15.
¹³ S.D. Codified Laws § 36-11-2.2.
¹⁴ Search of SDCL chs. 34-20G and 36-11 and S.D. Admin. R. arts. 44:90 and 20:51 as of Sept. 11, 2026.
¹⁵ S.D. Codified Laws § 22-42-4.1.
¹⁶ Id.
¹⁷ Id. ch. 34-20B.
¹⁸ See Karimi, Sept. 5, 2026, supra note 9.
¹⁹ S.D. Codified Laws §§ 34-20B-11, 34-20B-14.
²⁰ Id. §§ 34-20G-69, 34-20G-72; S.D. Admin. R. art. 44:90.
²¹ S.D. Codified Laws ch. 36-11; S.D. Admin. R. art. 20:51.
²² S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20B-29.
²³ Id. § 34-20G-55.
²⁴ Id. § 36-11-2.2; S.D. Admin. R. 20:51:05:15.
²⁵ S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20G-1 (definition of dispensary).
²⁶ Karimi, A Written Certification Is Not a Part 1306 Prescription, supra note 1; 21 C.F.R. § 1301.13(k)(5).
²⁷ Karimi, A Patient Card Is Not a Shop License, supra note 1; Karimi, A Written Certification Is Not a Part 1306 Prescription, supra note 1.
²⁸ S.D. Codified Laws ch. 34-20G; S.D. Admin. R. art. 44:90.
²⁹ S.D. Codified Laws ch. 36-11; S.D. Admin. R. art. 20:51.
³⁰ S.D. Codified Laws § 34-20B-29.
³¹ Id. § 22-42-4.1.
³² 21 C.F.R. § 1301.13(k)(5); April Order, 91 Fed. Reg. at 22,714.
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 
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