WeedPress: The Paper Trail

South Dakota’s health department added Redstone Creek Farms LLC of De Smet to its dispensary list Nov. 2, and county records show the company’s registered agent has spent four years pursuing a medical cannabis grow in Kingsbury County.

By Jason Karimi, Publisher

The South Dakota Department of Health has added a medical cannabis dispensary in De Smet to its list of registered establishments. The list, which says its content was last updated Nov. 2, 2026, shows a dispensary registered to Redstone Creek Farms LLC, doing business as Redstone Creek Farms, with its location given as “DeSmet.”¹

It is the only change to the dispensary section since the previous version of the list, last updated Aug. 27, which showed 62 dispensaries and none in De Smet.² The current list shows 63.¹ WeedPress reported Oct. 31 that the state listed 62.³

The list does not give a street address, a registration date or an opening date.¹ Redstone Creek Farms appears only in the dispensary section, not among the state’s cultivation, manufacturing or testing establishments.¹ In searches Nov. 3, WeedPress found no website, social media page or online business listing for a dispensary under the Redstone Creek Farms name.

The company

Secretary of State records, as republished by the business-records site Netstate, show that Redstone Creek Farms, LLC was registered as a South Dakota limited liability company on Oct. 3, 2022, under filing number DL235966.⁴ The records list the company as active and in compliant standing, with its principal and mailing addresses at a rural De Smet address. Its registered agent is Shawn Geyer, at the same address.⁴ Under officers, the record says “Not reported.”⁴

Netstate, a third-party site that republishes Secretary of State records, says its copy was updated from the state register Aug. 10, 2026.⁴ No record WeedPress reviewed identifies the company’s owners or members.

A grow plan years in the making

Geyer has been asking Kingsbury County about growing medical cannabis since at least early 2022. At a March 8, 2022, county commission meeting, he asked commissioners what an application to become a grower would cost, the Kingsbury Journal reported. He had just attended a cannabis convention in Las Vegas and said he wanted to build a greenhouse that would employ two other people.⁵

At an April 11, 2022, joint hearing, Geyer opposed a draft county rule that would have limited cultivation to stretches of Highway 14. “The way this is written, it would exclude me,” he said, according to the Journal. Commissioner Steve Spilde noted that Geyer was the only person who had shown any interest in cultivating.⁶

The county widened the allowed area that fall. Ordinance 64, adopted Sept. 22, 2022, allows cultivation facilities within one mile of S.D. Highways 14 and 25 and U.S. Highway 81, but not within one mile of Arlington, De Smet, Iroquois or Lake Preston.⁷ Redstone Creek Farms, LLC was registered 11 days later.⁴

In July 2024, the county approved a plat called the Redstone Creek Addition, and Geyer applied to rezone that property from agricultural to “CI” commercial.⁸ The rezoning was so he could grow medical marijuana, the Journal reported; asked whether he planned a dispensary on the grounds, Geyer said he had no plans to do so then.⁹ Commissioners adopted Ordinance 70, rezoning the Redstone Creek Addition to commercial, on Aug. 6, 2024.¹⁰

On Dec. 30, 2025, Commissioner Lundquist told the county board that “Shawn Geyer had submitted his application and paid the $5,000.00 to obtain his license for a medical cannabis cultivation facility and all requirements had been met,” and that he would approve it under the county’s zoning ordinance, according to the meeting minutes.¹¹

The health department’s Nov. 2 list does not include a cultivation establishment under the Redstone Creek Farms name or in De Smet.¹ The records WeedPress reviewed do not say where the dispensary will operate or whether it is on the Redstone Creek Addition.

City rules: one dispensary, $50,000 a year

If the dispensary is inside De Smet’s city limits, city law requires both a local permit the ordinance calls a “cannabis establishment license” and a state registration certificate.¹² Under Ordinance V-II, adopted Sept. 22, 2021, an applicant pays a $50,000 application fee; the city refunds $2,500 if the applicant fails to obtain a state registration certificate. The city license lasts one year, and renewal costs another $50,000.¹² The ordinance allows “no more than one (1) cannabis dispensary” in the city at any time, and says that if the state asks, the city “will neither support nor oppose” any applicant.¹²

A zoning amendment adopted the same night, Ordinance VII-28, allows a dispensary only in the Central Commercial District. It must be at least 1,000 feet from a school and 250 feet from a public park, library, church or day care; the distances other than the school setback can be waived by the neighboring landowner. A dispensary cannot be in a building that contains a residence or share premises with a business that sells alcohol or tobacco, and may be open from 7 a.m. to midnight.¹²

The council first passed a temporary ordinance in 2021 that barred applications until the health department adopted its rules.¹³ The Journal reported in October 2021 that De Smet originally set its licensing fee at $5,000 before raising it to $50,000.¹⁴ Council minutes list “requirements for medical cannabis establishments” in August 2021 and “the amount of the application fee to have a cannabis dispensary” in November 2021 as non-action discussion items.¹⁵

WeedPress reviewed the 190 minutes documents posted on the city’s website, covering 2016 through the Oct. 14, 2026, meeting, along with the agendas for the Aug. 12, Sept. 9 and Oct. 14, 2026, regular meetings. None after 2021 mentions a cannabis establishment, a license application or Redstone Creek Farms.¹⁶ The website does not post minutes for the Aug. 12, Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, 2026, meetings; the Aug. 12 and Sept. 9 agendas list no cannabis item.¹⁶ The ordinance says the city “will issue a license” unless one of eight listed conditions applies, and it does not say the council must vote on a license.¹²

County rules

If the dispensary is outside city limits, Kingsbury County’s zoning ordinance applies. It allows one dispensary and up to three cultivation facilities under county rules, only in the “CI” commercial/industrial district, and at least 1,000 feet from a school, church, residence or public park; the distances other than the school setback can be waived. County dispensaries may be open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.¹⁷

De Smet and cannabis

De Smet is home to the Kingsbury County courthouse.¹⁴ County voters approved Initiated Measure 26, the 2020 medical cannabis law, 1,748 to 990, or 63.8%, compared with 69.92% statewide, the Journal reported.¹⁸ In December 2021, county commissioners adopted an ordinance under which applications received before March 31, 2022, would be denied.¹⁹ The county held first readings of its cannabis zoning and licensing ordinances, Nos. 62 and 63, on April 5, 2022.¹⁸

The state and federal picture

South Dakota establishments operate under registration certificates issued by the health department.¹² A Sept. 21 department email said it is preparing 2027 legislation that would give cities and counties “express authority to establish and apply rules for determining registration preferences when more applicants seek registration than the local numerical limit allows,” as WeedPress reported Nov. 3.²⁰ De Smet’s ordinance sets such a limit: one dispensary.¹²

DEA’s timely-applicant list identifies entries only by state, business type and control number, not by business name, so it does not show whether Redstone Creek Farms is among the South Dakota entries.²¹ WeedPress explained Nov. 2 what the list does and does not show.²²

What is still unknown

The records WeedPress reviewed do not show who owns Redstone Creek Farms, LLC; where the dispensary is or will be; when it will open; when the state issued the registration; whether De Smet or Kingsbury County has issued a local license for it; or whether the cultivation facility the county was asked to license has applied for a state registration.

This story will be updated as more records become available.

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