Featured Analysis
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Why Formal Process Matters in Cannabis Reform: My South Dakota DOH Petition
Why Formal Process Matters in Cannabis Reform: My South Dakota DOH Petition By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 8, 2026 When I filed my petition with the South Dakota Department of Health, I already knew some people would hate it. Not because it was sloppy. Not because it was unserious. Not because it lacked legal…
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Kill the MMOC: South Dakota Should Stop Protecting a Failed Anti-Patient Committee
HB 1160 Should Pass: The MMOC Lost Any Claim to Speak for Patients By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 7, 2026 South Dakota’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee should be repealed, and the Senate should stop dragging out the inevitable. HB 1160—the bill to repeal the MMOC—was smoked out of committee and forced back onto the…
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South Dakota Senate Uses “Smoke-Out” Procedure to Revive MMOC Repeal Bill
South Dakota Senate Uses “Smoke-Out” Procedure to Revive MMOC Repeal Bill By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 6, 2026 In a procedural move that underscores how legislative strategy can override committee decisions, the South Dakota Senate has revived HB 1160, the bill that would eliminate the state’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC). Just one day…
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Iowa Moves to Give Medical Cannabis Operators State Tax Relief Under HSB 687
Iowa Moves to Give Medical Cannabis Operators State Tax Relief Under HSB 687 By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 6, 2026 Iowa lawmakers have introduced House Study Bill 687, a tax measure that would let licensed medical cannabis manufacturers and dispensaries deduct ordinary business expenses on their Iowa tax returns even though those same deductions…
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No. 12 – Federal Rescheduling as a Preemption Trigger — How Acknowledged Medical Use Constrains State Schedule I Enforcement
Federal Rescheduling as a Preemption Trigger — How Acknowledged Medical Use Constrains State Schedule I Enforcement By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | March 6, 2026 ⸻ Abstract Federal cannabis rescheduling premised on a finding of “currently accepted medical use” carries implications beyond regulatory reclassification. This Article argues that formal federal acknowledgment of medical legitimacy materially…
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DOH Confirms Receipt: South Dakota’s Schedule I Review Petition Is Officially in the Record
DOH Confirms Receipt: South Dakota’s Schedule I Review Petition Is Officially in the Record By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 5, 2026 Previously on WeedPress: The South Dakota Department of Health has now confirmed it received my Petition for Declaratory Judgment and Mandatory Scheduling Review of Cannabis. This matters for one reason: it removes any…
Policy
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Minnesota Was Arguing Schedule III Before Washington Caught Up
April 26, 2026 Minnesota has already done what many cannabis lawyers, reformers, and national reporters still describe as hypothetical: it moved marijuana and naturally occurring tetrahydrocannabinols into Schedule III under state controlled-substances law.¹ The change has been sitting in Minnesota law quietly, without anything close to the national attention now surrounding federal rescheduling.² That matters…
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South Dakota Values Freedom More Than Security — And We Should Be Grateful for That
April 25, 2026 In an era when governments increasingly justify expanded surveillance, paternal regulation, and administrative control in the name of “public safety,” South Dakota often reflects an older constitutional instinct: that liberty is not a secondary value to be balanced away, but a primary political commitment. That instinct is imperfectly honored, and often contested.…
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The Litigation Front of Cannabis Reform: Why Ryan Kolbeck’s Courtroom Work Matters Beyond South Dakota
April 25, 2026 While cannabis reform is often narrated through ballot initiatives, legislatures, and federal rescheduling debates, some of its most consequential work occurs in trial courts, where rights are defended one defendant at a time.¹ In South Dakota, attorney Ryan Kolbeck’s work illustrates that underappreciated litigation front.² Prohibition survives not merely through statutes, but…
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Maryland Just Drew a New Line on Veterinary Cannabis
April 24, 2026 In a new development, Maryland has protected veterinarians from professional discipline solely for discussing or recommending cannabis or cannabidiol products for animals. House Bill 452 and Senate Bill 54, signed on April 14, 2026 as Chapters 47 and 48, bar the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from suspending or revoking a…
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Five Structural Weaknesses Still Haunting South Dakota Cannabis
April 23, 2026 South Dakota’s medical-cannabis program is no longer a novelty. It is a real system with real patients, real establishments, real regulators, and real consequences. By April 2026, the state program had approved 18,759 patient cards.² That is large enough that the old excuses no longer work. We are past the stage where…
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South Dakota Finally Decides Free Speech Should Not Be Bankrupted
April 17, 2026 For years, South Dakota had a hole in its legal architecture that should have embarrassed any state claiming to respect free speech. If someone with money, status, or institutional backing wanted to punish a critic, a journalist, a blogger, or an activist, the process itself could become the weapon. Even a weak…
Law
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Minnesota Was Arguing Schedule III Before Washington Caught Up
April 26, 2026 Minnesota has already done what many cannabis lawyers, reformers, and national reporters still describe as hypothetical: it moved marijuana and naturally occurring tetrahydrocannabinols into Schedule III under state controlled-substances law.¹ The change has been sitting in Minnesota law quietly, without anything close to the national attention now surrounding federal rescheduling.² That matters…
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Public Records Show Two Active Civil Cases Involving 605 Cannabis Executive; Questions of Transparency Follow For Reform Leadership
Federal rescheduling of marijuana has reached a historic inflection point for South Dakota patients. On April 23, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a final order placing FDA-approved products containing marijuana, and marijuana products subject to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license, into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances…
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South Dakota Values Freedom More Than Security — And We Should Be Grateful for That
April 25, 2026 In an era when governments increasingly justify expanded surveillance, paternal regulation, and administrative control in the name of “public safety,” South Dakota often reflects an older constitutional instinct: that liberty is not a secondary value to be balanced away, but a primary political commitment. That instinct is imperfectly honored, and often contested.…
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The Litigation Front of Cannabis Reform: Why Ryan Kolbeck’s Courtroom Work Matters Beyond South Dakota
April 25, 2026 While cannabis reform is often narrated through ballot initiatives, legislatures, and federal rescheduling debates, some of its most consequential work occurs in trial courts, where rights are defended one defendant at a time.¹ In South Dakota, attorney Ryan Kolbeck’s work illustrates that underappreciated litigation front.² Prohibition survives not merely through statutes, but…
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Connecticut’s HB 5044 Is Not Just a Vaccine Bill. It Is a Legislative Rewrite of RFRA Mid-Litigation.
April 24, 2026 Connecticut’s HB 5044 is being sold as a vaccine-governance bill. In one sense, that is true: the bill deals broadly with immunization standards, the Department of Public Health’s authority, insurance coverage, and related vaccine-administration issues.¹ But buried inside that larger package is the provision that matters most for religious-liberty law: HB 5044…
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West Virginia and Mississippi Tried to Move Marijuana to Schedule III. Both Bills Reveal the Same Structural Problem.
April 24, 2026 West Virginia and Mississippi each opened the 2026 session with a bill that would have done something their existing marijuana laws still refuse to do: move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under state law.¹ ² Both proposals were straightforward on paper. West Virginia’s SB 809 would amend W. Va. Code…
Science
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Maryland Just Drew a New Line on Veterinary Cannabis
April 24, 2026 In a new development, Maryland has protected veterinarians from professional discipline solely for discussing or recommending cannabis or cannabidiol products for animals. House Bill 452 and Senate Bill 54, signed on April 14, 2026 as Chapters 47 and 48, bar the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners from suspending or revoking a…
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Why Italian Wikipedia Cites an Old WeedPress Cannabis Science Article
April 24, 2026 Independent advocacy journalism rarely imagines itself entering the reference architecture of the internet. Most movement publishing assumes a shorter shelf life: intervention, argument, disappearance. But sometimes old work lingers. An older WeedPress article on the LD50 of cannabis—addressing the longstanding toxicology point that lethal overdose from cannabis is extraordinarily difficult to achieve—appears…
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Science Measures Outcomes. Patients Measure Survival.
April 16, 2026 Science likes clean variables. Patients rarely get that luxury. Pain is messy. Nausea is messy. Trauma is messy. Insomnia is messy. The body does not wait for the literature to become elegant. It does not wait for committees to grow comfortable. It does not wait for institutions to decide whether the suffering…
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Freud’s Dirty Secret: How Candace Book Club Is Tearing Apart the Father of Psychoanalysis
Freud’s Dirty Secret: How Candace Book Club Is Tearing Apart the Father of Psychoanalysis By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 22, 2026 The Assault on Truth and Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition do not just question Freud’s legacy. They argue that modern psychoanalysis may have been built on suppression, repackaging, and intellectual disguise. Candace Owens’ book…
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Cannabis and the Aging Brain: Science, Scheduling, and the Policy Consequences of New Data
Cannabis and the Aging Brain: Science, Scheduling, and the Policy Consequences of New Data By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 8, 2026 A new peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs examined whether lifetime cannabis use is associated with differences in brain volume and cognitive function in middle-aged and older…
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Big questions still unanswered about medical cannabis use
The biggest political show in Iowa, which hosted WeedPress for an hour long discussion in 2018, is discussing medical cannabis again: https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/2026-01-14/big-questions-still-unanswered-about-medical-cannabis-use Amusing watching what WeedPress predicted and helped bring to fruition – removing schedule one federally – being discussed. WeedPress is so far ahead on this discussion. For the tip of the spear on…
Current Events
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Virginia Officially Becomes 27th State To Decriminalize Marijuana Possession Or Use! No Jail Time, No Financial Ruin!
Details here thanks to Marijuana Moment. My kids, and friend’s families, will not suffer the tyranny of shame, judgment, and sabotage from their elderly evil community for much longer, or there will, be hell, to pay.
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Matt Hanson, Iowa Ironman 5-Time Champion, Joins “Resilience CBD” Advisory Board
Details here courtesy of Triathlon Magazine Canada. Below is Iowa Ironman Matt Hanson’s Instagram announcement about his CBD advisory board position: View this post on Instagram
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Breaking: Feds “Arbitrarily” Cancel MILLIONS In State Funding Over Federally Illegal State Marijuana Laws
For years we have warned that state marijuana laws would someday lead to some politician seizing up the federal funds to deal with the anarchy of illegal state marijuana laws. Linda Upmeyer and the Iowa Republicans enthusiastically encouraged Iowans to smuggle cannabis medicine from out of state, and then repeatedly endorsed an illegal mafia program…
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Today’s 420 Online Town Hall Discusses STATES Act, States Roles And Responsibilities, Taxes
Iowa Patients for Medical Marijuana co-hosted a 420 online town hall today and asked a good question that had an even better response. Thank you to US Senate candidate Eddie Mauro for hosting this event. Our question was as follows: “The federal government’s role in creating exemptions for state marijuana laws is already on…
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Libertarian Socialist Caucus Loses It’s Shit On Facebook When Questioned
I’ve been commenting there for months, and this is the first time the caucus replied itself. It’s followers are morons, truly. It’s quite unprofessional, but this is what happens when 5th grade social science teachers start political operations. Socialists really are this pathetic, and cannot go toe to toe with intellectual discussions over ideas.…
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Religious Freedom Exemptions: Sacramental Use Of Cannabis
https://carl-olsen.com/2018/06/sacramental-use-of-cannabis Posted on June 23, 2018 by Carl Olsen Sacramental use of cannabis I’m a member of a Jamaican Rastafarian church incorporated in Jamaica as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church (EZCC) in 1976, Act No. 11. The sacrament of the EZCC is cannabis. I was arrested in 1978 with 100 pounds of cannabis in Muscatine…
Legislation
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No. 14 – The South Dakota Controlled Substances Act: Legislative Architecture, Intent, and Institutional Design in a Potential Federal Rescheduling Context
The South Dakota Controlled Substances Act: Legislative Architecture, Intent, and Institutional Design in a Potential Federal Rescheduling Context By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series No 14 March 24, 2026 I. Introduction As previewed in WeedPress White Paper No. 1, South Dakota adopted its Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) in 1970 as part of a broader…
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Nebraska Voters Approved Medical Cannabis. Now Protect the Doctors Who Make It Possible
Nebraska Voters Approved Medical Cannabis. Now Protect the Doctors Who Make It Possible Nebraska voters spoke when they approved medical cannabis. But a medical program cannot exist without doctors willing to recommend it. Right now, Nebraska law does not provide basic protections for physicians who choose to recommend cannabis to their patients. That means doctors…
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HB 1160 Went Down in the Senate: South Dakota’s MMOC Repeal Bill Fails After Smoke-Out
HB 1160 Went Down in the Senate: South Dakota’s MMOC Repeal Bill Fails After Smoke-Out By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 11, 2026 South Dakota’s effort to repeal the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee has now stalled in the Senate. HB 1160 was first killed in Senate Health and Human Services on March 4, when the…
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Iowa Advances HSB 687 as the State Starts Questioning Its Own Cannabis Tax Hypocrisy
Iowa Advances HSB 687 as the State Starts Questioning Its Own Cannabis Tax Hypocrisy By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 11, 2026 On March 10, Iowa lawmakers moved HSB 687 forward when a House Ways and Means subcommittee recommended passage, advancing a bill that would let licensed medical cannabis manufacturers and dispensaries deduct qualifying business…
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Kill the MMOC: South Dakota Should Stop Protecting a Failed Anti-Patient Committee
HB 1160 Should Pass: The MMOC Lost Any Claim to Speak for Patients By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 7, 2026 South Dakota’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee should be repealed, and the Senate should stop dragging out the inevitable. HB 1160—the bill to repeal the MMOC—was smoked out of committee and forced back onto the…
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South Dakota Senate Uses “Smoke-Out” Procedure to Revive MMOC Repeal Bill
South Dakota Senate Uses “Smoke-Out” Procedure to Revive MMOC Repeal Bill By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 6, 2026 In a procedural move that underscores how legislative strategy can override committee decisions, the South Dakota Senate has revived HB 1160, the bill that would eliminate the state’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC). Just one day…
RFRA Updates
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Connecticut’s HB 5044 Is Not Just a Vaccine Bill. It Is a Legislative Rewrite of RFRA Mid-Litigation.
April 24, 2026 Connecticut’s HB 5044 is being sold as a vaccine-governance bill. In one sense, that is true: the bill deals broadly with immunization standards, the Department of Public Health’s authority, insurance coverage, and related vaccine-administration issues.¹ But buried inside that larger package is the provision that matters most for religious-liberty law: HB 5044…
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West Virginia and Mississippi Tried to Move Marijuana to Schedule III. Both Bills Reveal the Same Structural Problem.
April 24, 2026 West Virginia and Mississippi each opened the 2026 session with a bill that would have done something their existing marijuana laws still refuse to do: move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under state law.¹ ² Both proposals were straightforward on paper. West Virginia’s SB 809 would amend W. Va. Code…
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The State of Religious Freedom in America in 2026: Strong but Uneven Protection Across the States
April 21, 2026 State-level protection for religious exercise in 2026 is both stronger and less uniform than many summary accounts suggest. Roughly thirty states are commonly identified as having enacted statutory Religious Freedom Restoration Acts (“RFRAs”), while a smaller additional set is often described as providing RFRA-like protection through state constitutional doctrine. The trend is…
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No. 19 — Religious Accommodation in Medical-Only Cannabis States
No. 19 — Religious Accommodation in Medical-Only Cannabis States: Structural Litigation Risk and Legislative Design By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series No. 19April 20, 2026 ⸻ I. Introduction: The Unaddressed Gap Medical-only cannabis states operate within a tightly regulated framework. Cultivation is limited. Home grows require registration. Plant counts are capped. Inspections are authorized.…
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The Record Is the Case: Religious-Cannabis Claims Are Won Long Before the Judge Rules
The Record Is the Case: Religious-Cannabis Claims Are Won Long Before the Judge Rules By Jason Karimi | WeedPress April 14, 2026 Religious-cannabis cases are not won on sympathy. They are not won on slogans. They are not won because a claimant sounds sincere in the hallway or because a cause feels morally compelling in…
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The Next Religious-Cannabis Test Case: What Courts Will Actually Need To See
The Next Religious-Cannabis Test Case: What Courts Will Actually Need To See By Jason Karimi | WeedPress April 14, 2026 Religious-cannabis cases have been discussed as though the central question were whether a judge personally finds the practice unusual, controversial, or politically inconvenient. That is not the real question. The real question is whether a…
Upcoming Events
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They Don’t Get To License The Press
Recent reporting indicates a Florida judge extended a temporary restraining order involving James O’Keefe and also ordered firearm surrender pending further proceedings. Whether that order is a pure First Amendment prior-restraint problem depends on what it actually forbids. If it regulates threats, contact, or violence, that is one thing; if it blocks publication, reporting, or…
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Iowa Medical Cannabis Board Hearing Friday March 27 (DETAILS)
Meeting Information: March 27, 2026 – Medical Cannabidiol Board Beginning at 10:00am on Friday, March 27 the first Medical Cannabidiol Board meeting of 2026 will be held virtually using the information below: * For those who wish to participate in the public comment period virtually, please send an email to medical.cannabis@hhs.iowa.gov expressing your interest. You will use the zoom or…
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Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Launches Statewide Town Hall Tour
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana Launches Statewide Town Hall Tour By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 7, 2026 Scottsbluff to Lincoln: Advocates Take Patient Access Conversation Across the State Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana (NMM) is hitting the road this week with a statewide town hall tour aimed at updating patients, families, and community members on…
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Federal Public Comment Available Now (Texas Too)
Public input needed! Federal first then Texas: Federal Update: CMS & Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids On November 28, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) filed a proposed ruleto incorporate the federal definition of hemp that will take effect on November 12, 2026. This proposed rule clarifies that cannabis or hemp-derived products illegal under federal or state…
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Tomorrow: Best Attorneys Discuss Federal Rescheduling At Noon
https://x.com/jamiecampbell/status/2006159843267145790?s=46 RSVP and attend at noon central/ 1 eastern 1-6-2025 Be there or be square. Link also here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UKmdX9EBQs2HYOW7epomvA#/registration
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Reminder: Rising to the Moment: Protecting and Advancing Cannabis Legalization in a Changing America
Rising to the Moment: Protecting and Advancing Cannabis Legalization in a Changing America Date & TimeDec 17, 2025 12:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada) Webinar ID815 7712 0875 Description BGM and Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) invite you to join us for a timely discussion on the current state of the national legalization landscape. We will…
For The Record (2026), By Jason Karimi
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Chapter 9: The Record vs. the Narrative
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 10: What Remains
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 8: What the Media Gets Wrong
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 7: Why I Never Left
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 6: Staying Power
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 5: The Apprenticeship
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 4: Learning the Language of Power
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 3: Becoming a Problem
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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Chapter 2: Before the File Was Opened
Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted education, faith, discipline, and early legitimacy Chapter 3 — Becoming a ProblemWork, exhaustion, collapse, and the cost of visibility Chapter 4 — Learning the Language of PowerCourts, probation, jail, campaigns, and proximity to decision-makers…
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“For The Record” Chapter 1: The First Arrest
The following 8,580 word book is ten chapters long and written for future advocates. FOR THE RECORD How Power Actually Works—and Why Documentation Outlasts the Narrative By Jason Karimi Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1 — The First ArrestEarly rupture, authority, and the beginning of resistance Chapter 2 — Before the File Was Opened Gifted…
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On Independence, Accountability, and Why I Don’t Build My Work Around Approval
On Independence, Accountability, and Why I Don’t Build My Work Around Approval By Jason Karimi At 19, I ended up in a homeless shelter. Not because I committed a crime.Not because I was addicted.Not because I couldn’t work. I was there because I stood up in court for religious cannabis rights, made the front page…
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Why WeedPress Chooses to Be a High-Heat, Contrarian Watchdog
Why WeedPress Chooses to Be a High-Heat, Contrarian Watchdog By Jason Karimi | WeedPressJanuary 24, 2026 WeedPress was not created to be polite. It was not created to echo press releases, recycle activist talking points, or play nice with institutions that have repeatedly failed cannabis patients, small operators, and civil liberties. WeedPress exists to document,…
Commentary
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Leadership Matters: Strategy Failure — Not the Supreme Court — Doomed Legalization in South Dakota
Editors note: This piece analyzes past campaign strategy using publicly available court records and election results. When South Dakota voters approved Constitutional Amendment A in November 2020 to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana, many supporters saw it as a historic victory for reform. But what followed — a legal challenge and a ruling from the…
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Deadwood Was South Dakota’s Origin Story
Deadwood Was South Dakota’s Origin Story HBO’s western is not just about one outlaw camp. It is about the culture of theft, violated Lakota land, gold obsession, and rough power that helped shape the state By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 26, 2026 HBO’s Deadwood is not a documentary. It is something more dangerous to…
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Ziggy Marley’s “Racism Is A Killa” Uses Satire as a Public-Health Warning
Ziggy Marley’s “Racism Is A Killa” Uses Satire as a Public-Health Warning By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 26, 2027 In the video for “Racism Is A Killa,” Ziggy Marley does not treat racism as a private flaw or a bad opinion. He frames it as a social sickness, and satire is the instrument that…
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The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota
The District Math: How Primary Elections Actually Decide Legislative Power in South Dakota By Jason Karimi | WeedPress February 23, 2026 If HB 1065 was a diagnostic, district math is the operating manual. Political influence in South Dakota is not determined by statewide sentiment alone. It is determined district by district — often by a…
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From Diagnosis to Discipline: Building Primary Leverage in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics
From Diagnosis to Discipline: Building Primary Leverage in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics By Jason Karimi | WeedPress February 16, 2026 HB 1065 advancing is a test for the medical cannabis movement in South Dakota. If a restriction bill can clear committee 8–3 and advance toward the House floor with minimal electoral anxiety, the movement…
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WeedPress Is Mapping the Battlefield While Others Debate the Map
WeedPress Is Mapping the Battlefield While Others Debate the Map WeedPress Policy SeriesBy Jason Karimi ⸻ There are two kinds of publications in contentious policy environments. Some debate what the terrain should look like. Others study what the terrain actually is. WeedPress was built to do the second. While many cannabis commentators remain focused on…
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HB 1065 Heads to the Floor: The Primary Gap in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics
HB 1065 Heads to the Floor: The Primary Gap in South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Politics As restriction legislation advances, the absence of effectively deterrent electoral pressure reveals a leverage problem within the state’s cannabis movement. As House Bill 1065 advances to the South Dakota House floor, the moment calls for structural reflection rather than rhetorical…
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Discipline Forged Under Scrutiny: Why the Hard Path Produces the Most Careful Lawyers
Discipline Forged Under Scrutiny: Why the Hard Path Produces the Most Careful LawyersBy Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 14th, 2026 ⸻ Some of the most disciplined lawyers are not the ones who glide through clean transcripts and uninterrupted résumés. They are the ones who had to fight to be admitted. They understand that the…
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Outline of Cannabis Federalism: Constitutional Architecture in a Post-Prohibition Era
New book in monograph form incoming. Estimated release date: July 4, 2026 Cannabis Federalism: Constitutional Architecture in a Post-Prohibition Era Subtitle: A Structural Analysis of Vertical Preemption, Horizontal Protectionism, and Patient-Centered Regulatory Design By Jason Karimi Proposed Table of Contents Preface From Conflict to Architecture Brief, measured acknowledgment of the volatility of the cannabis policy…
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The “Lazy but Ambitious” Minority: Why 15–20% of People Are Wired Differently — and How That Can Be a Strength
The “Lazy but Ambitious” Minority: Why 15–20% of People Are Wired Differently — and How That Can Be a Strength By Jason Karimi A growing body of productivity and behavioral-psychology content points to a counterintuitive personality pattern: a significant minority of people — often estimated informally at 15–20% of the population in coaching and productivity…
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Why I No Longer Testify at Most Hearings
Why I No Longer Testify at Most Hearings Seventeen Years, Four Bills Passed, and Managing Campaigns and Staff Have Taught Me Institutional Architecture Is Not a Two-Minute Topic By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 12, 2026 This week’s attempt to repeal South Dakota’s medical cannabis laws leaned on ignorance of the federal architecture and…
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Call for Prosecutions Raises Concerns About Politicization
Call for Prosecutions Raises Concerns About Politicization When criminal law becomes a first-resort response to disagreement, institutional trust is at risk By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | January 17, 2026. In recent weeks, prominent progressive commentators have openly discussed the need for criminal accountability for political opponents. On a podcast appearance with CNN’s Jim Acosta,…
Patient Perspectives
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Minnesota Was Arguing Schedule III Before Washington Caught Up
April 26, 2026 Minnesota has already done what many cannabis lawyers, reformers, and national reporters still describe as hypothetical: it moved marijuana and naturally occurring tetrahydrocannabinols into Schedule III under state controlled-substances law.¹ The change has been sitting in Minnesota law quietly, without anything close to the national attention now surrounding federal rescheduling.² That matters…
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Public Records Show Two Active Civil Cases Involving 605 Cannabis Executive; Questions of Transparency Follow For Reform Leadership
Federal rescheduling of marijuana has reached a historic inflection point for South Dakota patients. On April 23, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a final order placing FDA-approved products containing marijuana, and marijuana products subject to a qualifying state-issued medical marijuana license, into Schedule III of the Controlled Substances…
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The Litigation Front of Cannabis Reform: Why Ryan Kolbeck’s Courtroom Work Matters Beyond South Dakota
April 25, 2026 While cannabis reform is often narrated through ballot initiatives, legislatures, and federal rescheduling debates, some of its most consequential work occurs in trial courts, where rights are defended one defendant at a time.¹ In South Dakota, attorney Ryan Kolbeck’s work illustrates that underappreciated litigation front.² Prohibition survives not merely through statutes, but…
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A Fourth 605 Cannabis-Linked TPO Petition Was Also Denied. At What Point Does the Pattern Itself Become News?
All claims regarding court filings are based on public judicial records. Opinions expressed are those of the author. April 24, 2026 Another protection-order petition tied to the same broader dispute over public reporting and criticism was denied. That matters not simply because one more petition failed, but because the public record now reflects a repeated…
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Weedpress Email To South Dakota DOH, April 24, 2026
Ms. Jorgensen, Rereading this letter today. I wanted to express gratitude for the clarity and professional guidance on the laws in this state. Also, I have attached a file provided to me two years ago on state scheduling processes and laws. The laws are not up to date and have likely been adjusted from the…
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Nick Moser’s Role in the Hemp Quarters 605 Case
April 24, 2026 South Dakota’s 2024 hemp fight produced one notable federal case: Hemp Quarters 605 LLC v. Noem, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota on June 13, 2024. The plaintiff, Hemp Quarters 605 LLC, challenged House Bill 1125, South Dakota’s law restricting chemically derived hemp cannabinoids. Yankton attorney…
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 