Featured Analysis
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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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The Attorney General Just Said State Medical Marijuana Systems Work
April 24, 2026 The most important sentence in the new federal marijuana rescheduling order may not be the word “Schedule III.” It may be the Attorney General’s finding that state medical-marijuana systems, “taken as a whole,” have demonstrated a “sustained capacity” to achieve the public-interest objectives behind the Controlled Substances Act’s registration framework: public health,…
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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…
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Marijuana’s Schedule I Original Sin: Nixon, Political Control, and Fifty Years of Failed Federal Rescheduling
April 23, 2026 Marijuana’s federal Schedule I status was never just a scientific judgment. It was born at the intersection of bureaucracy, racial politics, antiwar backlash, and executive power. The Controlled Substances Act placed marijuana in Schedule I in 1970, the most restrictive category in federal drug law, reserved for substances deemed to have 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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Lawyer Briefing Zoom Meeting On Rescheduling Happening This Monday Register Here
On Monday, April 27, at 11 AM MT / 1 PM ET, Vicente LLP and Marijuana Policy Project will convene for a timely online briefing, “What Happens Now with Cannabis Rescheduling? Industry Leaders on Medical vs. Adult-Use, June 29 Hearing and Expected Litigation”featuring cannabis attorneys, advocates and policy experts covering: Register now and learn more at: bit.ly/cannabis-rescheduling …
Policy
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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The Post-Announcement Phase of Cannabis Rescheduling: What the June DEA Hearing Means, What States May Have to Change, and What to Watch Next
The most important cannabis-law story in the country is no longer the announcement that part of the marijuana market has been moved into Schedule III. It is the implementation phase that follows. In April 2026, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of immediately placing state-licensed medical marijuana and…
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What Rescheduling Still Doesn’t Fix for Probationers, Workers, and Patients
Editors note: this article was written prior the the April 23 final order rescheduling cannabis products into federal Schedule III. Article is published unchanged as originally drafted for clarity. April 30, 2026 Too much cannabis coverage still treats federal rescheduling like a magic wand patients should uncritically celebrate. I’ve studied these laws more than anyone…
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South Dakota’s Schedule I Marijuana Prohibition Heads to Court This Summer: Lawsuit Will Seek Declaration That State Law No Longer Satisfies Its Own Criteria
This summer I intend to file a civil action against the State of South Dakota seeking a judicial declaration that the state’s Schedule I classification of marijuana no longer satisfies the statutory criteria required for Schedule I placement under South Dakota law.¹ The claim is straightforward: once the factual predicate of “no accepted medical use”…
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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.…
Law
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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Sunday Bible Reflection: 5-3-26
Hebrews 12 KJV 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us… 11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,…
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The Post-Announcement Phase of Cannabis Rescheduling: What the June DEA Hearing Means, What States May Have to Change, and What to Watch Next
The most important cannabis-law story in the country is no longer the announcement that part of the marijuana market has been moved into Schedule III. It is the implementation phase that follows. In April 2026, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of immediately placing state-licensed medical marijuana and…
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South Dakota Medical Cannabis Prices vs. Colorado and Washington: Why Patients Pay WAY More in the Mount Rushmore State
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was designed to provide safe, legal access for qualifying patients. Yet current dispensary prices for flower — the most common form of medicine — remain dramatically higher than in mature recreational markets like Colorado and Washington. This price gap directly burdens patients, limits access, and undermines the voter-approved goal of…
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605 Cannabis LLC, Public Oversight, and Program Integrity: A Public-Records Timeline for South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Program
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was created by voters to serve patients. It is also a regulated industry. That means licensed establishments, establishment agents, compliance officers, campaign leaders, committee members, and public-facing executives do not operate in a purely private sphere. When a licensed cannabis business is inspected, suspended, sued, settled with, politically active, represented…
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Federal Rescheduling to Schedule III and the Emerging State Reckoning: South Carolina’s Statutory Trigger, Tennessee’s Legislative Blockade, and the Intellectual Lineage of Schedule I Nullification from Judge Francis L. Young’s 1988 Ruling Through Iowa Activism to Michigan Dismissals
Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance.¹² The Department of Justice announced on April 23, 2026, the issuance of a final order immediately…
Science
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Iowa Cannabis Advisory Board Meeting, Valentine’s Day 2020, Part 1 [VIDEO]
Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes Part 2 here:
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Ankeny DMACC Tomorrow: Medical Cannabis Advisory Board Public Meeting, On Valentine’s Day At 10 AM
Upcoming Meeting Detail Title: Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Advisory Board – Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board Meeting Date: 02/14/2020 Time: 10:00 am Location: Iowa Laboratory Facility – 2240 DMACC Blvd., Ankeny, IA Agenda: 02.14.2020 Medical Cannabidiol Board Meeting Agenda Other Files: Draft Minutes: 11.01.2019 mCBD Board Meeting I guess it’s a date.
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Ben From Iowa City: His Story
For more information, visit: https://www.iowaharmreductioncoalition.org/syringe-exchange/ Ben’s Story SSPs offer connections to treatment Ben is a 26 year old from Iowa City who has been using heroin for several years. In the fall of 2017, he met the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition (IHRC) while they were conducting community outreach. He received a naloxone kit and was…
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Iowa Law Enforcement Officers Support Syringe Service Programs and Needle Exchange
The following information is courtesy of the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition. Law Enforcement Officers Support Syringe Service Programs and Needle Exchange Chief Michael Tupper Marshalltown Chief of Police, Marshalltown Police Department “SSPs save money, lives, and take used needles off the streets, which protects both law enforcement and the public. Now is the time to…
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IDW’s Dr. Jordan Peterson Placed In Coma After Western Medicine Nearly Kills Him
Dr. Jordan Peterson Placed In Coma After Pharmaceuticals Nearly Kill Him North American hospitals had misdiagnosed him and nearly killed him as a result, says National Post. The man, the myth, and the legend, intellectual dark web superhero Jordan Peterson nearly died last month after having a bad reaction to benzodiazepines. Jordan was placed in…
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Schizophrenia Causes More Marijuana Use — By Ian Williams Goddard
Reposting from https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/02/ian-goddard/schizophrenia-causes-more-marijuana-use/. This is important, and on point. Schizophrenia Causes More Marijuana Use By Ian Williams Goddard February 8, 2020 Prohibitionists often cite the correlation between marijuana and schizophrenia as reason to oppose liberalization. However, correlation is not causation, and people with schizophrenia also use other psychoactive substances more than the general population. [1]…
Current Events
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Moral Reasoning Across Cultures
From my psychology text in class His perspective is based on an individualistic notion of justice. The first two stages represent preconventional morality in which the man child’s primary motivation is to avoid immediate punishment and receive immediate rewards. Conventional morality emphasizes adherence to social rules. A person at this level…
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Iowa State Daily: Marijuana Reform Isn’t About Breaking The Law
Here’s the ISU Daily in 2013 talking about the importance of not breaking the law while advocating as a young student leader on campus: http://www.iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_a9da2a2c-a929-11e2-bd93-001a4bcf887a.html News Sports Limelight Opinion Diversity Multimedia Hoops #AskMeAmes Brown: Marijuana reform isn’t about breaking the law By Phil Brown, phil.brown@iowastatedaily.com Apr 19, 2013 Here in the United States, marijuana,…
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Minor Free Speech Victory At Iowa State University As Marijuana Bandana Exemption Granted For Religious Purposes To Student Attendee
A student in the horticulture program at Iowa State University tells WeedPress they have been granted a religious exemption in according with the University’s policy for religious exemptions and are now allowed to wear a bandana with marijuana leaves printed on it to their classes. Other schools have taken issue with marijuana being printed on…
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In A First For The Iowa Legislature, Marijuana Bill Advances In JANUARY
That’s incredibly early. I am not aware of any marijuana bill making any advancements at this point in the Legislative calendar, ever. Subcommittee recommends passage of Senate File 77 01/31/2019: SF 77 A bill for an act relating to the regulation of medical cannabidiol, by altering the list of debilitating medical conditions and changing…
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Adam Sullivan Says Time Ripe For My Decriminalization Bill We Drafted Three Years Ago To Play Out In Johnson County After Board of Supervisors Bluntly Endorses Marijuana Legalization!
Read his article in the Gazette here I spent two weeks of full-time research to come up with one sentence as a city charter initiative to endorse this position in Johnson County and Cedar Rapids and determined 2020 to be the prime year to engage, if not, 2024… Meanwhile a little bit about me: https://elementaldiscourse.com/elemental-discourse-episode-seven-an-interview-with-an-iowa-marijuana-activist/
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Speaking Rastafari, January 31 2018
Speaking Rastafari 31 January 2018 · Unfree people become afraid when this one they love does as he does, is as he is. They have much invested in his being a certain way. After all he has given still they are not content. The very simple reason for this is that they are not living…
Legislation
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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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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WeedPress Blueprint Update 1
April 23, 2026 Tracker — newly surfaced / incremental developments since last sweep https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-week-in-weed-april-2026-3-9554026/ https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-week-in-weed-april-2026-3-9554026/ Priority watchlist shift: Rhode Island residency litigation + possible legislative cure is the most material new development in this run.
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Blueprint 2026
April 21, 2021 The architecture WeedPress is following to cover policy nationwide this year: Layer 1: Source monitoring Layer 2: Structured trackerGoogle Sheet with columns like: Master tracker columns Use one Google Sheet with these columns: Core identity Legal substance Source control Workflow Best values for each column Category Use only: Subcategory Examples: Item type…
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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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No. 17 — Federal Rescheduling and State Statutory Insulation: Indiana as a Case Study in Vertical Federalism Design
No. 17 — Federal Rescheduling and State Statutory Insulation: Indiana as a Case Study in Vertical Federalism Design By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series No. 17April 7, 2026 ⸻ When the federal government signals that marijuana may be rescheduled under the Controlled Substances Act, public debate gravitates toward legalization politics. That is the wrong…
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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Why South Dakota’s Own Statutes Now Make Schedule I Marijuana Unlawful to Maintain
“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is placing both FDA-approved drug products containing marijuana, and medicinal marijuana products subject to a qualifying state-issued license in Schedule III under his authority to reschedule drugs to carry out the United States’ obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.”¹ South Dakota, however, is not automatically bound by that…
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South Dakota’s Schedule I Marijuana Prohibition Heads to Court This Summer: Lawsuit Will Seek Declaration That State Law No Longer Satisfies Its Own Criteria
This summer I intend to file a civil action against the State of South Dakota seeking a judicial declaration that the state’s Schedule I classification of marijuana no longer satisfies the statutory criteria required for Schedule I placement under South Dakota law.¹ The claim is straightforward: once the factual predicate of “no accepted medical use”…
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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…
For The Record (2026), By Jason Karimi
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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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…
Commentary
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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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…
Patient Perspectives
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Ned Horsted’s “Family Values” GOP Run Is a Democrat Trojan Horse — While His Family Farm Hosts LGBTQ Pride Events and Pushes Progressive Radicalism
Editors note: The following is voter information on a public candidate based solely on public records on a regulated industry and candidate. Protective order proceedings are separate and this publication is not intended to influence any court matter. South Dakota House District 6 voters have four and a half short weeks until the June 2…
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The Post-Announcement Phase of Cannabis Rescheduling: What the June DEA Hearing Means, What States May Have to Change, and What to Watch Next
The most important cannabis-law story in the country is no longer the announcement that part of the marijuana market has been moved into Schedule III. It is the implementation phase that follows. In April 2026, the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration took the unusual step of immediately placing state-licensed medical marijuana and…
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South Dakota Medical Cannabis Prices vs. Colorado and Washington: Why Patients Pay WAY More in the Mount Rushmore State
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was designed to provide safe, legal access for qualifying patients. Yet current dispensary prices for flower — the most common form of medicine — remain dramatically higher than in mature recreational markets like Colorado and Washington. This price gap directly burdens patients, limits access, and undermines the voter-approved goal of…
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605 Cannabis LLC, Public Oversight, and Program Integrity: A Public-Records Timeline for South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Program
South Dakota’s medical cannabis program was created by voters to serve patients. It is also a regulated industry. That means licensed establishments, establishment agents, compliance officers, campaign leaders, committee members, and public-facing executives do not operate in a purely private sphere. When a licensed cannabis business is inspected, suspended, sued, settled with, politically active, represented…
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Federal Rescheduling to Schedule III and the Emerging State Reckoning: South Carolina’s Statutory Trigger, Tennessee’s Legislative Blockade, and the Intellectual Lineage of Schedule I Nullification from Judge Francis L. Young’s 1988 Ruling Through Iowa Activism to Michigan Dismissals
Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance.¹² The Department of Justice announced on April 23, 2026, the issuance of a final order immediately…
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Quiet Outreach to Key Movement Leadership: Notifying Reform Voices of Incoming Schedule I Lawsuit
In the ongoing fight for a patient-first medical cannabis program aligned with science, law, and federal developments, transparency with allies matters. Today I quietly reached out to five respected voices in South Dakota’s cannabis reform and industry space to notify them of an impending lawsuit challenging South Dakota’s maintenance of marijuana in Schedule I under…
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 