Category: Policy
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
South Dakota DOH Avoids the Merits on Cannabis Scheduling, Hides Behind Procedure
South Dakota DOH Avoids the Merits on Cannabis Scheduling, Hides Behind Procedure The Department of Health did not defend cannabis Schedule I status on the merits. It said Jason Karimi used the wrong procedural vehicle, declined to resolve the statutory conflict, and left the core contradiction untouched. By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 19, 2026…
-
Cannabis Federalism After Medical Recognition
Cannabis Federalism After Medical Recognition Administrative Record, Rational Basis, and Vertical Separation of Powers Jason KarimiWeedPress White Paper No. 1March 17 2026 ⸻ Executive Summary Federal acknowledgment that cannabis has “currently accepted medical use” under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) would not merely reclassify a substance. It would recalibrate the constitutional and evidentiary framework within…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Senate HHS Buries HB 1160: MMOC Repeal Killed on a 4–3 “41st Day” Vote
Senate HHS Buries HB 1160: MMOC Repeal Killed on a 4–3 “41st Day” Vote By Jason Karimi | Weed PressMarch 5, 2026 South Dakota’s bill to repeal the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC) is effectively dead. On Wednesday, March 4, 2026, Senate Health & Human Services voted to defer HB 1160 to the “41st legislative…
-
-
HB 1065, A Bill To Felonize Medical Cardholders, Defeated 4-3
Senator Smith prior to the bill being defeated said: “This is another form of medicine. While it’s not a prescription it’s a permit to have it.” Then why is cannabis classified as Schedule I? Minnesota has it scheduled Schedule III. Why the conflicting laws in South Dakota?
-
South Dakota Hearing on HB 1065: Medical Cannabis “Affirmative Defense” Change — 7:45 a.m. Monday (Capitol Room 412)
South Dakota Hearing on HB 1065: Medical Cannabis “Affirmative Defense” Change — 7:45 a.m. Monday (Capitol Room 412) By Jason Karimi | WeedPress March 2 2026 Public comment is welcome. The Senate Health & Human Services Committee meets Monday, March 2, 2026, at 7:45 a.m. in Capitol Room 412, and HB 1065 (revising the medical-purpose…
-
No. 10 — Federal Preemption After Rescheduling: Conflict, Obstacle, and Cannabis Federalism
No. 10 — Federal Preemption After Rescheduling: Conflict, Obstacle, and Cannabis Federalism If federal enforcement priorities shift while federal prohibition remains intact, courts will increasingly confront whether the CSA preempts state licensing structures that depend on continued federal forbearance. Whether state laws are argued as exemptions to new and changing federal CSA directives will likely…
-
The South Dakota DOH Already Has a Declaratory Ruling Process — Here’s the Form
The DOH Already Has a Declaratory Ruling Process — Here’s the Form By Jason Karimi | WeedPress February 19, 2026 Most activists assume state agencies can ignore legal questions unless a lawsuit forces the issue. That assumption is wrong. This is a general procedural note: South Dakota’s Department of Health already has a formal, on-the-books…
-
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…
-
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…
-
No. 6 – The Major Questions Doctrine and Cannabis Reform: Delegation, Scale, and Judicial Review
The Major Questions Doctrine and Cannabis Reform: Delegation, Scale, and Judicial Review By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series No. 6 February 14, 2026 The prior essays examined the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as a regulatory architecture containing delegated exception authority and then clarified the limits of that delegation under 21 U.S.C. §…
-
No. 5 – The Limits of § 822(d): What It Does — and Does Not — Authorize
The Limits of § 822(d): What It Does — and Does Not — Authorize By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series #5 February 13, 2026 The prior essay argued that the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is not a blunt prohibition instrument, but a regulatory architecture containing delegated exception authority. That structural claim warrants clarification. This…
-
No. 4 – The Controlled Substances Act Is Not a Blunt Instrument — It Is an Architecture of Exceptions
The Controlled Substances Act Is Not a Blunt Instrument — It Is an Architecture of Exceptions By Jason Karimi | WeedPress Policy Series #4| February 13, 2026 A recent Harvard Law Review–discussed argument (as reviewed in Drug Scheduling Is Institutional Design — And That Changes Everything) suggests the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is structurally imperfect…
-
What Federal Cannabis Rescheduling Means for South Dakota — And the Conversation Still Ahead
What Federal Cannabis Rescheduling Means for South Dakota — And the Conversation Still Ahead By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 2026 Editor’s Note: WeedPress views Emmett Reistroffer as a good-faith contributor to South Dakota’s cannabis policy discussion. This article is not intended as a critique of his analysis, but as an extension of the…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
Drug Scheduling Is Institutional Design — And That Changes Everything
Drug Scheduling Is Institutional Design — And That Changes Everything By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | Feb 10, 2026 In Volume 139 of the Harvard Law Review (p. 849), Matthew B. Lawrence and David E. Pozen published a piece that should be required reading for anyone serious about cannabis reform: “Drug Scheduling as Institutional Design.”…
-
Why South Dakota’s Cannabis Licensing Framework Risks Being Ruled Unconstitutional
Why South Dakota’s Cannabis Licensing Framework Risks Being Ruled Unconstitutional — Federal Court Ruling Signals Constitutional Trouble Ahead By Jason Karimi | WeedPress| February 6th, 2026 South Dakota’s medical cannabis law contains a quiet but consequential line: To get a state registration certificate for a medical cannabis establishment, “[a]t least one principal officer is a…
-
Who’s Tracking Cannabis Sales in South Dakota? The Health Department Isn’t
Who’s Tracking Cannabis Sales in South Dakota? The Health Department Isn’t By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 5, 2026 As lawmakers debate cannabis enforcement and market controls, the South Dakota Department of Health confirms it does not collect or receive dispensary-level sales or dispensing reports. As South Dakota lawmakers continue debating cannabis enforcement and…
-
When Competence Shows Up: Electoral Losses vs. Legislative Wins
When Competence Shows Up: Electoral Losses vs. Legislative Wins By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 5, 2026 Editors note added Thursday February 5th: After writing this article I am glad Iowa does not have ballot initiatives, so people don’t confuse these differences and conflate the tactics used in electoral and legislative avenues of relief…
-
Why So Much Cannabis Activism Burns People Out — and Why Mine Doesn’t
Why So Much Cannabis Activism Burns People Out — and Why Mine Doesn’t By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | February 4, 2026 If this work can be energizing, why do so many advocates flame out, disappear, or turn bitter? The answer isn’t workload.It’s structure. Burnout Is a Design Failure Most activist burnout isn’t personal weakness…
-
Why WeedPress Exists the Way It Does: How I Learned to Navigate Hostile Systems — and Still Publish Solutions
WeedPress focuses on documented facts, public records, and procedural analysis, not personal vendettas or speculation. Why WeedPress Exists the Way It Does: How I Learned to Navigate Hostile Systems — and Still Publish Solutions By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | January 29, 2026 WeedPress wasn’t built by someone who grew up with a safety net.…
-
Every Cannabis Bill Sounds the Same — Here’s How to Translate Lawmaker Speak
Every Cannabis Bill Sounds the Same — Here’s How to Translate Lawmaker Speak By Jason Karimi | WeedPress | January 29, 2026 If you’ve covered even one cannabis hearing, you already know the truth: every cannabis bill sounds exactly the same. The words change, the bill numbers change, the lawmakers change — but the language?…
-
South Dakota Lawmakers Quietly Move to Ban Hemp THC and Expand Drug Enforcement
South Dakota Lawmakers Quietly Move to Ban Hemp THC and Expand Drug Enforcement By Jason Karimi | WeedPress: The Paper Trail PIERRE, S.D. — While lawmakers quietly pulled a controversial medical cannabis arrest bill from the agenda this week, other cannabis-related legislation is still moving — including major efforts to ban hemp-derived THC products and…
-
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…
-
Plural Policy: The Quiet Tool Lobbyists Use to Track and Shape Law (And Why Activists Should Pay Attention)
Plural Policy: The Quiet Tool Lobbyists Use to Track and Shape Law (And Why Activists Should Pay Attention) By Jason Karimi | WeedPress 1-24-2026 Most people who follow politics think legislation moves through press releases, committee hearings, and floor votes. That’s not how it actually works. Real power happens earlier — in version changes, quiet…
-
-
What the MMOC Actually Recommended in 2025 — and Why It Still Doesn’t Control Policy
What the MMOC Actually Recommended in 2025 — and Why It Still Doesn’t Control Policy By Jason Karimi Every year the South Dakota Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC) meets, debates, hears testimony, and votes on recommendations about the state’s medical cannabis program. And every year many patients and businesses assume those votes actually do something.…
-
Five Data-Driven Cannabis Reforms South Dakota Needs Now
Five Data-Driven Cannabis Reforms South Dakota Needs Now By Jason Karimi South Dakota’s cannabis program is stuck in neutral. Years after legalization, we still lack clarity, transparency, and a coherent path forward. Instead of endless meetings and political posturing, the state needs concrete reforms grounded in data and law. Here are five changes that would…
-
What the MMOC Board Should Prioritize This Year
South Dakota’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee (MMOC) has existed for several years now. Patients, voters, and small businesses were promised a transparent, rational regulatory system. What we have instead is a board that spends too much time on political theater and too little time solving real structural problems. If the MMOC wants to be taken…
-
A New Legal Standard Emerges: How HHS’s Two-Part Test Is Reshaping DEA Drug Scheduling
Why the HHS Two-Part Test Is Now Influencing DEA Scheduling Decisions By Jason Karimi The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) has long required that a drug must have a “currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” before it can be placed outside of Schedule I. For decades, that determination was interpreted by the…
-
Petition: South Dakota Law Now Makes Schedule I Cannabis Classification Legally Impossible
The following is a work in progress. Draft of filing that asks Department of Health to acknowledge that medical cannabis laws contradict Schedule I definition. Update 2-1: I realized I was going about this all wrong. The following isn’t per se incorrect but there’s a much simpler stronger argument the court will prefer. I will…
-
State Board Warns: Iowa Cannabis Users Break Federal Law
State Board Warns: Iowa Cannabis Users Break Federal Law Iowa’s medical cannabis program authorizes patient use at the state level but remains at odds with federal laws. Despite state authorization, Iowa’s medical cannabis program remains illegal under federal law, leading to ongoing legal risk and public safety implications — and lawmakers still haven’t acted on…
-
South Dakota Department Of Health Response To WeedPress Audit Of Sales, Business Records
Good Morning Jason, If you are looking to obtain records please make a request with our public records request form. https://www.sd.gov/cs?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=f7f939eddbd4b150b2fb93d4f39619c0 Thanks! Kade Anderson Certifications Specialist Office of Medical Cannabis | Division of Licensure and Accreditation 605.773.3361 | 600 E Capitol Ave,Pierre This is in response to this: https://weedpress.wordpress.com/2026/01/11/whos-really-selling-what-a-statewide-audit-request-hits-south-dakotas-cannabis-program/
-
Who’s Really Selling What? A Statewide Audit Request Hits South Dakota’s Cannabis Program
South Dakota cannabis sales and business data brought to you by WeedPress!
-
Trump Just Announced Ground War Against Drug Cartels
Good. One of their cocaine dealers tried to push people around at the Iowa State campus Jimmy John’s I worked at before ending up in jail. I left Jimmy John’s, went to McDonald’s, and fired a guy within four hours who kept grabbing my ass. Turns out he had been selling drugs out of the…
-
THE FEDERAL MARIJUANA RESCHEDULING SHOCKWAVE
Why Most State Drug Laws Will Collapse Without Immediate Legislative Repair A WeedPress White Paper Based on national Controlled Substances Act architecture documented by Vicente LLP Executive Summary The American drug-law system is not fifty independent sovereign criminal codes. It is a federally anchored network of derivative state statutes. Most U.S. states have written their…
-
A federal reset on cannabis is coming. Iowa should not miss it. | Opinion
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2025/12/28/iowa-federal-marijuana-reset/87909387007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z116461p001150c001150d00—-v116461d–xx–b–xx–&gca-ft=141&gca-ds=sophi Response to the above was printed in the Register on Sunday December 31st and is reprinted here in full: https://carl-olsen.com/2025/12/letter-to-the-editor-december-2025 Letter to the Editor – December 2025 December 28, 2025 To the Editor: Rick Wagaman’s Guest Opinion(Des Moines Register, 12/28/25), “Iowa should be ready for reset on cannabis,” leaves out an important step Iowa should…
-
South Dakota Marijuana Laced With Fentanyl: One Case Reported Found
In February 2025, the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office and Division of Criminal Investigation issued a public warning about marijuana discovered in eastern South Dakota that appeared laced with opioids and possibly fentanyl. A man experienced overdose-like symptoms after smoking it (noting an unusual chemical taste and blue-white tint), went to the ER, tested positive…
-
-
Gateway Drug Theory Rejected By DEA and HHS: Federal Register
81 Fed. Reg. 53767, 53784 (Aug. 12, 2016) (concluding that “research does not support a direct causal relationship between regular marijuana use and other illicit drug use” and emphasizing that “[l]ittle evidence supports the hypothesis that initiation of marijuana use leads to an abuse disorder with other illicit substances”). Full text of the decision available…
-
-
Truck Drivers Can Use Cannabis Under Schedule 3 Absent Policy Interventions
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/drug-testing-industry-group-is-sounding-the-alarm-about-marijuana-rescheduling-as-trump-plans-action/ I’m now a solo advocate and quit representing other people as the entire weed movement and all its groups desire criminality, rebellion, and cool kid ego games and I can’t do it any longer. When I say that, as cannabis advocates, we cannot unleash regulations that don’t respect public health and safety, or programs…
-
-
Trump Is Definitely Rescheduling And Also Descheduling: Magnificent Leadership From The Best President For Marijuana In Our Lifetime
This is without question the BEST PRESIDENT IN MY LIFETIME and before my lifetime on marijuana law reform. THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!!! https://themarijuanaherald.com/2025/12/trump-advisor-says-cannabis-descheduling-commission-still-planned-announcement-expected-by-summer/
-
The Federal Exemption Process Protects Pot Users Needing Organ Transplants…
Imagine a doctor denied your father life saving surgery because he’s a medical cannabis user: Pot Can Get You Kicked Off Transplant Lists — Even In States Where It’s Legal (Buzzfeed) How would you feel? Here’s how to ensure loved ones never have to again face denial of medical life saving surgeries for being cannabis…
-
Assessment of the Impacts of Marijuana Legalization in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (2018, by Michael Lynch)
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3668&context=etd&utm_source=chatgpt.com
-
Ilhan Omar’s Office Called WeedPress For Help On Federal Exemption To State Cannabis Laws!!!!
Just a brief note, but I was asked this last week by Ilhan Omar’s Congressional office for info on a bill I wrote the bill summary for in 2021 that passed the Minnesota House. Read the bill here: House File 1023. The bill was introduced by Young Americans for Liberty endorsed House Rep Jeremy Munson.…
-
South Dakota’s Lack Of Testing Labs For Marijuana: Cause For Concern?
Number of testing labs in South Dakota According to the state’s official cannabis-licensing site, as of early 2025 there are two independent medical cannabis testing laboratories licensed by the South Dakota Department of Health (SD-DOH). Of those two labs: Cannabis Chem Lab Inc. — located in Flandreau, South Dakota — is described as the “only licensed cannabis…
-
Petition To South Dakota Legislature Senate And House Leadership
Copy To: President of the South Dakota Senate Copy to: Speaker of the South Dakota House This petition is submitted pursuant to: South Dakota Constitution 0N-6-4§ 4: § 4. Right of petition and peaceable assembly. The right of petition, and of the people peaceably to assemble to consult for the common good and make known their opinions, shall never be abridged.…
-
Recent DEA Footnote Acknowledges Two Part CAMU Test!
For those following mj rescheduling, pg 7 fn 13 of this DEA doc temporarily placing 3 synth opioids in schedule I may be of interest. DEA acknowledges the existence of and authority for the 2-part test for CAMU, though it also applies its own 5-part test: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-11462.pdf?utm_campaign=pi+subscription+mailing+list&utm_medium=email&utm_source=federalregister.gov
-
Federal Exception For Cannabis Legislation By Iowans For Medical Marijuana
Federal Exception for Cannabis Proposed Legislation 124E.27 Legal Task Force. The department shall convene a task force of legal experts to assist in executing the department’s responsibilities under 2020 Iowa Acts, chapter 1116, section 31 (protection of federal funding). Under state and federal controlled substances acts medical use of cannabis is inconsistent without interstate marketing approval or…
-
South Dakota report: allowing probationers to use medical cannabis is authorizing violations of federal law
I told you federal law matters. The solution is for South Dakota to apply for federal exemption pursuant to 21 USC 822(d).
WeedPress: The Paper Trail 