WeedPress: The Paper Trail

Updated as of Oct. 28, 2026. New to South Dakota cannabis law? This page collects WeedPress explainers and history pieces on the medical cannabis program (Initiated Measure 26, SDCL 34-20G, ARSD 44:90), administrative rulemaking, federal law and hemp. Each entry links to the full article. Source documents are in the Records Library; fixes are listed on the Corrections page. Tips: weedpressnewstips@gmail.com.

Start with the basics

• How South Dakota Cannabis Businesses Actually Interact With Federal Law: A Plain-English Guide for Patients, Owners, and Lawmakers (Jan. 20, 2026). A plain-English explanation of how South Dakota’s medical cannabis program operates while federal law still lists cannabis as Schedule I.
• A Patient Card Is Not a Shop License (Sept. 11, 2026). Separates the patient credential from the shop credential: chapter 34-20G issues cards to patients and certificates to establishments, and the April 28, 2026 federal order speaks only of operator licenses.
• South Dakota’s Schedule I Listing Still Shapes Real Cases. Moving Cannabis to Schedule III Would Change Who Gets Charged How. (Sept. 2, 2026). Explains how the medical statutes from Initiated Measure 26 and the Schedule I listing of hashish, hash oil and tetrahydrocannabinols sit in different titles of the code, and how the listing still feeds the charging statutes.
• Can You Lose Child Custody for Medical Marijuana in South Dakota? What the Law Actually Says (Sept. 21, 2026). What South Dakota law says when a medical cannabis card is raised in a child custody case, including a protection voters approved that the Legislature later changed.
• What the MMOC Actually Recommended in 2025 — and Why It Still Doesn’t Control Policy (Jan. 19, 2026). Explains that the Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee is advisory: it can recommend changes, while real authority remains with the Legislature and the Department of Health.
• Five Structural Weaknesses Still Haunting South Dakota Cannabis (Apr. 23, 2026). Identifies five structural weaknesses in a program that had approved 18,759 patient cards by April 2026.
• Schedule III Changed the Federal Rules. Here Are 26 Questions South Dakota Still Has to Answer. (Sept. 29, 2026). Lists 26 questions Schedule III left open for South Dakota on caregivers, patient transfers, Schedule I, DEA registration, home cultivation and state certification.

How South Dakota’s medical program was built (history)

• No. 14 – The South Dakota Controlled Substances Act: Legislative Architecture, Intent, and Institutional Design in a Potential Federal Rescheduling Context (Mar. 24, 2026). WeedPress Policy Series No. 14: the structure of the South Dakota Controlled Substances Act, adopted in 1970 in Title 34, chapter 20B, the same year as the federal act.
• South Dakota’s Commissioner Could Add, Delete, or Reschedule Drugs in 1970. A 1976 Criminal-Code Revision Replaced That Power With a Recommendation to the Legislature. (Sept. 20, 2026). How the 1970 law let South Dakota’s health commissioner add, delete or reschedule drugs, and how a 1976 criminal-code revision replaced that power with a recommendation to the Legislature.
• South Dakota’s Medical Cannabis Statute Creates a Direct and Unavoidable Conflict with Continued Schedule I Classification After Federal Rescheduling — The Department of Health Has a Duty to Review or Face Increasing Litigation Risk (June 22, 2026). How Initiated Measure 26 and the Medical Cannabis Act, including SDCL 34-20G-22, treat a registered patient’s medical use like pharmaceutical medication in key areas of life.
• TODAY: South Dakota DPH Townhall Question By Jason Karimi Concerning Federal Exemption Processes for State Marijuana Programs (June 28, 2021). From June 2021: the question submitted at the Department of Health’s cannabis town hall about federal exemption processes for state marijuana programs.

Rules and administrative law

• 38 Rules, 19,821 Patients, 108 Licensed Establishments: South Dakota Rewrites Its Medical Cannabis Program (Sept. 9, 2026). Overview of the Department of Health’s 38 proposed amendments to Article 44:90, filed with the Legislative Research Council on Aug. 21, 2026.
• South Dakota Has Rewritten Article 44:90 Before. The 38-Amendment Package Is Large. It Is Not the First. (Sept. 10, 2026). Shows that Article 44:90 has been rewritten before, and that the 2026 package reopens a fine schedule adopted one year earlier.
• South Dakota Wants to Rewrite Its Corrective-Action Rule. The Fine Can Still Come With It. (Sept. 11, 2026). Reads the proposed corrective-action rule (§ 44:90:12:11) together with the enforcement sections to show where a fine can still apply.
• LRC Says South Dakota Health’s New Homegrow Restriction May Lack Statutory Authority (Sept. 23, 2026). The Legislative Research Council’s review of the proposal to end home cultivation for patients under 21, which called the statutory support “quite weak.”
• How to File a Written Comment on South Dakota’s 38-Rule Medical Cannabis Package (Sept. 21, 2026). Step-by-step guide to filing a written comment on the 38-rule package; no lawyer or business license required.
• An Emergency Rule Lasts Ninety Days. It Is Not a Winter Session. (Sept. 11, 2026). SDCL 1-26-5 lists three reasons an agency may use the emergency rule procedure; this explains why an emergency rule lasts ninety days and is not a substitute for a legislative session.
• Authorized Partnerships: Lay Participation in Administrative Process and the South Dakota Cannabis File (Sept. 27, 2026). Applies a July 2026 working paper on lay participation in administrative process to the participation rights South Dakota already wrote into its rulemaking law.
• The South Dakota DOH Already Has a Declaratory Ruling Process — Here’s the Form (Feb. 19, 2026). The Department of Health’s existing declaratory-ruling process under ARSD 44:62:01:01, and the petition form.
• South Dakota’s Cannabis Scheduling Petition Process Does Not Mirror Federal Law — But It Is Still a Formal Process (Feb. 21, 2026). South Dakota has no federal-style scheduling petition clause like 21 U.S.C. § 811(a), but it still has a formal process; this explains it.
• South Dakota’s Schedule I Problem Is Now in the Administrative Record (Feb. 23, 2026). The Feb. 23, 2026 petition for declaratory ruling and scheduling review of cannabis, filed with the Department of Health under SDCL § 1-26-13.
• Part 1301 Defers Security to State Law. Article 44:90 Never Mentions Part 1301. (Sept. 22, 2026). 21 C.F.R. Part 1301 defers security requirements to state law for state-licensed registrants; Article 44:90 never mentions Part 1301.
• When the State Certificate Is Suspended, the Federal Registration Is Suspended Too. (Sept. 22, 2026). Under the April 28, 2026 rule, if a state medical-marijuana license is suspended, revoked or expires, the federal registration “is automatically suspended.”

Federal law and the CSA exemption

• No. 1 – Legal Memorandum: Common Misconceptions in Cannabis Activism Regarding Federal Drug Law (Jan. 25, 2026). WeedPress Policy Series No. 1: common legal errors in cannabis advocacy about federal drug law, including treating rescheduling as legalization.
• No. 4 – The Controlled Substances Act Is Not a Blunt Instrument — It Is an Architecture of Exceptions (Feb. 13, 2026). WeedPress Policy Series No. 4: argues the Controlled Substances Act is a regulatory framework with built-in exception authority, starting from 21 U.S.C. § 822(d).
• No. 5 – The Limits of § 822(d): What It Does — and Does Not — Authorize (Feb. 13, 2026). WeedPress Policy Series No. 5: what the § 822(d) waiver authority does and does not authorize.
• Marijuana Is Still Federally Illegal — And the Fix Already Exists in Federal Law (Jan. 14, 2026). Marijuana remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act; this argues Congress already created a lawful mechanism that states are not using.
• Request for South Dakota to Petition U.S. Attorney General for Waiver Under 21 U.S.C. § 822(d) (Dec. 18, 2025). Request that South Dakota petition the U.S. Attorney General for a waiver under 21 U.S.C. § 822(d) for state-licensed operators.
• From Gap to Solution: A Step-by-Step Implementation Framework for a User-Level Medical Cannabis Exemption in South Dakota (June 12, 2026). A step-by-step framework for a user-level medical cannabis exemption for patients, home cultivators and caregivers left outside the April 2026 rescheduling.
• The Federal Exemption Process Protects Pot Users Needing Organ Transplants… (Dec. 10, 2025). How the federal exemption process in Iowa’s HF 675 (a Schedule I exemption request and advocacy for Schedule II) relates to transplant-list denials for cannabis users.
• Federal Exception For Cannabis Legislation By Iowans For Medical Marijuana (May 27, 2025). Proposed Iowa legislation for a federal exception for medical cannabis, including a legal task force under chapter 124E.
• No. 15 — The Uniform Controlled Substances Act and the Architecture of Modern Drug Scheduling (Apr. 1, 2026). WeedPress Policy Series No. 15: the Uniform Controlled Substances Act and how state scheduling mechanisms are structured.
• A New Legal Standard Emerges: How HHS’s Two-Part Test Is Reshaping DEA Drug Scheduling (Jan. 18, 2026). How the HHS two-part test for “currently accepted medical use” joined the older standards used in DEA scheduling decisions.
• What Does “Accepted Medical Use” Actually Mean? A 40-Year Legal Fight Now Matters in South Dakota (Sept. 15, 2026). The 40-year legal history of the phrase “accepted medical use,” which South Dakota’s Schedule I and II statutes use without defining.
• South Dakota’s Schedule I Statute Requires a Department Determination Before the Legislature Gets a Rescheduling Recommendation (Sept. 5, 2026). SDCL 34-20B-27 tells the Department of Health when a determination triggers a mandatory recommendation to the Legislature.
• Why South Dakota’s Own Statutes Now Make Schedule I Marijuana Unlawful to Maintain (Apr. 29, 2026). Argues that under SDCL § 34-20B-11 and the fixed-meaning canon, federal recognition of accepted medical use makes continued Schedule I treatment legally unstable.
• The April Rescheduling Order Asks for a License. Pierre Issues Four Certificates. (Sept. 11, 2026). The April 2026 order uses the federal term “qualifying state medical license”; South Dakota issues four types of registration certificates.
• A Written Certification Is Not a Part 1306 Prescription (Sept. 11, 2026). A South Dakota written certification can be enough to dispense under the April order, but it is not a 21 C.F.R. Part 1306 prescription.
• The Medical Cannabis Desk Is at Health. The Prescription Desk Is at Pharmacy. (Sept. 11, 2026). South Dakota’s medical cannabis program sits at the Department of Health (chapter 34-20G); pharmacy and prescription orders sit under chapter 36-11.
• DEA’s New Transfer Warning Collides With South Dakota’s Caregiver and Patient-Transfer Laws (Sept. 28, 2026). Federal Schedule III labeling makes it a crime to transfer the drug to anyone but “the patient,” while SDCL 34-20G-2(6) protects caregiver purchases and some no-value transfers.
• South Dakotan Safety-Sensitive Jobs Sit on Two Desks. Schedule III Moved Neither One. (Sept. 22, 2026). Federal transportation drug testing (Parts 40 and 382) still names marijuana as an analyte; Schedule III did not change that for safety-sensitive jobs.
• Federal Medical Recognition Weakens the Old Defense of South Dakota’s Cannabis Residency Gate (Sept. 4, 2026). How federal medical recognition affects the Dormant Commerce Clause defense of South Dakota’s cannabis residency requirements, citing a Sept. 3, 2026 Congressional Research Service sidebar.

Hemp

• Congress Gave Delta-8 Another Month. It Didn’t Give It Schedule III. (Oct. 25, 2026). Federal hemp law changes in two steps: on Nov. 12, 2026 certain cannabinoids lose hemp status, and on Dec. 11, 2026 a total-THC test and a 0.4 mg per-container cap take effect.

Key court and Attorney General decisions

• South Dakota Attorney General Publishes Opinion Concerning Impact Of Federal Rescheduling (Oct. 13, 2026). Full text of Attorney General Official Opinion 26-06 (Oct. 6, 2026) on the impact of federal rescheduling, requested by Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee members.
• South Dakota’s Attorney General Answered the Schedule III Question. The Department of Health Still Has Its Own Statute to Answer. (Oct. 13, 2026). Opinion 26-06 concludes the April 28, 2026 federal order will likely have a negligible impact on the program; this explains the Schedule I question the opinion left to the Department of Health.
• South Dakota DOH Avoids the Merits on Cannabis Scheduling, Hides Behind Procedure (Mar. 19, 2026). The Department of Health’s March 19, 2026 response to the Schedule I petition, which rejected it on procedural and authority grounds without reaching the merits; includes the redacted response.