PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — The South Dakota Legislature’s Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee final meeting on Tuesday was marked by episode after episode of unusual behavior from all sides.
The panel’s leaders, Republican Rep. Josephine Garcia and Republican Sen. John Carley, accused the South Dakota Department of Health of disrespect, after the department didn’t provide information about facility inspections and hospitalizations, despite repeated requests during the past four months.Oh deer! Watertown police get quite a surprise
There was a lengthy back-and-forth mid-meeting, when Garcia tried to change the order of the published agenda and take public comment before the committee discussed recommendations, rather than afterward. After several lengthy breaks, the committee took testimony before and after the recommendations.
During the post-recommendations public testimony, Garcia rapped her gavel after an industry witness, Emmett Reistroffer, who was appearing remotely, told the committee that more South Dakotans had voted for medical marijuana five years ago than had voted for President Donald Trump. “You’re treading in dangerous waters,” Reistroffer said.
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The 2020 initiated measure won 291,754 to 125,488. By comparison, Trump received 227,721 in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton; 261,043 in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden; and 272,081 in 2024 when he won a second term against Kamala Harris.
Reistroffer, who said he was speaking for himself, next pointed out Garcia had co-sponsored legislation earlier this year that sought to abolish the medical marijuana program altogether. Garcia cut him off after that, shutting off his audio link.
Garcia said that legislative staff had told her that Reistroffer had earlier been posting comments she considered derogatory.
Garcia also sounded offended that the committee wasn’t invited to a recent stakeholders meeting between industry representatives and the department to discuss how administrative rules were being enforced and possible changes. Carley and industry lobbyist Jeremiah Murphy also got into an argument.
And in the final hour, during the second public comment period, the prime sponsor of the repeal legislation, Republican Rep. Travis Ismay, announced as he walked up to testify, “Boogie man is back.”
Ismay, who has complained for years to western South Dakota local governments about the legalization of medical marijuana, said the marijuana industry had received 70% of what it wanted in the committee’s recommendations. He then said he had seen a DOH inspector hugging a marijuana industry person in the hallway outside the Capitol meeting room earlier that afternoon.
“Like maybe there’s a relationship there. I don’t believe they’re worthy of that trust,” Ismay said.
The committee’s patient advocate, Kasey Entwisle of Canistota, responded that it was “very disheartening” to hear such comments. “I hope we all understand the boogie man is fake news and not real,” Entwisle said.
Ismay’s claim prompted state Health Secretary Melissa Magstadt to tell the committee that neither of the department’s two medical-marijuana inspectors had been in the Capitol on Tuesday.
Ismay then returned to the witness chair and this time said the hug was between one of the independent testers who had testified earlier and an industry person.
The state Department of Health regulates medical marijuana. Carley and Garcia wanted information from the department about state inspections of licensed medical marijuana facilities and about hospitalizations related to marijuana.
Carley said emails were sent to the department in July, August and October. He said there also was a verbal request at the committee’s October 22 meeting, followed by another email on October 31.
According to Magstadt, department staff had been combing through about 300 inspection reports and making redactions so that confidential business information didn’t become public. Magstadt said she decided to email the redacted reports to the committee about 15 minutes after the panel’s meeting began Tuesday morning.
Carley said the department needs to be more responsive. “The request is to provide it on time,” he said, adding that he found it “very disrespectful” to get the information 15 minutes into the meeting.
Garcia also said the department had disrespected the committee. “We’re here to do a job and we’re not here to point fingers,” Garcia said. “We trust the Department of Health to give us information.”
Garcia called the department’s handling of the committee’s request a disgrace. “I am very disappointed, I will say that,” she told Magstadt. “It seems like it was a control thing not to give it to us.”
There were logistical challenges as well. Four of the committee’s 11 members were excused from the meeting, its third and last for this year. The committee ultimately wound through 13 recommendations and approved 11.
One that didn’t go through was Carley’s proposal that warning labels be required. The withdrawal came after Secretary Magstadt read a summary of the entire chapter of rules already in place on packaging, labeling and advertising.
The other recommendation that wasn’t adopted came from the panel’s patient advocate, Entwisle. She sought to have the Legislature appoint someone from the medical marijuana industry. It failed on a 3-4 vote.
The committee did agree with a recommendation from Garcia that the Legislature should appoint a pharmacist. The committee also agreed with Garcia’s proposal that the Legislature appoint a separate committee to look at unlicensed smoke shops and vape shops that are selling THC-related products.
The panel also agreed with Carley’s proposal that THC products to be banned in stores except licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
Likewise for several other Carley proposals that DOH develop an education program on marijuana and medical marijuana; that a cap be placed on the legal percentage of THC; and that DOH annually report to the committee on hospitalizations, drugged driving, and poison control related to marijuana and indicating when it’s medical marijuana.
“I think we clearly found out through this committee that getting this information is difficult,” Carley said. The annual requirement would give the department a year to collect data and could potentially help the industry by showing a second problem — smoke and vape shops — needs to be dealt with, he said.
Those recommendations and others will be part of the committee’s final report to the Legislature’s Executive Board, but none will actually be formally proposed as legislation from the committee for the 2026 session.
However, any of the recommendations could be brought forward by the committee’s four legislators or any of the other 101 lawmakers.