Marijuana & Drug Policy

Updates regulations for growing and selling industrial hemp.

This bill revises South Dakota's industrial hemp regulations by: (1) streamlining definitions from 18 to 11 terms, removing definitions for applicant, department, key participant, measurement of uncertainty, remediation, and secretary; (2) adding a new definition for 'licensed hemp producer' referencing federal USDA licensing; (3) updating transportation documentation requirements to reference current federal hemp regulations (7 U.S.C. §§ 1639o to 1639s as of January 1, 2026); (4) establishing that only federally licensed hemp producers may cultivate hemp in South Dakota; and (5) repealing the state licensing requirement sections, effectively transitioning from state-based licensing to requiring federal USDA licensing for hemp cultivation.

Eliminates the medical marijuana oversight committee.

This bill repeals the medical marijuana oversight committee and all related statutes governing its structure, leadership, and responsibilities. The committee currently consists of legislators, healthcare professionals, law enforcement representatives, and a qualifying patient, and is tasked with evaluating and making recommendations about the medical cannabis program including patient access, dispensary effectiveness, testing facilities, regulatory safeguards, and program improvements.

Requires more information be tracked for medical marijuana cardholders' prescriptions.

This bill expands the information that must be reported to the prescription drug monitoring program for medical cannabis registry identification cardholders. Instead of only reporting name and date of birth, the department must now also report physical address (unless homeless), gender, and registry identification card number for each cardholder and nonresident cardholder.

Reclassifies FDA-approved psilocybin medications as less restricted drugs.

This bill creates an exception to allow FDA-approved psilocybin drug products to be rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule IV controlled substances. It amends the list of Schedule I hallucinogenic substances to exclude 'the pharmaceutical composition of crystalline polymorph psilocybin in a drug product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration' from the psilocybin prohibition.

Updates the list of controlled substances.

This bill makes technical modifications to South Dakota's controlled substances law definitions and schedules. Key changes include: (1) expanding the definition of 'controlled substance analogue' to include substances that a person represents or intends to have similar effects to Schedule I or II substances, (2) removing the definition of 'person' and 'production', (3) updating references to replace 'industrial hemp with delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3%' with references to the definition in § 38-35-1, (4) making minor grammatical corrections throughout the definitions, and (5) adding isotonitazene to the Schedule I controlled substances list.

Bans the sale and possession of kratom products.

This bill completely bans kratom and kratom products in South Dakota, making it a Class 2 misdemeanor for any person to sell, distribute, purchase, consume, or possess kratom or kratom products. The bill repeals existing law that regulated kratom (age restrictions, product standards, labeling requirements) and replaces it with a total prohibition.

Bans hemp-based products that get you high unless prescribed by a doctor.

This bill expands the ban on hemp-derived intoxicating substances by adding new prohibited activities including selling, distributing, possessing, manufacturing, or consuming hemp products containing: (1) cannabinoids that cannot be naturally produced by cannabis plants, (2) naturally-occurring cannabinoids that were synthetically manufactured, or (3) cannabinoids exceeding 0.4 milligrams per container. The bill maintains the Class 2 misdemeanor penalty for violations and creates a medical cannabis exception. It also removes specific chemically derived cannabinoids from the definition of 'industrial hemp product' and reorganizes statutory definitions.