Where will South Dakota’s marijuana come from?

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe’s Native Nations Cannabis medical marijuana dispensary has been operating in Flandreau since July. While it’s currently the only operating dispensary in the state, that is set to change.

The City of Sioux Falls carried out their dispensary license lottery on Wednesday, selecting five applicants. Provided all goes to plan, these will be the operators of Sioux Falls’ only dispensaries. But where will they get their product, and when?

Ned Horsted, Executive Director of the Cannabis Industry Association of South Dakota says that marijuana will be supplied by state licensed cannabis cultivation facilities. “These are going to be located in different cities and counties across the state,” he said.

But not in every city and county.

“Sioux Falls has banned cultivation and product development facilities,” said Horsted “so will likely come from other counties.”

Two such counties are Yankton and Lincoln counties, the latter of which Horsted says has a ‘free-market’ ordinance in place, meaning there is no cap on applications for cultivation facilities.

“It’s really up to each individual city or county government to decide which of these licenses they’re going to allow,” said Horsted.

As mentioned above, the only functioning dispensary in the state in operated by the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, and barring some serious legislative maneuvering or a change to federal law, that’s the way it will stay for the next several months. [Read more at Keloland]