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LRC Posts First Three Bills, Including GOAC Subpoena Power and Legislative Control of Conditions Eligible for Medical Marijuana

As a New Year’s present, the Legislative Research Council posted a measly three pre-filed bills on 2023 Session Bills page. I was starting to worry that legislators were just going to accede to Governor Kristi Noem’s mandate for corrupt autocracy and let all the bills come from the Second Floor this year.

House Bill 1002 is a trivial update of South Dakota’s official code of laws. HB 1002 will have zero practical effect on your life.

House Bill 1001 is the Government Operations and Audit Committee’s request that it not have to ask the Executive Board for permission to issue subpoenas. HB 1001 is a partial reversal of a defanging of GOAC’s investigative powers that arose from an intra-GOP spat in 2018.

Senate Bill 1 is the interim Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee’s proposal to clarify which debilitating medical conditions can qualify South Dakotans for a pot card. South Dakota’s current medical marijuana law, as approved by voters in 2020 as Initiated Measure 26, says you can get medical marijuana if you have “A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe, debilitating pain; severe nausea; seizures; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.” Additionally, IM 26 created a process by which the Department of Health may deem specific medical conditions or treatments to be “debilitating medical conditions” qualifying for medical marijuana upon petition by a South Dakota resident. Senate Bill 1 adds to statute a list of marijuana-worthy debilitating conditions:

  • Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or positive status for human immunodeficiency virus
  • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Cancer or its treatment, if associated with severe or chronic pain, nausea or severe vomiting, or cachexia or severe wasting
  • Crohn’s disease
  • Epilepsy and seizures
  • Glaucoma
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder

Under SB 1, this list would become exclusive. SB 1 would repeal the DOH petition process voters approved, leaving the power to authorize additional diseases for pot therapy exclusively in the hands of the Legislature.

4 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2023-01-01 08:35

    “Pot therapy” is just the kind of junk phrase Republicans use to sink therapeutic cannabis. Touché, Mr. Heidelberger.

  2. Mark Anderson 2023-01-01 12:34

    Those who control pot are hairy potters.

  3. P. Aitch 2023-01-01 12:43

    In industry stalwart Colorado these conditions do not qualify for medical cannabis. This is an accurate medical opinion of the analgesic effects of marijuana without political interference. When recreational MMJ is legal, a medical card is a more valid representation of cause and effect.
    Non-Qualifying Conditions
    Asthma
    Atherosclerosis
    Bipolar Disease
    Crohn’s Disease
    Diabetes
    Mellitus, types 1 & 2
    Diabetic Retinopathy
    Hepatitis C
    Hypertension
    Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)
    Opioid Dependence
    Post Traumatic Syndrome (PTSD)
    Severe Anxiety and Clinical Depression
    Tourette’s Syndrome
    *As a personal aside, I was bedridden for two years with this line item (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) and I can concur that marijuana was of no help.
    – Opioids were the only defense against the constant level 7 of 10 pain.
    – Under the current overly reactive regulations on opioids (where people with real need can’t access medication), drastic and suicidal results may have occurred.

  4. Richard Schriever 2023-01-01 13:33

    Ah yes, politicians once again playing at being MDs and/or biosciences researchers. Are any of them even actually engaged in any of those fields in any capacity?

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