Marijuana dispensary
As of today, customers can visit South Dakota’s first medical marijuana dispensary, which has been granted official state approval. On Wednesday afternoon, sales at the Unity Rd. Dispensary in Hartford commenced. B.J. Olson and Adam Jorgenson are the joint owners of the company.
The day has been “very emotional,” Olson said. For us, this has been a long-held goal for the past four years.
After 2020, medical marijuana will be legal in South Dakota. Since July 2021, Native Nations Cannabis has operated a dispensary in Flandreau, South Dakota, selling medical marijuana to patients who have been approved by the state’s medical marijuana programme. The company claims it is part of a sovereign Native American tribe and is therefore exempt from state regulations.
To date, however, state-issued cardholders have been unable to purchase goods that have been granted a state licence. It has taken some time for politicians to set up the scheme and for farmers to start growing cannabis. Even by this coming fall, most farmers still won’t have their wares available to the public.
Olson claims that the establishment’s opening was made possible by a special partnership with the farm that grew its crops, Dakota Natural Solutions Grow. Before obtaining the local licences necessary to cultivate and sell cannabis, the two enterprises made significant investments in physical structures.
With the permit in hand, they could begin planting immediately. We were allowed to start serving consumers the minute we received our licence and the doors to our building were unlocked, as Olson put it. Being ready and incredibly lucky are the two most important factors. Thank goodness for the wonderful folks we’ve met while conducting business in this field.
Before opening Unity Rd, Olson and Jorgensen followed a business plan similar to their previous ventures as owners of mobile phone provider retail stores. The franchise agreements are provided by the corporation based in Boulder, Colorado. Olson noted that his experience in the industry has been unique compared to his time spent working in other business sectors.
Unfortunately, there are no banks that accept your account type inside the state. “You can only buy insurance from so many different companies,” he explained. The biggest challenge for us has been learning to do business by the regulations that South Dakota has enacted.
Olson stated that Unity Rd. was looking to make waves in the South Dakota medical marijuana business.
We’re working hard to alter people’s impression of this product’s quality. And everyone has only heard half the story, but there’s a whole other side to what the cannabis sector does for South Dakota, and a lot more money coming into our state.
At the now, Unity Rd. only offers cannabis flowers for sale, but they plan to expand into edibles and concentrates shortly. Patients in South Dakota who need medical marijuana must first obtain a medical marijuana card.
The vast majority of residents
Statewide polls had consistently shown that a supermajority of Marylanders support legalising cannabis, and the outcome of this referendum was never in doubt, Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said in a press release. Voters have spoken, and it is time for politicians to act and enact laws to govern a regulated cannabis sector.
A supplementary measure was prompted by the passage of this amendment, and it will expunge convictions for actions that are now legal, provide incentives to help minority and women-owned firms in the cannabis market, and remove criminal penalties for possession of 2.5 ounces or less of marijuana.
Anyone over the age of 21 can legally buy and possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis, and they can grow up to two plants for their use.
Time will be needed to put the referendum into effect. On January 1, 2023, possession of fewer than 1.5 ounces of marijuana will be a civil violation, and six months later, up to that amount will be legalised.