South Dakota Senate Kills Bill Forcing Marijuana Shops To Warn Patients Of Fed Firearms Ban

The South Dakota Senate Health and Human Services Committee rejected two marijuana bills previously approved by the House. 

The committee killed the controversial House Bill 1036 on Wednesday that would have forced dispensaries to notify medical marijuana patients about federal restrictions on gun ownership. The second medical marijuana bill rejected proposed modifying the practitioner-patient relationship by defining a bona fide relationship before issuing a medical marijuana card, writes SDPB. 

Republican Sen. Jim Mehlhaff, who sponsored Senate Bill 82, said the proposed bill came out of a concern that the existing law is not doing enough. 

"Unfortunately, we've had these pop-up clinics that violate the current law," said Mehlhaff. "They do it because the current law doesn't have any teeth in it and it is not the will of the people, what has been going on,” “So this bill is designed to clarify the process that a practitioner must go through to certify a patient for medical marijuana, and it provides a penalty for when they don't."

Committee member Sen. Tim Reed (R) said the bill has the potential to create access problems for South Dakotans. 

"The idea of this is supposed to make it accessible," Reed said. "I think when you talk about the will of the people, that is, it is accessible. That's one thing we have to make sure is that this continues to be accessible. Will our laws be perfect? No. We've done a lot of good work this year, good work has been done for the past two years, this is the third year to continue to work on it."

The Bill That Advanced

The only medical marijuana legislation that advanced in the committee on Wednesday was House Bill 1024. The measure heading to the Senate floor for consideration originally required cannabis users to sign a federal firearms restriction notice on state medical marijuana forms, but the committee amended it to checking a box instead of requiring a signature. 

See Also: GOP State Rep In South Dakota Introduced Ban On Sale Of Unregulated Hemp Products 

Photo: Benzinga edit with images by Matthew Sichkaruk on Unsplash and Pixabay on Pexels