By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – When Minnehaha County Commissioners discussed the first reading of their new county medical marijuana ordinance at the Tuesday, Sept. 7, meeting, members who served on the joint task force pushed the idea of following those recommendations.
The task force was made up of representatives of the Sioux Falls City Council and the Minnehaha and Lincoln County Commissions.
However, one person not on that committee, Commissioner Jeff Barth, focused on possible lost revenue for the county, while two members of the public who spoke against what the county was considering, referred to excessive limits leading to an increase in “Black Market” and untested marijuana.
When the cannabis agenda item came up, Commission Chair Dean Karsky threw out the idea of three to five licenses for purposes of opening the discussion, but Commissioner Cindy Heiberger, a member of the joint task force quickly said that she thought “one is enough.”
Looking at the population in the unincorporated parts of Minnehaha County as being less than 18,000 people, she felt one was plenty.
Heiberger said that number can always be changed in the future, but she was going with what the task force recommended.
She mentioned that there would likely be dispensaries in most county municipalities, such as Hartford, Humboldt, Brandon, Sioux Falls, Garretson and Dell Rapids. And she felt having several located outside of those areas, as well, would just add to costs of law enforcement.
Karsky did agree that if they set the number low, the commission could always increase it, but that it would be difficult to decrease a set number of licenses.
However, Barth stuck on the issue of cost and recouping county expenses.
As he has said in the past, the only ways the county can get revenue on something like this is through the issuance of licenses.
The Sioux Falls City Council had previously planned to issue five licenses in the city at a cost of $100,000 each. While some have talked about that as an excessive amount for licenses, Barth hit upon that number, saying that amount connected with more licenses being made available would allow for any increase in deputies and other law enforcement costs.
(At their meeting later on the same day, the Sioux Falls City Council changed that fee to $50,000, while still capping the number at five.)
Sarah Koob of Sioux Falls, who had previously spoken to the commission many times about this ordinance, spoke again at this meeting, warning that the more they limit what the people voted for with Initiated Measure 26, the more the door was being opened to the “Black Market.”
“Do you want Black Market pot?” Koob said. “It can grow everywhere (wild) in the Midwest.
And she added that the violence and law enforcement problems they are worried about would just increase by making the dispensaries less available.
“Make it so it will help people with medical issues,” she added. “That should be the goal.”
Matt Jorgenson, a Brandon native, who is the CEO of Cannabis Chem Labs in Flandreau, addressed the importance of testing as being a “gate keeper” for a safe product.
He echoed some of what Koob said in that ordinances which limit the sale of tested marijuana hurt more than help.
“We believe in being a gatekeeper,” Jorgenson said about his business.
He added that all crops tested in their labs have a certificate of analysis, which is unheard of with illegal marijuana.
His industry wants to see marijuana as something safe, tested and regulated, and he worries about marijuana sold on the street, without any oversight, being laced with, possibly, several chemicals to make it addictive.
In their ordinance, Sioux Falls councilors would not allow any growing or testing operations in the city.
Barth said he was worried about the county following suit, although, in its current form, that ordinance does not specifically forbid testing and agricultural cannabis within the county.
Again, this was only the first reading for the ordinance, and a second reading, and, hopefully, more public input, will be heard at the Tuesday, Sept. 28, meeting.
The South Dakota Department of Health is expected to release their own regulations for medical marijuana soon, and those regulations may or may not affect what municipalities and counties have already done.
At the Sept. 7 meeting, commissioners also made their three-meeting schedule permanent.
Prior to COVID concerns, the Minnehaha County Commission met weekly, but they changed that to only meeting three times a month.
With a vote on Tuesday, they made their schedule of meetings on the first, third and fourth Tuesdays permanent.
And as this week was the second Tuesday of September, the commission did not meet.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building.
Everyone is welcome to attend, and public input is always encouraged.
