Office of the Attorney General in Agreement with South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Framework for Implementation of IM26
PIERRE, S.D. – Contrary to current media reports, the Attorney General’s Office agrees with the South Dakota Highway Patrol’s Framework for Implementation of Initiated Measure 26.
The Highway Patrol Framework sets out in part that Highway Patrol officers, when interacting with a South Dakota resident in possession of no more than three ounces of natural and unaltered marijuana, will not arrest that resident if he or she is an enrolled tribal member with an unexpired medical cannabis card issued by the resident’s tribe.
For non-tribal members, the Framework provides for a process to determine legitimate medical cannabis cases and refers other instances of concern to the local State’s Attorney. The Attorney General supports the Framework’s approach to ensuring enforcement of all state drug laws, while recognizing that ultimately charging decisions will be left to the local State’s Attorney.
On the issue of law enforcement recognizing tribally issued cards for South Dakota residents who are not enrolled tribal members, the Highway Patrol Framework provides an approach that is consistent with IM 26’s requirements and recognizes the important issues of tribal and state sovereignty. That a tribe is a separate sovereign entitled to issue medical cannabis cards to tribal members is not disputed and is reflected in the Framework. However, the Framework also addresses a very important and separate issue – South Dakota’s jurisdiction over its residents who are not enrolled tribal members. Regardless of its decision concerning marijuana access within its own jurisdiction, a tribal government cannot dictate to a separate sovereign – the State of South Dakota – how the state’s laws apply to its own residents who are not enrolled members of a tribe when they are off reservation land and therefore wholly within the jurisdiction of the State of South Dakota.
A tribe’s medical cannabis card issued to a South Dakota resident who is not an enrolled tribal member is therefore not a substitute for the written doctor’s certification that a resident must produce under the Framework or in the future to receive a medical cannabis card from the Department of Health. In addition, for the written doctor’s certification to be valid, it must be received as part of a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship by a doctor licensed to practice medicine in the State of South Dakota.
Does anyone know, is it true the Flandreau Tribe is referring non-tribal South Dakotans who present for medical marijuana WITHOUT a medical card to a doctor with whom the tribe has a relationship?
What a clown show
Is there some detail on what the “certification” should say?
I have a doctor’s diagnosis of chronic back pain.
I would rather take cannabis than aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen, alcohol, or opioids.
I know it works from legal experience, so what’s the process for someone like me?
It should say, “see a good chiropractor.”
This AG office continues to embarrass.
Joe Sneve is a joke
Glad we have a governor who wants the “best” medical program for us. She has always supported medical marijuana, and always supported the wishes of the voters of South Dakota. Other states have made mistakes, we don’t want to repeat them, good thing Kristi can sort all this out so clearly and fulfill the wishes of 70%+ of the voters.