Republican former South Dakota attorney general representing therapeutic cannabis applicant, Buffalo Chip owner

Despite decades of cocaine use Republican former South Dakota Attorney General Roger Tellinghuisen of DeMersseman Jensen Tellinghuisen & Huffman in Rapid City is representing a therapeutic cannabis applicant in a Black Hills town named for a war criminal. 

Tellinghuisen is a member of the Governor's Club—the slush fund that ensures a Republican will always hold the chief executive's seat in my home state. Rod Woodruff was denied a therapeutic cannabis permit in Meade County where he owns a biker venue notorious for a drug and sex trade.

Rod Woodruff, owner of the Buffalo Chip Campground in Sturgis, has 51 percent ownership in GLP Custer, LLC, while a pair of brothers, Jim and John Muller, the former of which is chief operating officer of GLP Custer, LLC, owns the remaining 49 percent. “This isn’t a retail facility we are proposing,” Tellinghuisen said. “There won’t be people coming in and out. It’s self-contained, closed. But for the sign out front you won’t even know what it’s used for.” [War Criminal County Chronicle]

In a neighboring hamlet a local redneck “painted a grim picture of how Hill City could turn into small town Colorado" because of a therapeutic cannabis application.

Attorney Roger Tellinghuisen, who said he represented West River Botanicals LLC, said he was not at the meeting to oppose Puffy’s LLC’s application, but to ask the commission to hold off until the application of his client, Rod Woodruff, could be considered. Woodruff said later he wasn’t sure what his next step might be concerning the dispensary license. [Black Hills Pioneer]

Woodruff is a Future Fund recipient and Republican donor.

FWIW: Tellinghuisen and another former Republican South Dakota attorney general endorsed Democrat Randy Seiler in 2018 because they knew Jason Ravnsborg is a criminal.