Kansas therapeutic cannabis model likely topical for South Dakota legislature

It is the view of The Dakota Progressive that edibles should only be available to patients suffering from debilitating diseases, disorders or conditions and be dispensed by pharmacists and taxed like other prescriptions.

South Dakota's legislature can write a bill that would adopt legislation similar to Minnesota's medical cannabis law but worthy of Federal Drug Administration scrutiny where real medicine could be sold by pharmacies.

When it comes to medical marijuana, Kansas may end up looking more like Ohio than Missouri — with edibles and topicals only, no smoking. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter, who testified against loosening regulations around the drug last week, said the committee’s recommendations don’t address one of law enforcement officers’ main concerns — the lack of federal regulation of medical marijuana. “Let's get the FDA involved,” he said. “Let's get this stuff tested.” [Kansas City University Radio]

Every ag product, meats both wild and domestic not grown organically in South Dakota is contaminated with neonicotinoids, glyphosate, dicamba, DDT, mercury, lead, cadmium, PFOs, E. coli, Shigella and Legionella. Industrial cannabis (hemp) grown in the state would be no different. CBD products being sold in South Dakota and other states are little different from raw milk, preserves, pies or juices that are often tainted with hormones, pesticides and worse but sold at farmers markets anyway. Giving the products as gifts is one thing but selling untested product especially through interstate commerce is completely different.

Contaminated dietary supplements, vapes, ointments and edibles are unacceptable in a country with a long history of snake oil salesmen. Cannabis is a safe, effective palliative but black market cannabis not tested or subject to regulation makes America and South Dakota less safe. Legalization, state inspections and regulation of a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy that would align with our life safety goals.

Even in New Mexico the absence of markets is the biggest obstacle for industrial cannabis growers. It costs at least $50,000 to plant 20 acres of genetically engineered CBD-rich hemp. South Dakota's grain harvest is being delayed due to horrible soil conditions driven by climate catastrophes so imagine how much money industrial cannabis producers would be losing after planting that experimental crop.

Spearditch hatchery still struggling with self-reliance

For at least two decades South Dakota's Republican congressional delegations have been obstructing attempts by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to streamline the agency as it weans support from a hatchery notorious for introducing invasive species to Black Hills watersheds and into the waters of the United States. These clowns won't support combating bulging jails and prisons but will wholeheartedly jump on the bandwagon to save a Spearditch tourist trap in a town where a Democrat could win a legislative seat.

It's hard to imagine the Service continuing to support the release of hybrid and non-native trout by South Dakota's Department of Game, Fish & Plunder when native species are being threatened in the Missouri River basin. Finescale dace was the only fish identified in Black Hills streams by the Custer Expedition in 1874 but the creek chub and white sucker are also native. Rainbow trout have recently been released into Lake Sharpe but the USFWS should block introduction of these fish into any part of the system.

This NPR story verbalizes the decision of one progressive to flee a town once touted as western South Dakota's destination of choice after fourteen years raising two children who escaped hours after their own high school graduations in 1991 and in 1995 for the University of Wyoming. It was good, too. Our meticulously preserved 1902 Furois-built arts and crafts on Canyon Street was adjacent to Spearditch's magical city park.

But today Spearditch has become a scary little town. Recall Mary Garrigan's piece in the Rapid City Journal that the stupid little hamlet wants to erect a Ceement Jaysus:

Rand Williams, a Spearfish real estate entrepreneur, said he is envisioning a multimillion-dollar statue along the lines of Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer, a 125-foot tall statue that draws tourists to the Brazilan city, that would sit on a two-acre parcel of city land.

Williams is a slum lord who rents to earth haters like John Dale. Dale joins fellow egomaniacs Sam Kephart, Gary Coe and others who have parachuted into Lawrence County expecting to change the good ole boy network Rand Williams actually helped to create. The 2016 Crow Peak Fire affected mostly Republican landowners who built in the wildland urban interface and begged the feds to protect their properties.

The resultant soaring median age of the retirees seeking deliverance from the cultural diversities thriving in Colorado, California, Minnesota, even Arizona and Oregon drives the exploitation of South Dakota's regressive tax structure and reinforces the racially insulated Nazi enclave that Spearditch is today. Harley owners, some of whom have ties to clubs with nefarious pasts and many of them pre-1970s graduates of Spearditch High School, cruise the streets in summer and then recuse themselves from the brutal Lawrence County winters for warmer white compounds in Sedona or Mesa. Often, there are elderly parents in one of the ubiquitous long-term care facilities and cemeteries.

Kristi Noem and her other white meat supporters purport to be small-government conservatives but they're really just helping themselves instead of finding a way for communities to finance rearing for private ponds and begging the feds for more moral hazard money while pretending to be self-reliant.

South Dakota will pay ACLU attorneys' fees in "riot boosting" case

As Partner Attorney at Robins Kaplan LLP, Brendan Johnson, former US Attorney for the District of South Dakota and son of retired Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, helped the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union win the Constitution and Libertarian Parties' lawsuit against Republican former Secretary of State Shantel Krebs.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol today approved the settlement that says South Dakota won’t enforce current state laws that prohibit protected speech and are aimed at suppressing protests against the Keystone XL pipeline. Under the terms of the settlement, Gov. Kristi Noem and Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will send a letter to the state’s attorneys in each county, telling them to direct law enforcement in their jurisdictions not to enforce the unconstitutional provisions of the laws. They also will compensate plaintiffs for attorneys’ fees. Brendan Johnson, partner with the Robins Kaplan law firm: “By equating peaceful organization and support of protest with ‘riot boosting’ and incitement to riot, the government stifled our clients’ abilities to speak out against the Keystone XL Pipeline. We’re happy that the state recognized that these vague and overbroad laws threatened the First Amendment rights of South Dakotans on every side of the issue and that, as a result of this settlement, no one’s voices will be silenced.” [ACLU South Dakota]

Republican Governor Kristi Noem's anti-civil rights actions are no accident. She's is a graduate of the Koch Brothers' American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, an anti-think tank think tank that teaches how wedge issues raise campaign dollars for the extreme white wing of the Republican Party. South Dakota's GOP legislators and candidates enjoy millions in lobbyist benefits from ALEC.

Johnson wants to reform South Dakota's tyrannical cannabis laws and is representing tribes in their suit against opioid manufacturers. Catherine Piersol, wife of Clinton-appointee Judge Lawrence Piersol who also heard Libertarian Party v. Krebs, is a longtime friend of the South Dakota Democratic Party and of the Johnson family.

It's widely believed Johnson is developing the resources necessary to enter the Democratic US Senate primary then run for the seat currently held by Mike Rounds, one of the least effective members of Congress. The red moocher state's junior senator was elected with cash from ALEC-backed National Federation of Independent Business.

Noem cozies up to serial pussy grabber hoping for disaster cash

The September storms, tornadoes, and floods in Southeastern SD damaged homes, businesses, & public infrastructure. I’ve requested a presidential disaster declaration to help us with our recovery efforts. More here>>https://t.co/VKaPAvh0Fr

— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) October 28, 2019

Yes, tornadoes, flooding, habitat destruction, wildfire potential and now another eight month winter returns to the chemical toilet, perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area that is South Dakota.

This is how Republicans who preach small gubmint fund crumbling infrastructure in red states. Recall Noem repeatedly voted against disaster aid after Hurricane Sandy and other climate related catastrophes. She doesn’t respect self-reliance because she’s wedded to moral hazard.

Talking about a tax package designed to Make America Great Again. 👍🏼🇺🇸 #MAGA #StrongFamilies #StrongFuture More: https://t.co/uRa98cAZzu pic.twitter.com/8jYlLhJQ3P

— Rep. Kristi Noem (@RepKristiNoem) November 2, 2017

Tupper: Heidelberger is a moron

According to journalist Seth Tupper, dry drunk assclown Cory Heidelberger is a moron for wanting to dissolve the South Dakota Democratic Party.

Liberal South Dakota blogger Cory Heidelberger has even entertained the notion of dissolving the party and redirecting its members' energy elsewhere. Judging by recent history, that would be an overreaction. [Imagining South Dakota's alternate political universe]

Fact is: the South Dakota Republican Party is splintering into two parts. Little of their agenda was passed during the 2019 legislative session so principled conservatives in South Dakota really have nothing to lose by leaving the SDGOP for a viable third party. West River could become an ideological battleground and Shad Olson could be a factor in 2020.

To finance their quixotic, selfish whims Heidelberger and Melissa Mentele of New Approach South Dakota have siphoned thousands from the hemorrhaging South Dakota Democratic Party.

Tupper is exactly right: the only prayer atheist Heidelberger has of influencing thought leaders in South Dakota is the one his pastor wife says to get him the hell out of the house and out of her hair. He’s simply another short guy without any trace of self-awareness.

South Dakota Democrats need to run on a corporate income tax, taxing farm implements to fix roads, ending video lootery, reducing the number of South Dakota counties to 25, turning Dakota State and/or Northern State University into community colleges, and adopting my cannabis template.