By Dave Baumeister | County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – After several months of task force meetings and debates, the Minnehaha County Commission completed the process for licensing medical marijuana sales at this week’s meeting.
Last week on September 28, the commission amended the county zoning ordinance to allow for medical marijuana sales operations and this week they adopted another ordinance setting the fee structure for those “establishments.” This was supposed to have been done last week but because of several wording changes, commissioners decided to delay the final vote to this Tuesday, October 5.
One of those changes was to eliminate the word “dispensary” in place of the word “establishment” throughout the ordinance text. At the beginning of the ordinance, a definition is given for the phrase “medical cannabis establishment,” but nowhere is the word “dispensary” defined.
While Commissioner Jeff Barth did specifically refer to the licensing fee later as hurting smaller business, he also mentioned that this ordinance would be geared at stopping agricultural marijuana and testing facilities in the county. However, the wording of the ordinance only deals with these types of operations in the definition of “medical cannabis establishment” which states “medical cannabis establishment means a medical cannabis dispensary as that term is defined in SDCL 34-20G-1(15) and does not include cultivation facility, a cannabis testing facility or a cannabis product manufacturing facility.”
Barth may have been referring to a similar ordinance recently passed by the City of Sioux Falls which does state that cultivation and testing would be prohibited in Sioux Falls. “We cannot test; we cannot cultivate,” Barth said, “What this commission is saying (is), ‘We don’t want those jobs.’” Barth was the lone vote against setting the new licensing ordinance which passed 4 to 1.
In separate action, the commission established a licensing fee structure to accompany the ordinance. They had previously planned to do this separately to make it easier to change in the future. After some discussion, the fees were set at $5,000 for the non-refundable application fee, $100,000 for any new license and $25,000 for the annual renewal of that license. As commissioners established before, the county will only allow one medical marijuana sales dispensary that is not in an organized municipality. Commissioners Cindy Heiberger and Dean Karsky both said they wanted the fee set high to help with possible cost increases for the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices. Again, Barth was the sole voice – and vote – against the initial $100,000 fee, saying that it would preclude smaller, locally-owned dispensaries in favor of an “Amazon-type” business.
Although Barth did make the motion to establish the $25,000 license renewal fee, he said he hoped that fears of needing increased law enforcement would not be realized and they could lower it in the future. Barth again was the lone vote against the overall three fees established for the ordinance which again passed 4 to 1.
There will be no meeting next week, but commissioners will be busy taking their annual tour of the county. The next meeting will be Tuesday, October 19, at 9 am on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.