Recreational marijuana is illegal in South Dakota – voters confirmed as much in November – but the next best thing is available from border to border.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the cultivation of hemp. By extension, it legalized two cannabinoids called delta-8 and delta-10 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which occur naturally in tiny amounts in the hemp plant.
When ingested in significant doses, each can create a high that’s all but indistinguishable from the one produced by traditional marijuana. Even when synthesized, the compounds are legal at the federal level because they occur naturally in a legal plant.
Retailers in South Dakota and around the country have now spent five years selling the chemicals in gummies, other edibles, oils in vape devices or in otherwise inert smokable hemp. The products can be loaded with large enough quantities of the THC variants to work as a stand-in for marijuana when consumed, either for recreational or medical purposes.
That reality has created a sort of drug policy dissonance in Pierre.
In contrast to fierce debates about the rules and regulations surrounding medical maijuana or allowable levels of delta-9 THC – the federally banned cannabinoid found in the marijuana plant – products spiked with its molecular cousins are legal to buy and consume for anyone older than 21 in South Dakota.
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