SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – President Trump’s executive order to reschedule marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3, categorizing it with Tylenol, Codeine, or testosterone, opens a new window for the potential use of cannabis.
“Study benefits, potential dangers, and future treatments. It’s gonna have a tremendously positive impact, I believe,” said President Trump.
Attorney General Marty Jackley believes the studies could finally provide evidence to the medicinal use of marijuana, other than the personal anecdotes.
“South Dakota has medical marijuana statutes, but they’re not necessarily based on research because we couldn’t have the research. So the president’s desire that I share is to do more research on marijuana,” said Jackley.
New Approach South Dakota, an advocacy group for medical marijuana, says this won’t change anything overnight.
“What he signed in was just basically telling the DOJ and the DEA that it’s time to reclassify. What’s next is a whole bunch of undoing what his words were and laying the strings out and figuring out exactly how to do that,” said New Approach South Dakota Executive Director Melissa Mentele.
Mentele believes it could take a year or more for the classification change to be complete.
“The signing of that was not an immediate change. It didn’t just change the schedule down. People will still be arrested on a Schedule 1 substance if they don’t have a South Dakota medical marijuana card,” said Mentele.
“Marijuana is still illegal under federal law as well as state law, and so this is strictly going to give the opportunity for more medical research, which we need,” said Jackley.
South Dakota Senator Michael Rohl of Aberdeen tells us he’s not surprised by the president’s decision, due to his previous stance on pharmaceutical companies.
“This executive order finally has the federal government recognizing what 40 states, 4 territories, and Washington, DC have already recognized; cannabis has natural medicinal properties with fewer side effects than most pharmaceuticals they replace,” said Rohl.
Jackley is hoping to work with legislators to change the laws for synthetic marijuana consumption, limiting it to those over the age of 21.
