Is weed legal in South Dakota?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is not legal in South Dakota. (SDCL § 22-42-6: Possession of marijuana prohibited--Degrees according to amount.)

SDCL 22-42-6 makes simple possession of marijuana a crime regardless of amount (a Class 1 misdemeanor at two ounces or less, escalating through felony degrees by weight). SDCL 22-42-7 separately criminalizes distribution and possession with intent to distribute. Neither source, nor any other registered for South Dakota, states an adult-use exception.

The medical act is the only exception South Dakota has written, so an adult without a card falls under the possession statute at the first gram. Weight sets the degree of the charge, and conduct that is a misdemeanor at two ounces becomes a felony above it.

Medical status

A full medical cannabis program runs in South Dakota, serving patients the program registers. (SDCL § 34-20G-2: Cardholders not subject to arrest, prosecution, penalty, or discipline for certain conduct.)

SDCL 34-20G-1 defines 'debilitating medical condition' broadly -- cachexia or wasting syndrome, severe or debilitating pain, severe nausea, seizures, severe and persistent muscle spasms, AIDS or HIV-positive status, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, Crohn's disease, epilepsy and seizures, and post-traumatic stress disorder -- and defines 'medical cannabis' or 'cannabis' as marijuana as defined in 22-42-1, with no THC-content or product-form limit.

What is printed on your card matters as much as holding one, because cultivation is a permission the card either carries or does not. The program also reaches a cardholder from another state, who may buy from a dispensary here but may not grow.

Hemp-derived products

South Dakota permits the sale of hemp-derived products and limits which ones. (SDCL § 38-35-21: Industrial hemp for smoking prohibited--Violation as misdemeanor.)

SDCL 38-35-1 defines 'industrial hemp product' at the federally defined hemp THC level but excludes from that definition any product containing a chemically derived cannabinoid, including delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, THC-O-acetate, hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), or tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP). 38-35-21 separately bans the sale or use of industrial hemp for smoking or inhaling in any form.

The definition of an industrial hemp product leaves out chemically derived cannabinoids, naming delta-8, delta-10, THC-O-acetate, HHC and THCP, so those sit outside what the hemp rules permit. A separate section bans hemp sold or used for smoking or inhaling in any form, which takes smokable flower off the shelf whatever its THC figure.

Home cultivation

South Dakota allows a registered patient to grow up to 4 plants at home, and nobody else. (SDCL § 34-20G-1 (Medical Cannabis): Definitions.)

The 'allowable amount of cannabis' for a cardholder whose registry identification card allows cultivation includes two flowering cannabis plants and two cannabis plants that are not flowering, plus the cannabis and cannabis products produced from those plants if kept at the cultivation property. SDCL 34-20G-2 protects this only if any cannabis plant is grown in an enclosed, locked facility or is being transported. A nonresident cardholder, and a cardholder whose card does not specifically allow cultivation, may not cultivate.

The four split evenly, two flowering and two not, and they are lawful only for a cardholder whose card allows cultivation. Every plant has to sit in an enclosed, locked facility unless it is being moved, and what those plants produce stays covered while it is kept at the property where they grew.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as South Dakota states it: For a cardholder, the allowable amount of cannabis is three ounces or less, plus any additional cannabis-product quantity set by department rule, plus, if the cardholder's registry card allows cultivation, two flowering and two non-flowering plants and what those plants produced. A person without a card may not lawfully possess any amount. (SDCL § 34-20G-1 (Medical Cannabis): Definitions.)

SDCL 22-42-6 sets the criminal degrees for possession without a registry card: Class 1 misdemeanor at two ounces or less, Class 6 felony above two ounces but under one-half pound, Class 5 felony from one-half to under one pound, Class 4 felony from one to ten pounds, and Class 3 felony above ten pounds.

On buying, South Dakota states: A dispensary may not dispense more than three ounces of cannabis or a cannabis product to a registered qualifying patient or a nonresident cardholder, directly or via a designated caregiver, in any fourteen-day period. (SDCL § 34-20G-70: Cannabis dispensed--Conditions.)

SDCL 22-42-7 separately makes distributing, or possessing with intent to distribute, marijuana outside this dispensary system a crime, graded by amount and punished more severely if the recipient is a minor.

One figure does double duty in South Dakota, standing as the amount a cardholder may hold and as the most a dispensary may hand over in a fourteen-day window, so a full pickup leaves you at your ceiling. A caregiver collecting for you draws on that same window, which stops two allowances from stacking in one household.

Minimum age

There is no recreational channel in South Dakota, so no recreational age applies. (SDCL § 22-42-6: Possession of marijuana prohibited--Degrees according to amount.)

Null because South Dakota has no adult-use channel; see adult_use_status.

You must be 18 or over to hold a card and buy for yourself. (SDCL § 34-20G-33: Issuance of registry identification card to patient under age 18--Conditions.)

Below eighteen, a qualifying patient may be issued a registry identification card only if the custodial parent or legal guardian consents in writing to allow the patient's medical use, to serve as the patient's designated caregiver, and to control the acquisition, dosage, and frequency of the patient's use -- the patient does not act for themselves. No such parental consent-and-control condition is stated for a patient of eighteen or older.

A patient under 18 can still be registered, and the card then rests on a custodial parent or guardian who consents in writing and takes the designated caregiver role. That adult controls what is acquired, the dose and how often it is used, so the younger patient never handles the purchase; no such condition is stated at 18 and above.

Where you can buy

You can buy lawfully from a licensed medical dispensary and a retailer of hemp-derived or CBD products. (SDCL § 34-20G-70: Cannabis dispensed--Conditions.)

SDCL 34-20G-70 confirms a dispensary dispenses cannabis and cannabis products to registered qualifying patients and nonresident cardholders. SDCL 38-35-1 defines 'industrial hemp product' to include a finished or consumer product made from industrial hemp at the federal THC threshold, which 38-35-21 restricts only as to smokable or inhalable form (and 38-35-1 itself excludes specific chemically derived cannabinoids). SDCL 22-42-7 establishes no adult-use dispensary channel: distributing marijuana outside the medical program is a crime.

A licensed dispensary is the one counter for cannabis here, and moving product outside that system is charged as distribution, with a heavier penalty where the person receiving it is a minor. Hemp and CBD stores are the other lawful shelf, bound by the smoking ban and the cannabinoid exclusions and not by the medical rules.

South Dakota licenses somewhere to buy, and this site does not yet hold a record for any location here. The state publishes its list in a form this site cannot yet read.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.