Why lawmakers are frustrated with S.D. officials' lack of hemp research

Industrial hemp is already around and coming through South Dakota, and the state is behind, legislators and farming advocates say. 

Legislators who stalled legalizing industrial hemp last session to further study its impact on state resources, along with multiple community members, seemed frustrated Monday in feeling state agencies haven't made much progress in studying the plant. 

At its second meeting Monday afternoon, the Industrial Hemp Study Committee heard from South Dakota's agriculture, health and public safety leaders on what they've learned about industrial hemp since deciding to study the plant’s impact on state time, budget and resources. Legislators also learned from three states' agricultural leaders on how they regulate and monitor industrial hemp planting and producing, and they took public input at the nearly five-hour long meeting in Pierre. 

A couple legislators expressed concern that the departments haven’t done a deep dive into looking at what legalizing hemp, a strain of the cannabis plant legalized federally in the 2018 farm bill, would do to or for the state. 

“I don’t think we’re any further along than we were in March,” said Rep. Tim Goodwin, R-Rapid City. 

Legislators in April voted industrial hemp as their top priority to study before the 2020 legislative session after Gov. Kristi Noem vetoed the bill that would have legalized industrial hemp in March. The House voted to override Noem's veto, but the override didn't make it through the Senate. 

The interim study has been looking into: 

• the cost of implementing an industrial hemp program,
• the economic impacts of the production and sale of industrial hemp,
• the potential costs and challenges for law enforcement
• and requirements for registration, licenses, permits, seed certification and seed access.

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized industrial hemp. Industrial hemp can be transported across South Dakota and can be grown on the reservations in the state.

Many of Noem's cabinet members expressed concern about legalization during session, saying the state wouldn't be ready to regulate industrial hemp. 

More:South Dakota lawmakers take a lesson from Kentucky's hemp industry

Official: If you're against marijuana, you should be against hemp

In February, Public Safety Secretary Craig Price said industrial hemp would stretch law enforcement resources. Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said testing industrial hemp would increase the state's testing lab's workload. 

Many of those concerns were echoed Monday, with both Price and Malsam-Rysdon showing resistance in legalizing hemp. Price said legalizing hemp would open a pathway to legalizing marijuana and said it would put strain on field officers who wouldn’t be able to field test material to determine if it was hemp or marijuana. He said other states have stopped all prosecution of marijuana cases pending a lab test result. 

"I certainly don’t want to do anything that would further increase the threat to our next generation of kids," Price said. "If you’re so strongly against legalization of marijuana, please consider the impact of legalization of industrial hemp would have on that very issue."

Price detailed an arrest of a man driving from Colorado to Minneapolis carrying hemp. The driver told the Highway Patrol trooper he was transporting hemp. The material tested positive for THC, which is present in both hemp and marijuana. A news release from the Minnesota Hemp Association said the man was transporting legally grown hemp to an approved processor in Minnesota. 

More:South Dakota Legislature to study industrial hemp, meth epidemic this year

Malsam-Rysdon said she is anxiously awaiting guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration, expected later this fall, and would like more information on the byproducts of hemp. 

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said legalized industrial hemp could affect enforcement of the state's ingestion law, because law enforcement wouldn't be able to know whether the THC in someone's system came from a legal source.

More:Industrial hemp passes South Dakota Senate committee over Noem's objections

Legislators asked questions concerning whether growers have attempted to grow marijuana or hide marijuana growth within their hemp fields, and how fields that test positive for marijuana are taken care of. In North Dakota, fields that test positive for a certain amount of THC are destroyed, but both North Dakota and Montana’s representatives said they haven’t run into many problems with growers using hemp fields as covers for marijuana. 

Legislators also asked whether the department heads have run into trouble working with Native American tribes interested in growing hemp. Both the Montana and North Dakota Department of Agriculture representatives said they had been working with tribes and haven't had any issues. 

Sen. Shawn Bordeaux, D-Mission and a tribal member, said he heard from tribes that they’ve started planting and was concerned that the state Department of Agriculture hadn’t heard from them. 

“They are already passing laws, so not everyone is at the table,” Bordeaux said. 

Ahead of the next meeting, legislators requested that:

• a law enforcement representative from North Dakota be present for the committee's next meeting,
• a representative from another state that has legalized hemp, but not legalized marijuana, be present for testimony,
• and proponent and opponent testimony be heard.

Email reporter Danielle Ferguson at dbferguson@argusleader.com, or follow on Twitter at @DaniFergs.