SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Twenty-two months after South Dakota voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to make medical marijuana legal in the state, Sioux Falls has its first dispensary.
The Flower Shop Dispensary officially opened Friday at its location near the intersection of 49th Street and Western Avenue. The store will be open on Labor Day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
You must have a South Dakota medical marijuana card and be older than 21 to buy from the store.
Sioux Falls will have five dispensaries and The Flower Shop was the first selected from the license lottery held in November 2021.
Medical marijuana can be used to treat anxiety, pain, seizures, muscle spasms and more. Helping patients find relief is important for staff at the Flower Shop Dispensary on West 49th street.
“I’ve been a user for a while now myself. I’ve had two back surgeries, I’m only 30 years old and pain pills kind of put me down a long path that I didn’t want to continue down. So using cannabis helped me get out of that. I want to portray that and be an advocate for other people as well,” general manager David Blackburn said.
The Flower Shop officially opened Friday after almost a year of preparation.
“It’s been a journey. It’s been exciting, it came with a lot of challenges but we’re open. That’s all that matters,” owner Peter Dikun said.
Inside the shop, patients with South Dakota medical marijuana cards can find glassware, hemp edibles and cannabis grown nearby in Tea.
“As the South Dakota market matures, more cultivators come on board, more manufacturers will have products. So in the beginning, we have limited stuff but the longer we’re going to be open, the more stuff we’ll have,” Dikun said.
Dikun says staff will weigh and bag the cannabis right in front of you.
“That’s kind of the biggest thing for me is being able to get good, clean medicine out there to people in a safe way,” Blackburn said.