Sept. 6, 2022

By Joe Sneve, The Dakota Scout

More than nine months ago, The Flower Shop, LLC, won the first of five licenses up for grabs in the city of Sioux Falls medical marijuana licensing lottery.

And Sept. 2, the Sioux Falls-based cannabis distributor became the first to market.

The store at 2211 W. 49th Street store marks the third state-licensed medical marijuana retail shop in South Dakota to begin public-interfacing operations and the first in the state’s largest city.

“We said ‘Everything works so lets turn on the open switch,’” said owner Peter Dikun, a 37-year-old Dell Rapids resident. “Everything went smooth and there wasn’t any hiccups. It was a steady flow.”

The Flower Shop currently offers five different strains of cannabis flower buds, a limited selection of edibles and CBD products. Marijuana paraphernalia like glass pipes are also available for purchase.

The Flower Shop offers a “deli-style” customer experience within its 3,000-square-foot space, Dikun said, referring to customers’ ability to peruse products by smelling, touching and feeling what’s offered before making a selection.

“We’re not just giving them a black package and sending them on their way,” he said.

Those eligible to legally purchase cannabis in South Dakota must be qualified through the South Dakota Department of Health, which set up a medical marijuana program at the direction of a voter-adopted ballot measure in 2020.

Under that law, dispensaries must supply their stores with products cultivated and produced by other in-state cannabis companies also licensed by DOH. And because those supplies have yet to catch up with demand, Dikun said many products available in dispensaries such as on the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation or other legal-cannabis states have yet to come to market in South Dakota.

“I assume we’ll have concentrates in the next three months,” he said, adding he intends to increase his roster of five employees to as many as 15 when the cannabis market in South Dakota reaches full development.

As of Aug. 29, 2,484 South Dakotans have been issued medical marijuana ID cards through the state health office.

The state’s first non-tribal marijuana dispensary opened in July in Hartford. Unity Rd. is a national concept based in Colorado brought to South Dakota by local longtime friends B.J. Olson and Adam Jorgensen.

The story is brought to you in partnership with The Dakota Scout, a local news source focused on government and politics. To learn more, click here.