A cannabis dream: Men's long pursuit of reform paying off 15 years after fateful encounter

Genesis Farms partners have been on front lines of marijuana legalization fight for years

Dreams are coming true for three Sioux Falls cannabis reform advocates who’ve spent nearly two decades fighting to end South Dakota’s marijuana prohibition.

Emmett Reistroffer was still a teenager when he met Justin Johnson. The two crossed paths ahead of the 2010 election where South Dakotans considered — for a second time — legalizing medical marijuana.

The ballot measure failed, but the relationship between the Sioux Falls natives — one an already boisterous political activist who organized the “Vote Yes for Compassion” campaign, and the other a successful entrepreneur in the bar and hospitality business — was only beginning to bud.

And this month, the two, along with other partners in Genesis Farms Cannabis, opened a medical marijuana store in their hometown, a milestone they’d both been working toward since before they even knew one another.

“I was so disappointed we lost, and I was newly in business and I wanted this to be my cause,” Johnson told The Dakota Scout, saying he was referred to Reistroffer by longtime cannabis reform activist Bob Newland. “I remember watching him speak and thinking ‘I just wish he was a little older.’”

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