Marijuana company says it might forfeit $100K license, blames government

Genesis Farms facing revocation after Minnehaha County's lone cannabis license sits idle

A South Dakota cannabis company is facing the revocation of a medical marijuana dispensary license it paid $100,000 for last year.

However, according to Genesis Farms, bureaucratic red tape and government-driven obstacles have kept it from opening what would have been the first and only cannabis store permitted by South Dakota’s largest county.

Minnehaha County Commissioners issued an order "to show cause" for the medical marijuana retail license issued to the Sioux Falls-based company in March 2022, which still hasn't been used. The move comes after Eric Bogue, the chief civil deputy attorney in the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office, told commissioners that the county had received complaints about the license being idle.

The county planning office found that the license was not actively being used, he said.

Genesis Farms' chief operating officer, Emmett Reistroffer, told The Dakota Scout following the Tuesday morning meeting that the company is considering its options. Those could include rescinding the license and forfeiting the $100,000 fee that Genesis Farms paid when it won Minnehaha County’s only cannabis dispensary license in a lottery.

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