34-20G-5. Practitioners not subject to arrest, prosecution, penalty, or discipline for certain conduct.

No practitioner is subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty of any kind, or denied any right or privilege, including civil penalty or disciplinary action by the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners or by any other occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, solely for providing written certifications or for otherwise stating that, in the practitioner's professional opinion, a patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from the medical use of cannabis to treat or alleviate the patient's serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with the serious or debilitating medical condition. Nothing in this chapter prevents a practitioner from being sanctioned for:

(1)    Issuing a written certification to a patient with whom the practitioner does not have a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship; or

(2)    Failing to properly evaluate a patient's medical condition.

Source: Initiated Measure No. 26, approved Nov. 3, 2020, eff. Jul. 1, 2021.

34-20G-5.1. Certification not authorized.

Nothing in this chapter authorizes a practitioner to provide a written certification to a patient who is pregnant or breastfeeding.

Source: SL 2023, ch 120, § 2.

34-20G-5.2. Certification--Notification to primary or referring practitioner.

If a practitioner issues a written certification under this chapter, and if the practitioner is neither the patient's primary care provider nor a specialty provider caring for the patient's debilitating medical condition, the practitioner shall, upon issuing the certification, provide electronic notification of the issuance:

(1)    To the patient's primary care provider; or

(2)    To the referring practitioner, if that individual is caring for the patient's debilitating medical condition.

The patient's primary care provider or the referring practitioner shall include any notification received in accordance with this section in the patient's medical file.

Source: SL 2024, ch 133, § 1.