The flower shop dispensary claimed Friday afternoon as the first medical marijuana dispensary to open in Sioux Falls.
The store opened nearly two years after the state passed Measure 26 to legalize medical cannabis, and after being the first of five businesses to win medical marijuana licenses in a lottery run by the city of Sioux Falls nearly a year ago .
Owner Peter Dikun, a Dell Rapids resident who was born in Czechoslovakia, is proud that his company’s application was the first ball drawn in the lottery, the No. 1 ball and the first to open in the city. The property he owns near the intersection of 49th and Western was in the city’s “green zone” for dispensaries, so he jumped at the chance to turn it into a dispensary.
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“We just got lucky,” he said of the opportunity to open the business at 2211 West 49th Street, named for the smokable flowers of the marijuana plant.
Flower Shop Dispensary is the third state-licensed medical marijuana facility to open in South Dakota, following Unity Rd. in Hartford and Dakota Natural Solutions Grow in Wessington Springs, both serving patients with South Dakota medical cannabis cards.
The first dispensary located in South Dakota was Native Nations Cannabis in Flandreau and serves those with tribal cards.
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After opening the doors to customers around 3pm on Friday, Dikun saw people “trickle in”. On Friday they had about 40 customers; Saturday, 80; Sunday, 40; and, another 20 before noon on Monday morning alone.
Customers need a state-issued medical marijuana card and must be over 21 to shop at the store. Dikun said he has seen “all kinds” of customers and patients at his store, with different ages. So far, most of the clients are people in their 60s, and they are professionals with various types of ailments, he said.
“This is their choice of relief instead of taking opiates or (other) prescriptions,” he said.
There are five different varieties of flowers that customers can purchase, as well as hemp-based edibles, which Dikun said can be purchased across state lines. Flowers are stored in jars and distributed “deli-style” from the jars, weighed in front of customers at point-of-sale stations.
The buds or flowers can be smoked with a pipe, water pipe or pre-rolled into joints, Dikun explained, while they are eaten edible. There are a variety of edibles: from THC-free CBD oil or melatonin for sleep and anti-inflammatories, or candies and brownies, for example.
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Dikun explained that doctors who prescribe medical marijuana cards in South Dakota recommend the treatment, not a specific dose, so when patients arrive at his store, he or one of five other employees walk customers through options and points them in the right direction.
“Most people, about 98 percent, are already familiar with these products,” Dikun said of the more than 2,000 patients who have obtained South Dakota medical marijuana cards so far. “There are a lot of closeted stoners out there.”
Dikun said it takes about a year for markets to mature in any given city that starts a medical marijuana program. Every time customers visit his store, there will be something new on the shelves, he added.
Her shop gets its flower supply from a local Tea grower known as Pure Bliss Farms, which Dikun says has about 10 employees and operates about 7,000 square feet of plants.
