SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Possible Amtrak expansion to South Dakota is moving along, albeit slowly.

The Federal Railroad Administration’s Long Distance Service Study received its fourth and final update, painting a better picture of how much each of the 15 proposed routes would cost, what benefits they could bring in, and how the FRA is planning to prioritize each route.

The interest following the third update in February sparked a flurry of public comments. In the updated study, the FRA estimates that over 47,000 comments were received, 99 percent of those being in favor of expanding long-distance Amtrak service. Of comments mentioning specific routes, the Twin Cities to Denver route received around 300 comments alone.

For Dan Bilka, president of the advocacy group All Aboard Northwest, the comments show that nationwide, people are wanting to have passenger rail as a travel option more than ever. In South Dakota, that means bringing back a mode of transit that hasn’t been available in over 50 years.

“That just goes to show how much latent interest from the general public to not only to talk about passenger rail, but to actually see stuff move forward,” Bilka said.

MORE: Advocates: Proposed Amtrak service a big first step for South Dakota

Three major pieces of information came with the latest update. Those are conceptual service schedules, costs and benefits, and the prioritization of routes. It’s important to note that all of this information is only an estimate, and the FRA states that more studies would be needed to flesh out each route.

With the Twin Cities to Phoenix route, based off an average travel speed of 48 miles per hour which is what current long-distance Amtrak routes experience, it would take around 47 hours to travel from end to end. This route covers over 2,100 miles through 10 states. Travelers leaving St. Paul, Minnesota in the early morning can expect to be in Phoenix about two days later. In stops like Sioux Falls and Sioux City, no trains would arrive or depart between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

The Twin Cities to Denver route would see trains leave St. Paul in the early evening, arriving in Denver around 26 hours later. Most of the stops in South Dakota along the 1,143 mile route would be during the evening.

The study also now lists preliminary cost and benefit analysis studies for each route, although again, these should only be viewed as estimates.

The Twin Cities to Phoenix route would cost anywhere between $500-710 million in vehicle costs, $1.16-1.51 billion in station and maintenance facility costs, and $700-910 million in track upgrades. In total, the route could cost anywhere between $2.41-3.13 billion dollars. Additionally, it would cost between $64-91 million each year to operate.

The report also includes estimated benefits. Jobs supported by initial construction range from 30,900 to 40,200, with earnings ranging from $2.07-2.69 billion. Jobs then supported annually would range from 1,100 to 1,600, and annual earnings are estimated to come out between $59-84 million.

With the Twin Cities to Denver route across the entire state of South Dakota, vehicle costs are estimated to be $440-570 million, station and maintenance facilities could cost $1.29-1.68 billion, and track upgrades could cost anywhere from $4.49-5.83 billion. That total range comes to anywhere from $6.22-$8.08 billion. Additionally, it’s estimated to cost $56-80 million each year to run.

For estimated benefits on the route, initial construction could support 91,100 to 118,400 jobs, with earnings coming to $6.05-$7.86 billion. Annual jobs supported is estimated at 1,000 to 1,400, and annual earnings could range from $52-74 million.

MORE: Transportation Secretary throws cold water on South Dakota Amtrak expansion

Experts and advocates have pointed out in the past there are other benefits for travelers, and that public transportation often does not recover what it costs through tickets or tolls.

Bilka said those numbers are a good starting point in knowing how much it would cost to build out each route, but noted there’s still plenty of unknowns.

“When you look at what they’re just factoring today, which are just ‘passenger specific projects’ for upgrading the track to the classification needed for passenger rail, yes it looks significant. But they aren’t accommodating for what they’d have to do with the other routes, which are capacity projects, which on some of these other routes could be quite significant.

MORE: Considering economic pros and cons of potential passenger rail expansion

Bilka said the public benefits of having passenger rail available still outweighs the costs, and said the investment of that type of money could match the impact of what building the Intestate Highway System or each dam along the Missouri River could bring. It would also outnumber the total amount of funding the state has received in Special Transportation Circumstance grants over the years, about $27 million each year in lieu of having passenger rail access.

“There would be many times the rate of return on investment for the public input and the public value that it would bring to these projects and communities, which would be very significant and far outweigh the meager funding we’ve gotten through the STC grant program,” Bilka said.

The final big piece of information made available is how the FRA lists each route for prioritization. That takes into account the level of complexity for each route, the level of benefits, and level of cost. Scores can range from three to 15, with 15 being highest on priority.

The Twin Cities to Phoenix Route scored a nine, tied for fourth place. The Twin Cities to Denver route scored an eight, tied for tenth.

Bilka said while those routes rank in the middle of the pack, he said it doesn’t address the travel demand from each station along the route to another, rather from hub to hub, as South Dakota has a higher demand for its closer cities.

“That we have so much of a pull factor going up to the Twin Cities, and same West River down to Denver that way, but it’s really linking those two as one part of an integrated transportation network,” Bilka said. “Such as for both routes here through South Dakota, that we could look at what about starting with a simple phase of here in Sioux Falls up to the Twin Cities, and same out West River such as Rapid City through Denver.”

The final step from the FRA is to put together the final report based on its findings, and deliver that to Congress. It’s unknown when that will happen, but the FRA estimates it will happen still this year. Meanwhile, Bilka said it’s on them and hte public to voice their support of each route to members of Congress, as well as state and local leaders.

More on Amtrak Expansion to South Dakota

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– Thune weighs in on Amtrak expansion to South Dakota

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As of today, several varieties of intoxicating hemp products are illegal to sell or produce in the state of South Dakota.

That doesn’t necessarily put them out of reach for South Dakotans. 

It also doesn’t mean death for the market in alternative intoxicants that’s emerged across South Dakota and the nation in part thanks to a loophole in the 2018 federal farm bill, which legalized hemp.

‘Fake weed’ ban will take effect Monday as lawsuit against it proceeds

Even if all the products now banned through the actions of the South Dakota Legislature last winter are pulled from store shelves in the state – an open question as the law takes effect – buyers can purchase them online with little fear of repercussion, as their possession isn’t prohibited through the new law. 

The law targets synthetically produced delta-8, delta-9, delta-10, THC-O, THC-P and HHC. Each are chemical cousins of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the high-inducing compound in cannabis flowers. 

Sellers or producers of the hemp-derived products could be charged with a class 2 misdemeanor – the lowest-level crime in the state, punishable by up to 30 days in jail.

But the testing necessary to prove any product violates the law has limits and requires wait times for local law enforcement. The state’s largest policing agencies have no immediate plans to prioritize enforcement.

That puts the onus on retailers to follow a law that would cut into revenues or force them out of business.

A federal lawsuit from Pierre-based Hemp Quarters 605 is also in play. The company attempted to block the new law as an unconstitutional overreach that interferes with the interstate commerce permitted under the federal farm bill. But U.S. District Judge Eric Schulte declined to issue a preliminary injunction. 

Even without the injunction, though, the company’s lawsuit will proceed and could eventually upend the law.

Caleb Rose of Rapid City owns Black Hills Vapors and recently founded a trade group called South Dakota Retailers for Better Alternatives to advocate for stores that sell hemp-derived products. 

Rose said he planned to pull the targeted products from the shelves of his West River stores, but the lack of certainty could mean other retailers opt to ignore the new law.

“I think everybody in town and everybody in the state is going to have to make their own calls and consult their lawyers on what they want to do,” Rose said.

Testing complications

Questions of enforcement are tied to product testing. A can of gummies on a retailer’s shelf might say “delta-8,” but prosecutors would have to prove the product is illegal beyond a reasonable doubt. 

Doing that requires testing, which for the newly illegal substances involves a waiting period for local officers and prosecutors. There are field tests for some felony-level narcotics like methamphetamine, and some agencies can test for the presence of the active ingredient in traditional cannabis, but there are no such tests for products like hemp-derived gummies or delta-8 vape pens. For those, police would rely on the state Department of Health lab.

That lab can distinguish between delta-8, delta-9 and delta-10 THC, according to spokesperson Tia Kafka.

But there is no test that can show with certainty that the chemicals present in any particular product are naturally or synthetically derived. To run afoul of the new law, the offending chemical must have been altered from its original state. In theory, products with high levels of the chemicals would be legal if they were naturally derived.

Kafka said that shouldn’t prevent police from making a call on enforcement. Delta-8 is only found in small amounts naturally, so Kafka said high levels of those compounds would be enough to show that they’ve been modified and are therefore illegal to sell.

Even if a product claims to contain unaltered, unadulterated delta-8, Kafka wrote that testing can help triangulate an intoxicant’s origin.

Products with synthetically produced hemp chemicals “often have contaminants from the chemical reaction which can be an indicator that a product is not 100% natural,” Kafka said.

The legalization of hemp and medical marijuana has already slowed the pace of cannabis testing at the state lab, though. In 2020, the state conducted 807 tests for cannabis. Last year, the lab did 99.

“Following legalization of industrial hemp and medical cannabis, state laws changed significantly leading to reduced cannabis testing,” she said. 

Law enforcement awaits guidance

It’s unclear if the new law will spur more law enforcement interest in lab testing, but agencies have given no indication that enforcement will become a priority. 

Decisions on enforcement come at the local level, Attorney General Marty Jackley said. 

There are no plans to push for investigations of shops or hemp products from the state level just because they’re sold in hundreds of stores, he said.

No business can be searched or spot-checked for compliance with the law without probable cause and a warrant, he said.

“What I can tell you is the Legislature took certain action. They made certain conduct illegal,” Jackley said. “Law enforcement’s job is to enforce that. We don’t do anything special with respect to that.”

In the Hemp Quarters 605 lawsuit, court records show that the Hughes County State’s Attorney’s Office does not intend to immediately prosecute the company’s owners for violations of the new law.

Sioux Falls Police Department spokesperson Sam Clemens said his agency awaits guidance from the Minnehaha County State Attorney’s Office on what kinds of enforcement actions it might need to take to enforce the new misdemeanor. 

Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar has not offered guidance on enforcement, though. He told South Dakota Searchlight that his office will evaluate any cases brought by police to determine if prosecutions are necessary.

Katy Urban, spokesperson for the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office, offered a similar response by email. She wrote that prosecutors in Rapid City will consider the merits of any case presented to them by police agencies.

Rapid City Police Department spokesperson Brendyn Medina, meanwhile, said his agency awaits enforcement guidance from the Pennington County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Ex-trooper, now a cannabis grower, wants answers on fake weed inaction

Even if law enforcement were to doggedly investigate the sale of newly illegal products, plenty of other avenues for a legal high remain, both for sellers and users.

Other non-hemp products include kratom, kava and magic mushroom hallucinogens, the latter of which are produced with different mushrooms from the federally illegal fungus psilocybin. Some classes of non-alcoholic, hemp-derived beverages, available in bars, restaurants and grocery stores around the state, will also remain available. 

Joshua Williston manages a Chasing Clouds vape and smoke shop in Sioux Falls, and said late last week he’d remove the now-banned products from the shelf by July 1. Chasing Clouds is a chain store, and he said anything unsold and illegal today will be shipped off for sale in states without a ban.

Williston expects customers who relied on those products will either get medical marijuana cards, buy recreational marijuana on the black market or find other ways to get high.

“It’s probably going to slow business down, but it ain’t gonna stop,” Williston said. “It’ll pick back up in other areas, because once it’s no longer an option, people will just find other things to substitute it with.”

Sponsor: Federal fix needed

Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls, was the new law’s prime sponsor. He told South Dakota Searchlight he understands his bill’s practical limitations, but that he’s hopeful most retailers will reduce the supply of near-pot intoxicants by complying with the law.

He’s also hopeful because of ongoing discussions in Washington, D.C., about the next federal farm bill. Congress has debated the next version of that bill for more than a year, and a provision added by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee in May aims to close the loophole that created the market by drawing a legal distinction between hemp grown for chemical extraction and hemp grown to produce things like food or fiber.

Congress has already extended its deadline for passage of the farm bill once. The deadline for passage is now September.

“However quickly that could go into law, it might be moot here in South Dakota for us to try to address anything else,” Mulder said. 

Requests for comment sent to all three members of South Dakota’s congressional delegation on the farm bill and hemp went unanswered.

Mulder, who works with an organization called Volunteers of America that offers chemical dependency services, said lawmakers in South Dakota want to do what he thinks the federal government meant to do with the 2018 farm bill. 

The feds didn’t mean to legalize weed with a loophole, he said. 

“We were trying to deliver something that was the true intent of the 2018 farm bill, where hemp products were being sold for fiber, fabrics, building materials and some of the therapeutics made with CBD,” he said. 

A federal judge over the weekend denied a request to block South Dakota’s new law banning certain hemp-derived products, allowing the measure to take effect Monday.

U.S. District Judge Eric C. Schulte ruled Saturday that Hemp Quarters 605, a Pierre-based retailer, failed to show it would likely succeed in challenging the law’s constitutionality, the South Dakota Searchlight reported.

House Bill 1125, signed by Gov. Kristi Noem in March, amends existing definitions of hemp and industrial hemp products. It defines a “chemically derived cannabinoid” as a substance created by chemically altering compounds from the cannabis plant.

Key provisions of the law include prohibiting the chemical modification or conversion of industrial hemp into delta-8 THC, delta-9 THC, delta-10 THC, or similar compounds. It also bans the sale or distribution of industrial hemp products containing chemically derived cannabinoids. Violations are classified as Class 2 misdemeanors.

Hemp Quarters 605 has argued the law conflicts with the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which legalized hemp production. The retailer claimed it could lose up to 70% of its business under the new restrictions.

The company’s owner, Brandi Barth, also testified about investing $50,000 to renovate its rented building.

Judge Schulte still rejected key arguments from Hemp Quarters 605, finding the law doesn’t improperly interfere with interstate commerce and that South Dakota acted within its police powers to protect public health.

“This Court believes it is unlikely Plaintiff will succeed on the merits of a regulatory taking claim,” Schulte wrote in his 19-page opinion obtained by Green Market Report.

He added, “While this may seem unfair to Plaintiff, as inventory that is legal today will not be legal on July 1, 2024, ‘the (takings) inquiry remains focused on the character of the government action, not the culpability or innocence of the property holder.’”

The judge also noted that during the hearing, counsel for the state acknowledged that the company was placed in an “extremely difficult position” given the passage of HB 1125 and the change in the law.

“Precedent makes it clear, though, that this Court’s inquiry should not be on the innocence of Plaintiff when making a determination on a regulatory taking claim,” Schulte wrote.

The Hughes County State’s Attorney has agreed not to prosecute the company while the lawsuit continues, but the state Attorney General’s office made no such commitment, court documents show.

The ruling allows South Dakota to join other states cracking down on intoxicating hemp-derived products. Some such as Florida and Massachusetts decided this year to table the question for now. Supporters argue the law is necessary to close a loophole created by the Farm Bill, while critics contend it goes beyond federal regulations and could harm South Dakota’s emerging hemp industry.

Hemp Quarters 605 is allowed to proceed with its lawsuit, but Saturday’s decision suggests an uphill battle.

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