RAPID CITY, SD — At the start of this week, we here at The Rapid City Post received a tip that Puffy’s, a local dispensary operating out of Rapid City and Sturgis would be going forward in filing a lawsuit against Rapid City for what manager Kittrick Jeffries called “ensuring fairness, due process, and consistency in how the rules are applied so patients across Rapid City continue to have reliable access to medical cannabis”.
The filed claims themselves are, of course, wreathed in legal jargon and as always: alleged. However those interested in the future of the cannabis industry in the Black Hills may want to take note. In this interest of public awareness for issues facing the community and transparency of the systems which otherwise opaquely surround us daily.
The Case
In Short? This case has some connection to an ongoing suit from 2024 focused on the state Health Department, and returns to the issue of licensing at a new and more local angle. In this suit, Puffy’s claims that they were arbitrarily and without reasonable cause prevented from expansion while on a timer from the Department of Health to start operation at licensed locations.
This comes off of a lottery grant of seven local licenses to Puffy’s for various locations in Rapid City. Though two of those locations became operational, the company, eager to expand wished to construct five more, with stipulation on their license demanding operations begin within one year’s time. Puffy’s upon reaching that deadline appear to have been denied an extension by the Department (which is still being appealed and is a bit of a legal grey area at the time of writing) in 2023, but granted a local license by the city, creating a “conflict of law” as the document alleges.
Rapid City denied building permits for the location at 910 Main St. in 2023 after filing an appeal with the Department of Health, but were denied, with city officials indicating the denial was on account of “the Department essentially told them to do so”.
Following this, the city allegedly renewed local licensing of the five locations for the business’ 2024 year, before attempting to rescind these licenses, claiming them to be issued in error, seemingly in connection with Puffy’s ambiguous licensed status within the DOH. In 2025 an attempt was allegedly made to renew the licenses again, which the Rapid City Finance Office refused to consider, which the Dispensary claims to be unlawful as it was not formally denied.
Following this, the filing claims an interaction taking place on October 2, 2024 in which City Attorney Joel Landeen and Deputy City Attorney Justin Williams approached Puffy’s representatives to discuss the allocated licenses. During this, the document claims Landeen “Threatened that he was going to reallocate Puffy’s licenses without legal authority,” as well as stating that legal action by Puffy’s would threaten the relationship between the business and the city. Following this interaction, the city created a Moratorium on new applications for dispensaries, and blocking reallocation of previously given licenses. In August of 2025, the City Council repealed portions of a resolution which prevented the transfer of ownership or location, however the Moratorium remained pending supreme court ruling on the status of the five licenses in question.
In October 2025, Puffy’s submitted a renewal of their local licenses which the Rapid City Finance Office refused as in 2024, allegedly stating that both had been “set aside”. Following this the Deputy City Attorney argued under oath that Puffy’s had no local licenses, seemingly conflicting with statements by the city council.
With this all in mind, Puffy’s claims unfair treatment and has called for judgement and compensation.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
This case covers a broad number of events, however the core of it is this: while five out of the seven of Puffy’s state licenses are in a legal limbo, the city government has frozen the issue of local expansion or formally rescinding/reallocating the local licenses given to the business. Puffy’s alleges that the city Finance Office has not followed in kind, refusing attempts to maintain the license as well as the City Attorney and Deputy City Attorney allegedly threatening to reallocate the licenses in a personal interaction. Off of this, they are demanding judgement and monetary compensation.
While this case is still in early stages, Puffy’s tends to be at the center of dispensary issues in Rapid City, and with the city’s Finance Committee seemingly wishing to revisit the issue of the number of dispensary licenses available, the issue seems more pressing than ever.
Note: At the time of publishing, the defendant in this case has not yet been formally served the document as filed.
