Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) has signed a landmark agreement with the White Earth Nation that will allow the tribe to operate up to eight retail marijuana stores across the state. Already the tribe is preparing to open storefronts in Moorhead and St. Cloud.<\/p>\n
Walz signed the new compact on Tuesday, making White Earth Nation\u2014also known as the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe\u2014the first tribal entity in the state to reach an agreement with the state on selling legal cannabis outside of tribal land.<\/p>\n
Notably, Minnesota\u2019s 2023 cannabis legalization law allows tribes within the state to open marijuana businesses<\/a> before state licensing of businesses begins. Following the law\u2019s enactment, a number of tribal governments, including\u00a0White Earth Nation<\/a>, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians<\/a>\u00a0and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, made early moves to enter the market.<\/p>\n Minnesota officials said the next compact with another tribe could be signed within a few weeks.<\/p>\n The new agreement with White Earth will allow the storefronts to be located off tribal land but still be regulated by tribal authorities. It also requires at least some distance between the storefronts, with the tribe limited to no more than one retail location per city and three per county.<\/p>\n Under the compact, White Earth will also be able to open marijuana cultivation and manufacturing facilities off of tribal land and engage in wholesale transactions, transportation and delivery of cannabis.<\/p>\n The interim director of the Minnesota\u2019s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), Eric Taubel, described the state\u2019s new deal with White Earth Nation to local reporters as a \u201cnation-leading approach to cannabis compacting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be the first state where not only are tribes operating cannabis businesses off tribal land, but they\u2019re also doing so under tribal regulatory authority,\u201d he told<\/a> The Minnesota Star-Tribune, adding that Minnesota cannabis regulators will still be permitted to conduct an annual facility inspection and can take further steps if they believe stores are selling risky products.<\/p>\n Taubel also said that while the White Earth compact allows up to eight dispensary locations, he doubts that any of the 11 recognized tribal nations in Minnesota will actually open that many.<\/p>\n \u201cCandidly, I don\u2019t suspect any tribe will get past about three to four stores for the next two years just because of the actual cost in setting up these stores,\u201d Taubel said.<\/p>\n Zach Wilson, CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki\u2014White Earth Nation\u2019s cannabis business\u2014told the Star-Tribune that the first off-reservation store could open as soon as this weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t even begin to share how excited we are and how proud to be a part of something so historical, monumental and something that\u2019s absolutely going to help set precedence in the tribal space throughout the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n White Earth does intend to eventually open the maximum number of stores allowed under the new compact, Wilson said. The tribe is aiming to open its St. Cloud store in mid-June, he explained, and eventually expand into areas like Mankato and Rochester.<\/p>\n Nationwide, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the 358 federally recognized Indigenous communities in the continental U.S. are involved in some sort of cannabis program, according to a recently published infographic from the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA) and the law firm Vicente<\/a>.<\/p>\n That figure, the groups said, \u201cshows that the Indigenous cannabis industry is trending upward in terms of jobs, community development, and overall industry growth, with many Tribes currently scaling to meet demands for global cannabis distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSince the first regulated\u00a0Indigenous<\/span> cannabis storefront opened almost 10 years ago in Washington State,\u201d they added, \u201cdozens of sovereign Indigenous<\/span>\u00a0communities have created their own unique regulatory systems to govern cannabis cultivation, production and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n In North Carolina, for example, a single, isolated dot on the map represents the legal marijuana market recently launched by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians<\/a>, which now serves both tribal members and adult visitors alike. That\u2019s despite marijuana still being prohibited in North Carolina itself, whether for medical or adult use.<\/p>\n It\u2019s believed that in 2020, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, located in South Dakota, became the\u00a0first tribe to vote to legalize marijuana within a U.S. state where the plant remained illegal<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other states, meanwhile, including Minnesota, Oklahoma and much of the American West, the\u00a0map is peppered with multiple tribal programs. Many of those states, especially Minnesota, have worked with Indigenous communities to incorporate tribal-run businesses into state-legal marijuana markets.<\/p>\n Separately in Minnesota, a state appeals court is set to decide whether state officials have the authority to prosecute tribal members for cannabis crimes committed on tribal land<\/a>. The case centers on a White Earth citizen who allegedly sold cannabis from his tobacco store on reservation land in Mahnomen.<\/p>\n Last month, meanwhile, state officials moved to delay a separate drug reform\u2014the opening of safe drug consumption sites<\/a>, meant to allow people to use drugs in a safer, supervised setting.<\/p>\n \u201cMore work needs to be done on a state and federal level before these services can be implemented in a way that is safe for participants and Harm Reduction programs,\u201d a representative for the Department of Human Services (DHS) Behavioral Health Administration said at the time.<\/p>\n In March, lawmakers also filed legislation that would create a system to allow legal access to psilocybin for medical purposes<\/a>. That came just days after the introduction of a separate bill that would legalize personal psilocybin use and possession among adults<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read the full compact between Minnesota and the White Earth Nation below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Marijuana Rescheduling Blocked By Opposition \u2018From Within\u2019 DEA, Biden\u2019s Drug Czar Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Minnesota Signs First-Of-Its-Kind Agreement Allowing Indian Tribe To Sell Legal Marijuana Outside Reservation<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) has signed a landmark agreement with the White Earth Nation that will allow the tribe to operate up to eight retail marijuana stores across the state. Already the tribe is preparing to open storefronts in Moorhead and St. Cloud. Walz signed the new compact onContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81290,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81289\/revisions\/81290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Minnesota Signs First-Of-Its-Kind Agreement Allowing Indian Tribe To Sell Legal Marijuana Outside Reservation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"