Plans by a Native American tribe in South Dakota to begin growing and selling recreational cannabis on its reservation are generating some push-back from a top state official.
But Monarch America CEO Eric Hagen, who’s working with the tribe to build out its commercial cannabis facility, maintains that the memo couldn’t be clearer.
He told USA Today that the tribe is well within its rights, and that its control and regulations over marijuana growth and sales will be even stricter than any other state that has legalized cannabis.
Whether the matter comes to a legal head is yet to be seen.
Shortly after the Wilkinson Memo was released, however, legal experts voiced concerns that tribes interested in the cannabis industry – particularly those in states such as South Dakota that haven’t yet legalized cannabis in any form – could wind up on uncertain legal footing.