South Dakota Tribe to Partner With Colorado Grower

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A South Dakota tribe announced this week that it is teaming up with a cannabis company to put together a business infrastructure for growing and selling recreational marijuana on its reservation, even though cannabis is still illegal in the state.

Leaders of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, which has a reservation on the eastern edge of South Dakota, voted 5-1 earlier this month in favor of setting up a recreational marijuana production and distribution system. This week, the tribe revealed that it has ink a deal with Monarch America from Colorado to help it do so, according to an ABC affiliate.

Monarch, which hired a tribal relations officer recently with ties to the Dakotas, will design the tribe’s cultivation facility.

The site will feature a “consumption lounge” where visitors will be able to purchase cannabis and ingest it on-site, according to the Daily Republic. The lounge will have plenty to keep cannabis consumers entertained, including a bar, bowling alley, arcade and gambling options, all next door to the tribe’s Royal River Casino and Hotel.

Monarch will also receive a fixed percentage fee from the net revenue of the marijuana operation for five years, with an option to renew. The cultivation site will reportedly be about 10,000 square feet, and the consumption lounge 15,000 square feet.

Tribal leaders are estimating a $2 million a month profit margin from the sale of marijuana, the Republic reported.