Stoners’ “Marijuana Resort” Fever Dream Will Materialize This Year in South Dakota

The Santee Sioux tribe will be opening the nation’s first marijuana resort on its reservation.

According to the Associated Press, the new enterprise could offer a new money-making model for tribes wanting to expand beyond the casino business.

The Santee Sioux tribe’s move is possible as a result of a 2014 Justice Department decision that stopped U.S. attorneys from prosecuting Native American tribes that grow and sell pot on reservations.

The tribe already owns a successful casino, a 12-room hotel, and a 240-head buffalo ranch on their plains in South Dakota but chose to dip their feet into a new venture.

“We want it to be an adult playground”, tribal President Anthony Reider told the Associated Press.

The tribe said the project could generate up to $2m a month in profit, and work is already under way on the growing facility. The tribe says that joints won’t be going on sale until December 31 at a New Year’s Eve party.

The tribe’s plans call for a smoking lounge where visitors can purchase and smoke pot grown by tribal leaders in an indoor farm on the reservation – as well as a nightclub, arcade games, bar and food service.

Legalizing and promoting marijuana is good business for Native American tribes.

The vast majority of tribes have little to no economic opportunity… this is something that you might look at and say, ‘We’ve got to do something.’

In order to do it right, the Santee Sioux went to Denver cannabis consulting firm Monarch America for assistance.

Even though marijuana will be legally sold at the resort, it can not leave the reservation.

Marijuana consumption of varying degrees is recreationally legal in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and D.C., however, public consumption is still illegal in those areas, forcing marijuana culture to stay behind closed doors. The existing enterprises support family homes, a senior living community, a clinic and a community center offering after-school programs. The small tribe of 400 hopes to use the profits for housing, a clinic, and addiction treatment.

Marijuana will be sold in sealed one-gram packages for $12.50 (£8.27) to $15, and people will only be able to buy one gram at a time.