WASHINGTON – Tourists soon may be able to go to a South Dakota Indian reservation, buy a cigarette-sized marijuana joint for $10 to $15 and try their luck at the casino.
In December, the Flandreau Santee Sioux expect to become the first tribe in the nation to grow and sell pot for recreational use, cashing in on the Obama administration's offer to let all 566 federally recognized tribes enter the marijuana industry.
"The fact that we are first doesn't scare us," said tribal President Anthony Reider, 38, who's led the tribe for nearly five years. "The Department of Justice gave us the go-ahead, similar to what they did with the states, so we're comfortable going with it."
The tribe plans to sell 60 strains of marijuana. Reider is hoping for a flock of visitors, predicting that sales could bring in as much as $2 million per month.
"Obviously, when you launch a business, you're hoping to sell all the product and have a shortage, like Colorado did when they first opened," he said.
Tribes not following suit
Other tribes have been much more hesitant.
"Look at Washington state, where marijuana's completely legal as a matter of state law everywhere, and you still have tribes adhering to their prohibition policies," said Robert Odawi Porter, former president of the Seneca Nation of New York.
It comes as no surprise to U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., who says he works on tribal issues every day.
"Not once has anybody ever brought up that they wanted to go down this track," he said.
Heck speculated on one possible reason: "We're all aware of the painful history of alcoholism in Indian Country."
Tribes won the approval to sell pot in December, when the Justice Department said it would advise U.S. attorneys not to prosecute if tribes do a good job policing themselves and make sure that marijuana doesn't leave tribal lands.
But federal prosecutors maintain the discretion to intervene, a worrisome prospect for many.
"This administration is very pro-tribes, very supportive. What if the next one isn't?" asked W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe in Washington state.
He said many of the state's 29 tribes also want assurances from federal officials that they won't lose millions of dollars in grants and contracts if they sell a drug banned by Congress.
"We're not getting definitive answers back," Allen said. "There's a number of tribes that are very aggressively looking into it and trying to sort through all the legal issues. The rest of us are just kind of on the sidelines watching."
Regulations for use
Reider said his tribe plans to sell both medical and recreational marijuana. Minors will be allowed to consume pot if they have a recommendation from a doctor. Under a tribal ordinance passed in June, adults 21 and over will be able to buy one gram of marijuana at a time for recreational use, no more than twice a day.
"We really don't want the stuff getting out to the street," Reider said. "So we're going to have like a bar setting where they'll be able to consume small amounts while on the property."
