Flandreau, SD (KELO AM) – A company from Colorado has been enlisted to help jump start the Santee Sioux Tribe’s marijuana program, with the goal of allowing Natives to light up by December.
Monarch America, based in Denver, has been saddled with the responsibility of helping the tribe design a growing facility. The company has set up several such facilities in the Centennial State, which legalized the recreational use of pot back in 2012.
KSFY TV investigative reporter Mark Roper attended the news conference announcing the partnership on Wednesday, and said the companies experience won the tribe over. “The tribe believed that they were probably one of the best people to go with.”
A lot needs to be ironed out before the Santee Sioux can begin using the drug recreationally, but the tribe has already come up with some strict rules. Only Natives 21 years of age or older may consume up to one gram (one joint) of marijuana on a designated site on tribal grounds. The drug must be purchased and consumed on that site; no one will be allowed to take the joint off the site.
Attorney General Marty Jackley has emphasized that these laws govern only Natives, any non-Native resident on the Tribe’s designated site will still have to follow state law, which says recreational use of marijuana is illegal.
(Information from KSFY TV contributed to this report)