Oglala Lakota Tribe Votes On Medical, Recreational Cannabis Legalization

Oglala Lakota Tribe members are voting Tuesday on the legalization of medical and adult-use cannabis and allowing alcohol at the tribe's casino on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, according to The Associated Press.

The main idea behind the proposals is to help boost economic development.

If Oglala Lakota manages to approve the measure, it would become “the only tribe to set up a cannabis market in a state where it's otherwise illegal,” the newswire reported. 

South Dakota and its neighbors Nebraska and Wyoming haven’t legalized cannabis yet, so tribal leaders believe legalization would be very profitable.

"People will be coming in from all directions to get their medicine," said Ricky Gray Grass, a tribal leader.

While several tribes across the country are examining both the financial and healing potential of cannabis, some fear legalization would cut them off from federal funding, the AP said. 

In January, tribal president Julian Bear Runner announced a “state of emergency” on the reservation in connection with serious problems such as homicides connected to drugs, meth addiction and a lack of federal financial support to combat the issues.

Now, the tribe sees cannabis legalization as a possible solution to the problem, as it would bring much-needed funding, and the tribe is stating that its sovereignty grants the right to grow and sell cannabis.

Nevertheless, Oglala Lakota's attorney general Scott James said federal laws are still applicable to people outside the tribe even when they are on tribal land.

It is unclear “how - or if — those laws would be enforced,” he said, according to The Associated Press.

"Marijuana enforcement is not the federal government's highest priority at this point," James said.

National Park Service photo via Wikimedia.