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The White Earth Nation made history Saturday with the opening of a cannabis dispensary in Moorhead. The recreational cannabis dispensary is the first-in-the-state to sell marijuana outside of tribal lands.

“This has never been done before, being the first to be able to open an off-reservation dispensary, let alone just the first dispensary in the state,” said Zach Wilson, CEO of White Earth’s cannabis business, Waabigwan Mashkiki, which means flower medicine in Ojibway.

A recent tribal-state compact between Minnesota and the White Earth Nation laid out guidelines necessary for the tribe to operate cannabis businesses outside the reservation.

Wilson said a precedent has now been set “to help navigate the cannabis world for other states and other tribes.” 

An hour into their grand opening, Wilson said the dispensary had seen hundreds of customers. Prior to the doors opening at 10 a.m., a long line snaked around the building.

One of White Earth’s key objectives is education. 

“We're trying to work really hard to drop the taboo and the concept or the thought process that this is a bad thing,” Wilson said. “This is a great product. It’s a safe product and more people should be using it.” 

While on opening day products only included smokeable flower and drinks, that will soon include gummies and concentrates like vape cartridges. 

“Everything we manufacture we grow,” Wilson said. “So everything we sell is all completely vertical, seed to sale. So, every genetic grown in-house, processed, manufactured. The only thing we don’t manufacture is our beverages, but everything else absolutely, completely in house.” 

Adara Rutherford works at the White Earth production facility in Mahnomen, Minn. She said for quality purposes the tribe’s cannabis business is “one of the only few big companies in the state right now that is doing third-party testing.” 

Customers who want to check the quality and safety of their purchases can scan QR codes on product labels to ensure they’re getting what was advertised. 

Wilson said the tribe decided to open in Moorhead because of its proximity to the reservation. 

“It’s probably the biggest city next to us,” he said. “We have a lot of consumers that come to the reservation that are always talking about, ‘Man, we wish you guys were a little bit closer.’ So, it just made sense.”

Damion Knudsen of Fargo traveled across the Red River to make a purchase on opening day. And while cannabis isn’t legal in North Dakota, it has been decriminalized. 

"It’s a wonderful thing for Minnesota,” Knudsen said. “The stigmas of the harms of cannabis, I think they’re starting to understand that it’s not as harmful as they once thought, compared to everything else that’s out there. It's the lesser of all the evils.” 

The White Earth Nation plans to open another dispensary in St. Cloud next month.

Mathew Holding Eagle III

Author

A new tribal-state compact between Minnesota and the White Earth Nation reached earlier in the week laid oud guidelines necessary for the tribe to regulate and operate cannabis businesses outside the reservation.  

White Earth Nation opens state’s first recreational cannabis dispensary outside tribal lands

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