Minnesota Tribe Plans to Start Selling Adult-Use Cannabis Next Month

NativeCare, a medical cannabis dispensary in Minnesota’s Red Lake Nation, plans to start retail sales to adults beginning on August 1 – the first day cannabis is legal in the state, FOX 9 reports. NativeCare is about 250 miles from the Twin Cities. 

NativeCare is likely to be the state’s first cannabis business in the state to begin selling to adults as Gov. Tim Walz (D) has previously indicated that retail sales likely wouldn’t begin in the state until January 2025, the report says. Walz has said he hopes to see tribal communities “thrive in this industry.” 

In a statement to Native News Online, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, a White Earth Ojibwe tribal citizen, said she and Walz “have been committed to building strong government-to-government relationships with the eleven Tribal Nations within Minnesota.” 

“The law Gov. Walz signed to legalize adult-use cannabis is one of the strongest in the nation in honoring the sovereignty of Tribal Nations like Red Lake Nation to make decisions on the sale of adult-use and medical cannabis.” — Flanagan to Native News Online 

Samuel Strong, the tribal secretary for the Red Lake Nation, told KSTP-TV that the cannabis industry would help create jobs and serve as an “economic development and social venture” for the community. 

“We can provide a tested product, that is highly regulated, that is available to community members as well as others,” he said in the interview, “and really break down barriers for people who intend to use cannabis.”