Mille Lacs Band is second Minnesota tribe to sign deal to open off-reservation cannabis stores

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe on Wednesday became the second of Minnesota’s tribal nations to sign an agreement with Gov. Tim Walz allowing the tribe to open recreational marijuana dispensaries outside of tribal lands, the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said Wednesday. The announcement comes nearly four months after the White Earth Band of Chippewa signed a similar cannabis compact with the state.

The 78-page agreement is welcome news for the roughly 20 state-licensed cannabis retail businesses that have so far struggled to source adult-use cannabis products, such as flower and concentrates, to stock their shelves.

In addition to opening its own stores, OCM Director Eric Taubel said in an interview that he thinks the Mille Lacs Band is well-positioned to begin selling marijuana products to state-licensed businesses in relatively short order.

“Mille Lacs has invested heavily in the cannabis space,” Taubel said. “They’ve been cultivating for quite some time now. … I know they’ve been growing and stockpiling a lot of product and are looking actively toward engaging and partnering with the state licensees.”

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Like the White Earth Nation’s agreement, the compact allows the Mille Lacs Band – which operates a 50,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation facility as well as a pair of Lake Leaf adult-use dispensaries in Onamia and Hinckley – to license up to eight off-reservation retail marijuana stores across the state. The tribe will be allowed a maximum of one dispensary per city and three per county.

Representatives from Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures, the tribally owned company that operates the tribe’s cultivation and retail businesses, were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

If state regulators have reason to believe the tribe is selling products that pose safety risks, they can conduct additional inspections and even place an embargo on the products.

Taubel said the key provisions in the Mille Lacs Band’s agreement are virtually identical to those in the compact with the White Earth Nation, though negotiations with the tribe resulted in some minor changes.

“The White Earth agreement was very detailed in terms of process. Every single step that would happen in an interaction was laid out about who would do what, how long they had to do it, what form they would use,” Taubel said in an interview. “In this one, the same processes exist, but it’s less strictly defined.”

The Mille Lacs Band will be required to collect the state’s 15% tax on adult-use cannabis products, as well as state and local sales taxes. Tribally owned cannabis businesses will not be allowed to operate within 1,000 feet of schools or 500 feet of day care centers, residential treatment facilities or playgrounds and athletic fields in public parks. These businesses will be exempt from local cannabis ordinances, but they must follow all other local regulations.

The Mille Lacs Band will also be allowed to open cannabis cultivation and manufacturing facilities beyond its reservation, and it can open wholesale, transportation and delivery businesses, too.

Mark Eide is the owner of In-Dispensary in Minneapolis, which was recently licensed by the state to sell adult-use marijuana products. He said business has been tough with no recreational cannabis to sell, but the news of another potential tribal supplier and a new testing facility set to come online gave him some hope.