Native American Tribe Plans to Open America's First Marijuana Resort (Photo : Reuters)
A marijuana resort, in which guests can buy and consume pot legally, is the first of its kind in the United States that will soon be open to the public in South Dakota.
Set to open on New Year's Eve, the resort is the brainchild of the Flandreau Santee Sioux, a small 400-strong Native American tribe.
"We're taking a bowling alley that was once the tribe's original casino and turning it into a very high-class, 10,000-square-foot club where people can come and consume," the tribe's attorney Seth Pearman said.
According to the BBC, the pot will actually only be offered in a special smoking lounge which will also offer food, a bar and games.
Slot machines and a music centre will eventually round out the entertainment on offer.
"We want it to be an adult playground," tribal president Anthony Reider told the Associated Press."There's nowhere else in America that has something like this."
One-gram packets of pot will debut at the New Year's Eve grand opening of the resort and will be sold for between $12.50 to $15.
Customers will be limited to one gram per purchase, and will have to prove they are of age.
The marijuana is already being grown on a state-of-the-art growing facility within the reservation, according to CBC News.
Although pot is not legal in South Dakota, the Santee Sioux was given the right to grow and sell pot on their own private property when a new policy was passed down in June.
The policy allowed Native Americans in that area similar limited permission that was granted in other states in 2014.
The Santee Sioux tribe, who already have a casino, a 120-room hotel and ranch in the reservation 700 kilometres south of Winnipeg, hope the unique idea will generate more income for their people.
They are predicting the resort could yield a profit as high as $2 million a month.
"[The tribe] must look at these opportunities because in order to preserve the past we do have to advance in the present," Reider said.
