Are state-approved marijuana shops coming anytime soon? Well, that depends on your definition of “soon.”
Right now, Minnesota's Office of Cannabis Management is waiting for approval of its final rules draft, and once that’s OK’d, preapproved licenses will be legit and things can get rolling. Those licenses could be approved in a few months… if we’re lucky. But for businesses this is only step one of the process. Many will still have to take out loans, set up a store, hire staff, and wait for inventory to grow and come in.
Yeah, it’s still going to be a while, folks.
But recreational flower is already here, and it’s been available to Minnesotans for well over a year—you just gotta head to a shop on tribal land. Right now we’ve got Native Care in Red Lake, Island Peži in Welch, and Waabigwan Mashkiki in Mahnomen (with locations coming to St. Cloud and Moorhead soon),
“When the state legalized recreational, the buzz in the community was like, ‘You know, why aren't we doing this too?’” says Fred Erickson, a Prairie Island Indian Community board member. “So we started a committee to explore the idea, and we went ahead with a dispensary.”
Erickson says it took about six or seven months for Prairie Island to hash out their own regulations before they shifted their focus to building out a space.
Enter Island Peži, a Welch area dispensary that opened last June. The shop is right by Treasure Island Resort and Casino, as well as an RV park, a concert arena, a sports center, and other fun.
“We've had a lot of people from the cities come down here, and then people who are going to the casino stop by,” Erickson says. “But I'd say maybe 40 to 50% are repeat customers, locals coming back.”
There are also a lot of boomers, something the Island Peži crew didn’t necessarily anticipate before opening.
“I assumed before we started this place that it would be mostly young people,” Erickson says. “And some of them come early in the morning. As soon as we open the door, they're here. They're ready.”
Should you make the trip—a 45-mile trek from downtown Minneapolis—you’ll find a shop that is modern, airy, and sunny, with tall windows, glass cases, and lots of wood shelving to showcase products. Island Peži is typically stocked with flowers from two suppliers of indica and hybrid varieties (of course they have fun names like “Truffle Monkey,” “Purple Alien Breath,” and “Petrol Rainbow”). There are also beverages, gummies, and cartridges; Erickson says their cannabis-derived items are very popular. (Currently, most of the stuff you find in Minnesota is hemp-derived.)
But if you can’t make it out to a tribal recreational dispensary, they may be coming to you soon. Compacts are currently being negotiated or have already been finalized for 10 of Minnesota’s 11 tribal nations, and provisions allow for up to five off-site retail locations each. Meaning, if a tribe wanted to open a store on Lake Street, they would be able to do so, without waiting for the state’s lethargic licensing process to conclude. So far, only White Earth has announced satellite shops, but Erickson says Prairie Island is looking at possible options too.
“We have a few locations we're thinking about,” he says, “some in the Cities area, and also maybe down south on the borders. We want to be able to go closer to where the customers are. And like, I don't expect everyone from the cities to drive down here.”
And while the Office of Cannabis Management has struggled to retain staff leadership, lotteries have been postponed or canceled, and businesses await the green light to grow, Erickson says the tribal commission has regulations on lockdown.
“It's pretty well regulated,” he says. “Our commissioners are here. They're tribal members, so they show up anytime they want. In fact, one of them just left a little while ago.”
Island Peži
Where: 6030 Sturgeon Lake Rd., Welch
Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (all guests must be 21+)
