MOORHEAD — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a compact on Tuesday, May, 20, that outlines how the state of Minnesota and the White Earth Nation will work together to regulate the sale of cannabis.
The agreement clears the way for the White Earth Nation’s cannabis products company Waabigwan Mashkiki to open an off-reservation dispensary for cannabis products in Moorhead, which could happen as soon as this weekend.
That’s according to Zach Wilson, CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki, which means medicine flower in Ojibwe.
“We are essentially able to go live statewide,” Wilson said Tuesday after the signing of the compact was announced.
“Now that we’ve got the compact finalized, we can start legally moving materials over to that (Moorhead) location and start inventorying that and getting it ready for sale,” Wilson said.
He said the Moorhead dispensary could open sometime this weekend, though details were still being worked out Tuesday evening.
“We’re hopeful for a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday grand opening,” Wilson said.
In addition to Moorhead, the tribe said Tuesday it would be opening a dispensary in St. Cloud as well.
The cannabis shop in Moorhead will be in the former JL Beers bar and grill building at 2902 U.S. Highway 10 on the east edge of Moorhead, which Wilson said has been remodeled into a dispensary.
The compact Walz signed Tuesday was the first tribal-state compact authorized under Minnesota’s 2023 cannabis law.
The agreement outlines how the state and tribe will promote a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship to regulate cannabis and promote public health and safety.
Items the dispensary is expected to sell include cannabis flower — the smokable buds plucked from a flowering marijuana plant — and pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes.
In setting up the dispensary, the tribe installed extraction equipment that will take cannabis biomass and turn it into CBD oils, tinctures and other desired cannabis compounds.
Some of those compounds can be used to make cannabis gummies, cannabis distillates for vaping cartridges and live resins.
Wilson has said everything that will be for sale at the Moorhead store is grown in Minnesota and grown on the reservation.
The only thing that will be sold at the dispensary that is not made on the reservation is
