On Thursday, December 11, 2014, the United States Department of Justice changed the landscape of the legal marijuana industry. They decided that Native American tribes across the country can grow and sell marijuana on their sovereign lands and must follow the federal guidelines in the four states where recreational marijuana is legal.

The United States is home to 326 federally recognized reservations and 566 federally recognized tribes, most of which are located in states that ban the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.

A leader emerges

South Dakota voters could see a dozen or more voter-initiated measures on the 2016 ballot, touching on hot-button issues from marijuana and money lending to redistricting and right-to-work. First, backers need to collect enough signatures by Nov. 8, 2015, to make the cut. For most petitions that means 13,871, but constitutional amendments require 27,741.

Here's a rundown of petitions that are being circulated or pending approval by the Secretary of State's office:

South Dakota isn’t exactly known for amazing drug policy. Actually it probably has some of the worst in the country. Just being in a room where marijuana is being used can get you a year in prison! Furthermore, I know and have heard of many people that have been absolutely screwed over by South Dakota’s draconic drug laws.

Most Native American tribes are opting not to legalize marijuana, though at least two are poised to try it — just six months after a Justice Department memo indicated federal authorities likely would not interfere with growing marijuana on tribal lands if other federal crimes were not committed.

Many tribes exploring their options said that as U.S. citizens and sovereign nations, they deserve the right to choose to legalize as states have done. However, tribes continue to balk at the vague language of the Justice Department's so-called "Cole Memorandum" and the fear of federal prosecution.

Tribes are weighing the risks and opportunities of legalizing pot

This New Year’s Eve, Tony Reider wants to throw a party unlike any his South Dakota tribe has seen.

There will be live music, food, outdoor games—and, floating over the revelry, a haze of marijuana smoke, from a first-of-its-kind pot lounge that is set to open by the end of the year, said Reider, the tribal president of the Flandreau Santee Sioux in Flandreau, S.D.

That pot lounge—modeled on an Amsterdam coffee shop, where customers would be able to buy and smoke up to 2 grams of marijuana a day—would be illegal anywhere else in South Dakota, which, like most U.S. states, bans the sale, possession and public smoking of pot.

New York’s medical cannabis program made a major announcement, Minnesota patients are pinching pennies to get their medicine, the governor of Wyoming is looking at legalization, and if you’re a Canadian patient, your wallet might be getting a break soon. Here’s what’s happening in the cannabis world – are you informed?

U.S. Cannabis Updates

COLORADO

South Dakotans have long been using marijuana illegally to treat a variety of aliments. A new initiated measure is aiming to legalize up to three ounces of marijuana for patients with serious medical conditions. The patient would need two separate doctor recommendations. 

Republican state Sen. Craig Tieszen isn't the stereotypical backer of medical marijuana in South Dakota.

For more than three decades, Tieszen wore a badge as a police officer, spending the last seven years of his career as Rapid City police chief.

And now he is a suit-wearing lawmaker, who is serving the final year of his fourth term in the South Dakota Senate.

There's a lot of pot talk happening in South Dakota right now.

You might have noticed Steve Young's rundown of the law enforcement issues surrounding the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's plan to sell marijuana on reservation grounds.

Then there's the medical marijuana ballot initiative movement moving merrily along through the petition process. That one would legalize up to three ounces for medical use.

There's a more ambitious initiative, too, this one announced last week by a group called South Dakotans Against Prohibition. That ballot initiative would decriminalize up to an ounce of pot. Instead of being jailed and charged with a misdemeanor, someone caught with that much or less would get a $100 civil fine.

Flandreau Santee Sioux tribal officials intend to develop a marijuana grow facility on tribal grounds and sell the product in a tribal marijuana lounge.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Five months from now, according to the plan, Indians and non-Indians alike will be smoking marijuana on tribal lands in Flandreau.

The U.S. Justice Department told Indian tribes last December that they can grow and sell marijuana as long as they follow the same federal conditions laid out for Washington, Colorado and other states that have legalized the drug.

SIOUX FALLS | An Indian tribe in South Dakota that plans to start selling marijuana for recreational and medicinal purposes envisions its single point of sale on the reservation as a facility that will also have a bowling alley, a bar and other entertainment features.

Leaders of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe on Wednesday unveiled details of their plans to sell cannabis after signing a contract with Denver-based Monarch America Inc., which will be responsible for the design, construction and development of an indoor growing site that will feature a marijuana consumption lounge.