DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - Jun 24, 2015) - Monarch America, Inc. (OTCQB: BTFL) ("Monarch America" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed a Consulting Agreement (the "Agreement") with the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe ("FSST"), a federally recognized tribe located in South Dakota, for the design, construction, and development of a proposed state-of-the-art marijuana cultivation facility on sovereign FSST tribal land with a tribally owned subsidiary.

FLANDREAU, SD - The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian Reservation has legalized the sale and use of marijuana on tribal land.

Last Thursday, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe Executive Committee became the first reservation in the state to legalize marijuana.

Plans call for one facility where marijuana will be grown, and another place to buy and use the drug for medicinal and recreational use for those over 21.

Those under 21 could use medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. It's a controversial issue for the reservation, and the community of Flandreau.

Tribal President Anthony Reider says The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian tribe is used to stepping forward and taking a stance on controversial issues.

Eliyah Hendrickson, 2, who was diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome when he was five-months-old by a Colorado doctor, plays with a toy on Thursday at his home in Sioux Falls. "With Dravet Syndrome then comes a whole grab bag of neurological and some physical issues," George Hendrickson, the boy's dad, said. "We know of other children with Dravet that couldn't walk and talk until they went on CBD--the cannabis oil--then within 5 to 6 months these kids would cut their seizures down by 90 to 95 percent or more and would learn to walk and talk," Hendrickson said.(Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)Buy Photo

Six-hundred fifty miles.

That's the length Melissa Mentele has gone in search of relief.

South Dakotans might get a chance to decide whether medical marijuana should be allowed.

The Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that an explanation for an initiated measure to legalize marijuana has been filed with the Secretary of State's Office.

Melissa Mentele, the founder of an advocacy organization that has helped two families relocate to Colorado, authored the measure. Despite past failure to legalize medical marijuana use in the state, she feels confident this latest measure will garner strong support.

"Personally I think it's a slam dunk," she said. "I think there is so much science out there that people can't dispute it."

Louisiana may be about to reform its harsh marijuana laws, but not Kansas; a Nebraska CBD cannabis oil bill dies, a Michigan legalization initiative goes back to the drawing board, the Germans and the Israelis grapple with marijuana policy, and more.

Marijuana Policy

A South Dakota medical marijuana supporter hopes to begin gathering signatures within a month to put a proposal on the 2016 ballot to allow people with serious medical conditions to use marijuana.

Melissa Mentele, an activist from Emery, South Dakota, said Tuesday that the ballot language she’s been working on is now under review at the state Attorney General’s office. Mentele and other organizers need 13,871 signatures by Nov. 8 to get the proposal on the 2016 ballot.

Mentele, 38, said she’s attempting to help patients similar to herself - she suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy - who have debilitating medical conditions ranging from cancer to post-traumatic stress disorder.

FLANDREAU - The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe has been looking into legalizing marijuana on the reservation since 2014.

Tribal executive committee members moved a step closer to making that a reality.

In a meeting Friday, the tribe set up an LLC with the purpose of pursuing recreational marijuana and hemp on the tribe’s reservation.

One of the tribe’s attorneys said this does not mean marijuana is now legal on the reservation.

The Moody County Sheriff has been following the tribe’s decision.

Deputy Troy Wellman says he is afraid legalizing pot will increase trafficking on and off the reservation. He’s also worried it will increase danger on the roads.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -

A mother and step-dad are now behind bars after the woman's 9-year-old son brought marijuana to school.

Friday afternoon, Sioux Falls Police were called to Hawthorne Elementary School, located on N. Spring Ave. for a drug-related report.

Police say a nine-year-old male student brought a small bag of marijuana to school and showed it to other students.

Officer Sam Clemens says further investigation led police to the child's home, located on the 800 block of N. Duluth Ave. where they served a search warrant.

Inside the home, police say they found meth, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Police arrested the child’s mother, 31-year-old Nicole Marie Roach at the scene.

We know the end is coming, but pot prohibition is going to have to be undone state by state. Here are the ones least likely to jump on the bandwagon.

Marijuana prohibition in the US is dying, but it isn't going to vanish in one fell swoop. Even if Congress were to repeal federal pot prohibition, state laws criminalizing the plant and its users would still be in effect—at least in some states.

And it's probably a pretty safe bet that Congress isn’t going to act until a good number of states, maybe more than half, have already legalized it. That process is already underway and is likely to gather real momentum by the time election day 2016 is over.

PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) — Alex White Plume planted industrial hemp on his Pine Ridge farm more than a decade ago, but never harvested a crop. Now, he says it's time to grow again.

White Plume, an Oglala Sioux tribal member, wants to grow hemp again on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation thanks to guidelines laid out by the federal Department of Justice in December allowing tribes to decide whether to grow and sell marijuana, reported South Dakota Public Broadcasting (http://bit.ly/1HUFoRa ).