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" Sometimes,\u00A0the spirit of American entrepreneurship astonishes even me. But those enterprises have not been immune to competition and the lingering effects of the Great Recession, so the small tribe of 400 is undertaking a new venture \u2014 opening the nation&amp;#039;s first marijuana resort on its reservation. The experiment could offer a new money-making model for tribes nationwide seeking economic opportunities beyond casinos. Santee Sioux leaders plan to grow their own pot and sell it in a smoking lounge that includes a nightclub, arcade games, bar and food service, and eventually, slot machines and an outdoor music venue. &amp;quot;We want it to be an adult playground,&amp;quot; tribal President Anthony Reider said. &amp;quot;There&amp;#039;s nowhere else in America\u00A0that has something like this.&amp;quot; Not since Quicksilver stopped touring, anyway. The project, according to the tribe, could generate up to $2 million a month in profit, and work already is underway on the growing facility. The first joints are expected to go on sale Dec. 31 at a New Year&amp;#039;s Eve party. Holy mackerel. Two million a month? And no exploding trains? Beats the oil boom all to hell. Many tribes are hesitant to jump into the pot business. And not everyone in Flandreau, about 45 miles north of Sioux Falls, believes in the project. But the profit potential has attracted the interest of many other tribes, just as the debut of slot machines and table games almost 27 years ago. &amp;quot;The vast majority of tribes have little to no economic opportunity,&amp;quot; said Blake Trueblood, business development director at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. For those tribes, &amp;quot;this is something that you might look at and say, &amp;#039;We&amp;#039;ve got to do something.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Flandreau&amp;#039;s indoor marijuana farm is set against a backdrop of soybean fields. If not for a security booth outside, the building could pass as an industrial warehouse. Inside, men are working to grow more than 30 different strains of the finicky plant, including those with names like &amp;quot;Gorilla Glue,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Shot Glass&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Big Blue Cheese.&amp;quot; Carpe diem, folks, because, within a decade, it&amp;#039;s likely that recreational weed is going to be legal and (probably) controlled by informal cartels with familiar names like R.J. Reynolds and/or Seagrams. But I think creating a full-service adult destination resort is a much better idea than fracking the Black Hills into rubble. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39012/weed-resort-corporate/>