This is not the first time South Dakota tribes have talked marijuana. In 2001, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council passed a resolution supporting the development of industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The council stressed the “economic necessity” of growing industrial hemp, a relative of marijuana that can be used to make rope, paper and other products, but cannot be smoked.

In 2006, the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down that vote.

Caution is paramount. Just last year, Pine Ridge members voted to overturn a federal ban on selling alcohol on tribal land, creating a potential new revenue stream.

Pine Ridge residents found that many tribal members were going to liquor stores just over the border in Nebraska to get their alcohol. While the reservation has seen problems with alcohol and substance abuse, the tribe was not getting revenue or resources to combat those issues.

Legalized marijuana could offer similar opportunities and obstacles.

Without the resources to combat substance abuse, through education or medical or psychological means, marijuana legalization would just add to the layers of problems found on reservations.