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
In mid-June, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe (FSST) became the first tribe in South Dakota to legalize marijuana. FSST is also the first tribe to legalize marijuana in a state where the use and sale of marijuana is illegal. The tribe hired Monarch America Inc. (BTFL) to design, construct and develop a grow facility on the Flandreau reservation.
Although South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley was not happy about this development, BTFL completed construction and expects to be begin to sell recreational marijuana by the first week of December.
The success that BTFL is having with FSST has led to an increase in demand for their services. In early September, BTFL signed a letter-of-intent with the Passamaquoddy Tribe, a federally recognized Native American tribe in Maine. The company will design, construct, and develop a cultivation facility on Passamaquoddy’s sovereign land.
On Monday, BTFL signed a letter-of-intent with Malama Wellness who is working on opening a medical marijuana business in Hawaii. Under the agreement, BTFL will oversee and manage Malama’s marijuana operation which includes property management, technology and equipment leasing to inventory control, staffing, and day-to-day operational management.
Continues to improve services
In late September, BTFL announced a strategic alliance with BioTrackTHC, the leading provider of seed-to-sale tracking software solutions in the cannabis industry. BTFL uses BioTrackTHC’s seed-to-sale tracking technology for all client cultivation and dispensary operations. This includes the Native American cultivation and dispensary operations with FSST and the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
Not only does BTFL have a partnership with the top seed-to-sale company, but they are also vertically integrated in the marijuana industry through their Big Tomato subsidiary. The Big Tomato is a hydroponic store and BTFL is able to offer its clients discounts on all the supplies they need to set up a cultivation facility.
The market significantly undervalues BTFL’s potential and we continue to monitor them as they proceed to take the lion’s share of the Native American marijuana industry.
Authored By: Michael Berger
Michael Berger is a financial writer for MarijuanaStocks.com and the president & founder of Technical420, an independent research firm focused specifically on the cannabis sector. He was working for the equity research department at Raymond James Financial Inc., when he recognized a need for a service that provides up-to-date research and analysis on companies that operate in the cannabis industry. Mr. Berger studied finance and economics at Florida State University and is working toward achieving his CFA charter.
