, Columnist
Marijuana Sales Can Make U.S. Tribes Richer and Poorer
The tax-free cannabis business might be a revenue gusher. Whether tribal members will benefit is another issue.
Gambling on a new revenue stream.
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"This is going to be bigger than bingo," James Billie told CNN over the summer. A former chief of the Seminole, whose company MCW gives financing and legal counsel to American Indian tribes to help them grow and sell marijuana on their land, Billie could barely contain his excitement about this new venture.
With good reason. Marijuana is projected to be a $21 billion industry by 2020. Medical marijuana is legal in most states, and eight states already have recreational marijuana laws. And the Justice Department decided in December 2014 to allow marijuana to be grown on reservations -- even if the drug is illegal in the state where the reservation is located.