A small Indian tribe in a remote stretch of San Diego County has traded in its failed dream of casino riches for what could be the next big payout: marijuana cultivation.
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel — which shuttered its 35,000-square-foot gambling hall in February 2014, buried under $50 million in debt — has transformed the vacant space into a high-tech medical marijuana operation and is leasing part of the property to growers who cultivate and distribute the drug to legal dispensaries throughout the state.
On the building’s sprawling parking lot, more than a dozen greenhouses are in various stages of construction, awaiting more tenants.
The tribe is the first in San Diego County to embrace the marijuana industry in the wake of a December 2014 memo by the Justice Department that declared sovereign nations would not be prosecuted for growing pot on tribal land in states that had already legalized the drug.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times
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