California Native American Tribe to Open Cannabis Testing Facility

In the periphery of San Diego County, the Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel is turning to cannabis after its casino failed in 2014. The 700-member Iipay Nation, buried in $50 million in debt, closed the casino doors in 2014. On May 2, tribe leaders announced that in addition to leasing their property to cannabis cultivation businesses, they  now plan on opening a testing facility.

The 35,000-square-foot floor was converted to a high-tech cannabis cultivation project. “The greenhouses are at various stages of construction,” Dave Vialpando, who is head the tribe’s regulatory agency, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It won’t be all cultivation. There will be processing rooms and trimming rooms and storage rooms. There’s a lot of infrastructure that goes with the enterprise of medical cannabis.” Vialpando says the testing lab is almost open.

The Santa Ysabel Resort and Casino opened in 2007, however the casino could not compete with larger, more established casinos in the area. By 2014, the casino went bankrupt—the same year the Justice Department released the Wilkinson Memo which allowed sovereign tribal nations to legalize cannabis without fear of prosecution. The solution was simple. A year later, in 2015, the tribe legalized cannabis on the reservation and established the Santa Ysabel Cannabis Regulatory Agency and Cannabis Commission to oversee cultivation and production.

Medical cannabis has been cultivated on the site for the last 18 months and then distributed to other dispensaries in San Diego County. The tribe has no ownership interest which is why they are leasing out the property to other companies. The tribe plans on expanding operations to include cannabis-infused beauty products such as lotion. Vialpando says the tribe has no plans of expanding the operation to include recreational cannabis. There are currently under 1,000 plants, but the venture is growing fast by leasing out to third-party cultivation experts. The tribe says they’ve always been transparent with the government about their cannabis operation.