EAST GRAND FORKS — With the Friday grand opening of Waabigwan Mashkiki, the White Earth Nation-owned dispensary, the legalization of adult-use cannabis has officially arrived in East Grand Forks.

It will be about a decade before it’s clear what that means for the city and the state, said Maggie Brockling, East Grand Forks economic development director, as it takes about 10 years to fully understand the impacts of a new industry.

Minnesota officials won’t need a crystal ball to find clues as to how the state’s recreational cannabis industry might shape up, though. The first recreational sales in the U.S. began in Colorado in 2014, and 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized it since then.

Before coming to Minnesota, Zach Wilson, CEO of Waabigwan Mashkiki, helped establish recreational dispensaries in California, Colorado, Mississippi, Michigan and Illinois — and he learned “a little bit from each one of them.”

“Cannabis isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” Wilson said. “It’s super early in the market, super early in the industry itself, so I think — at least in the Minnesota market — I think it’s just beginning. I think it’s really exciting to be a part of it, to kind of be the pioneers and leaders right now.”

Recreational marijuana has been legal in Minnesota since August 2023. A limited number of tribe-owned dispensaries have operated across the state since 2023, and the state Office of Cannabis Management began issuing the first licenses to cannabis businesses last summer.

Waabigwan Mashkiki, which also has locations in Mahnomen, St. Cloud and Moorhead, is the first of three adult-use cannabis stores planned for East Grand Forks.

The state’s slow rollout of its adult-use cannabis industry reminds Brockling of the rollout in her home state of Massachusetts. Recreational cannabis was adopted by Massachusetts voters in November 2016, but even after the vote, it had a rocky start. After the initial vote passed, some legislators attempted to repeal the legislation, sparking backlash. It then took a number of years for state officials to determine how to effectively regulate the new industry.

Brockling got her start in economic development in western Massachusetts around the time the legal cannabis industry there was getting its sea legs. She lived in Northampton in November 2018, a short distance from New England Treatment Access — known as NETA — when it became the first legal recreational cannabis dispensary to open in the state.

The day it opened, “there were people waiting around the block in triplicate, waiting hours to get in,” she recalled. Those long wait times persisted for years, and in its first week, NETA generated around $1 million in revenue, she said.

And the industry wasn’t just generating money, it was generating jobs. Brockling also recalled a colleague at the Easthampton nonprofit where she worked who left her position to go work for a cannabis startup.

“I thought, ‘OK, I don’t know how long this is going to last,’” Brockling recalled.

Today, that startup has six locations in Massachusetts, more than 400 employees and generates nearly $1 million in monthly sales.

Statewide, the cannabis industry has created nearly 100,000 jobs in less than 10 years, with average salaries ranging from $45,000 to $200,000. As of February, Massachusetts’ industry has generated more than $9 billion in gross sales for adult use, according to the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. With a 6.25% sales tax, a 10.75% sales excise tax and a local option to add on 3%, the industry has generated an estimated $1.7 billion in state and local tax revenue.

“It seems like, as the stigma starts to decrease, the industry is growing, and the number of jobs that are created by this industry is quite impressive,” Brockling said.

In Minnesota, total adult-use market sales have surpassed $64 million since September, according to the Office of Cannabis Management. It’s subject to a 15% gross receipts tax, the 6.875% sales tax and any local sales tax (an additional 1% in East Grand Forks). Initially, Minnesota’s legalization plans included a 20% cut for localities through the Local Government Cannabis Aid Program. In an effort to balance the state’s budget, however, that program was cut during the 2025 legislative session, so all tax revenue generated by cannabis sales will go to the state’s general fund.

There are a number of reasons measuring Minnesota against other states, like Massachusetts, can be an apples-to-oranges comparison.

One example: the initial boon in Massachusetts was driven not only by locals, but by tourists from neighboring New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire, where recreational cannabis was still illegal. While Brockling expects some cannabis tourism from North Dakota, many of Minnesota’s neighboring states already have some form of an established cannabis industry, and so there’s less of a novelty factor.

A second example: While the mountainous geography of New England limits large-scale growing operations, Minnesota’s wide-open farmland and proximity to the Canadian border and the Dakotas could present significant commodity farming opportunities.

“If somebody were to want to get into it, it could be a very profitable industry,” Brockling said.

She and Wilson are also in agreement that the more traditional and conservative culture of northwest Minnesota will be the biggest factor setting the industry apart from other markets. Still, Brockling expects significant growth in the new industry, especially as trends show consumers shifting from alcohol and toward cannabis.

And the taboo in the region might already be ebbing, Wilson said.

“We’re already seeing the walls go down a little bit by having the conversations with folks that maybe have been closet curious about cannabis and the products,” he said. “So it’s kind of nice to see people coming out of their shell a little bit and support the business and support the products.”

As a city official, Brockling has been heartened to see Waabigwan Mashkiki leaders’ eagerness to be an active part of the East Grand Forks community, and collaborate and partner with existing businesses. In progressive New England, that meant anything from Vermont bed and breakfasts that incorporated cannabis into their cooking, to CBD coffee shops attached to municipal grow operations. In more traditional northwest Minnesota, it will probably come to mean something different.

That’s not stopping Waabigwan Mashkiki from taking inspiration from bigger markets in Colorado, Nevada and California, however. About six to eight weeks after its grand opening, the dispensary, located in the former Burger King, will open a consumption room in the former play area. The sitting area will feature a video game lounge where customers will have the option to consume cannabis beverages and low-dose gummies on-site.

“It’s a new market, so we’re not trying to get too far ahead of ourselves with the state,” Wilson said prior to the store’s May 1 opening. “At the same time, we want to be able to be on the front side and say, ‘Hey, this is a safe, enjoyable thing. It’s no different than going to the bar. It can be done here safely and responsibly.’”