U.S. won't stop Native Americans from growing, selling pot on their lands

[Suzanimal]

Opening the door for what could be a lucrative and controversial new industry on some Native American reservations, the Justice Department on Thursday will tell U.S. attorneys to not prevent tribes from growing or selling marijuana on the sovereign lands, even in states that ban the practice.

The new guidance, released in a memorandum, will be implemented on a case-by-case basis and tribes must still follow federal guidelines, said Timothy Purdon, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota and the chairman of the Attorney General's Subcommittee on Native American Issues.

It remains to be seen how many reservations will take advantage of the policy. Many tribes are opposed to legalizing pot on their lands, and federal officials will continue to enforce the law in those areas, if requested.

Southern California is home to nearly 30 federal- and state-recognized Indian tribes, with a total population of nearly 200,000, according to state estimates. The largest tribes operate profitable casinos and outlet malls, including those by the Morongo, Cabazon, San Manuel and Pechanga tribes.

Representatives for several of the largest tribes could not be reached for comment.

The policy comes on the heels of the 2013 Justice Department decision to stop most federal marijuana prosecutions in states that have legalized the possession or sale of pot. Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia have all moved to legalize the drug, though the D.C. law may be scaled back by Congress.

Some tribes see marijuana sales as a potential source of revenue, similar to cigarette sales and casino gambling, which have brought a financial boon to reservations across the country. Others, including the Yakama Reservation in Washington state, remain strongly opposed to the sale or use of marijuana on their lands.

Purdon said in an interview that the majority of Native American tribes, mindful of the painful legacy of alcohol abuse in their communities, appear to be against allowing marijuana use on their territory.

The federal government will continue to legally support those tribes that wish to ban marijuana, even in states that now permit its sale, Purdon said.

But the Justice Department will generally not attempt to enforce federal marijuana laws on federally recognized tribes that choose to allow it, as long as they meet eight federal guidelines, including that marijuana not be sold to minors and not be transported to areas that prohibit it.

"The tribes have the sovereign right to set the code on their reservations," Purdon said.

John Walsh, the U.S. attorney for Colorado, said a primary purpose of the memorandum to be released Thursday is to assure U.S. attorney offices and tribes that despite the changes in Justice Department policy announced last year, federal prosecutors still have the authority to prosecute marijuana felonies on tribal lands.

In many cases, federal prosecutors are the only ones permitted by law to prosecute marijuana felonies on tribal lands.

Walsh said that the new memorandum, like the one issued for states last year, emphasizes that states or reservations must have "robust and effective regulatory systems in place" and that federal prosecutors reserve the right to take broader enforcement actions.

The policy is likely to be criticized in states opposed to marijuana sales, particularly those with Native American reservations.


Kevin A. Sabet, an opponent of marijuana legalization and former advisor on drug issues to President Obama, called the policy an "extremely troubling development."

"It once again sends a message that we really don't care about federal drug laws," he said.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html
Sabet, director of the Drug Policy Institute at the University of Florida, said, "Native Americans and their families suffer disproportionately from addiction compared to other groups. The last thing they want is another commercialized industry that targets them for greater use."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html

[tangent4ronpaul]

So people will no longer have to visit Amsterdam to go to a "coffeeshop - cool!

-t

[Slave Mentality]

Might start going to the casino now.

[Working Poor]

Well at least they have the opportunity to set their own laws I wonder if they grow the good stuff. Are white people allowed to visit them?

[Natural Citizen]

Southern California is home to nearly 30 federal- and state-recognized Indian tribes

Indians live in India. Sheesh. Freakin' Californians...

[MRK]

Freedom will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

In your case, your freedom permit has been denied.

[ThePaleoLibertarian]

Well at least they have the opportunity to set their own laws I wonder if they grow the good stuff. Are white people allowed to visit them?
I think so. My leftist cousin was telling me some time ago about how the state is the one who decides who can and can't stay on a reservation, not the tribe.

Anyway, this is a very good thing. Not just because of the obvious libertarian reasons, but a marijuana industry may help raise the nations out of poverty and welfare dependence.

[jkob]

I think most will probably not allow it but this might be great for the very poor ones, god speed! Hopefully this will be a moot point for everyone in a few years. If government is going to continue serving us a shit sandwich, we may as well be stoned for it.

[Schifference]

why limit their freedom to pot?

[Dianne]

Well I'm 1/4th American Indian, does that count? Or, if that doesn't work, I'm ready for Match.com/American Indian.

[Suzanimal]

Tribes tread carefully into marijuana discussions


FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — The Navajo Nation had bitter debates when it was deciding whether to allow casinos on the reservation and if alcohol should be sold in them. The arguments focused on the revenue and jobs casinos and liquor could bring to a reservation where half the workforce is unemployed and most arrests and pervasive social ills are linked to alcohol abuse.

When the federal government announced this month that it would allow American Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana, the same divisive discussions resurfaced. The tribal president's office talked of expanding crops to include pot for medicinal but not recreational use, while a tribal lawmaker quickly declared his opposition.

"Criminal activity is just going to go up more, and drug addiction is going to go up more, and everyone is going to be affected," said Edmund Yazzie, head of the Navajo Nation Council's Law and Order Committee.

The split reaction among Navajo leaders reflects divisions on reservations around the country. While the Navajo and a number of other tribes ultimately ventured into the casino business, many say they're inclined to avoid marijuana as a potential revenue booster amid deep sensitivity over rampant alcoholism, poverty, crime and joblessness on tribal lands.

Marijuana isn't tied to tribal culture, like tobacco commonly used in religious ceremonies, and any pot growing operation would run counter to the message that tribes have preached for decades that drugs and alcohol ruin lives, said Carl Artman, former U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs assistant secretary and member of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin.

"When you look at what tribes have to offer — from gaming to ecotourism to looking out over the Grand Canyon, just bringing people out on the reservation for art or culture — this is not one of the things they would normally want," Artman said. "It hearkens back to something that's archaic and stereotypical as opposed to what the modern day Indian is about."

But it has piqued the interest of some of the country's 566 federally recognized tribes, including tribes in Washington, the Dakotas, Connecticut and Colorado, as well as the Navajo Nation, which stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

Lance Morgan, a member of the Winnebago Tribe who manages an Indian law firm in Nebraska, said he's had about a dozen requests from tribes looking for a legal framework for getting into the marijuana business. The overall poverty rate for American Indian and Alaska Natives in 2010 was 28 percent, according to Census data, but it can be much greater in individual tribal communities.

"It's something everyone is talking about," he said.

But he said tribes are treading carefully and believes most of them will decide against getting into the marijuana business.

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota and South Dakota, said his tribe might consider cultivating marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin, hemp, but the federal government would have to allow interstate transport for it to be a profitable venture. Hemp is used to make clothing, lotion and other products, but growing it is illegal under federal law.

"We've always thought we had the sovereign right" to grow marijuana, Archambault said. "But once you try to transport it interstate, federal law discourages it."

In Colorado and Washington state, which legalized recreational pot in 2012, some tribes got a head start on talks about marijuana sales.

The 1,100-member Suquamish Tribe near Seattle began considering the potential business opportunities in April. But Washington's liquor board, which regulates pot sales, initially said it wouldn't grant the tribe a license until federal officials clarified their position regarding pot on reservations.

Liquor board spokesman Brian Smith said the state will revisit the issue in light of the U.S. Justice Department's new policy.

North of Seattle, the Tulalip Tribe has voted to pursue discussions on allowing medical marijuana, tribal spokeswoman Niki Cleary said. The tribe's values have been evolving, she said, noting even a vote on medical pot would have resulted in an automatic "no" in the past.

The owner of one of the country's largest resort casinos, the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut, didn't rule it out either. Spokesman Chuck Bunnell said the tribe is looking at opportunities to expand into new markets that would not jeopardize any current investments.

While the Justice Department provided a path for tribes to grow and sell marijuana, federal officials cautioned that they won't allow all tribal members to start pot businesses. Montana U.S. Attorney Mike Cotter, who helped craft the agency's policy, said federal law enforcement would respond if a tribal pot industry became linked with organized criminal elements, firearms, sales to minors or similar abuses — the same federal conditions laid out for states that have legalized the drug.

Among the questions tribes still have regarding the industry is whether limits would be placed on how much marijuana could be grown and sold, whether it can be transported off reservations and if taxes apply.

Yazzie, of the Navajo Nation law enforcement panel, said he would push his colleagues to say no to any marijuana sales or growth on the vast reservation.

He was among the most vocal lawmakers when the Tribal Council was deciding whether to allow alcohol at the tribe's first casino in New Mexico. He questioned his colleagues on whether money was more important than human life, considering most arrests for major incidents on the reservation involve alcohol.

The bill was decided by two votes in 2008 making casinos and a lake marina the only exceptions for alcohol sales and consumption on the otherwise dry reservation. Navajos twice voted against gambling on the reservation before approving it in 2004.

"What is going on?" Yazzie said. "We're having bad issue problems with alcohol, and now if we legalize marijuana, it's just another fight."

http://news.yahoo.com/tribes-tread-carefully-marijuana-discussions-190311492--finance.html

[Suzanimal]

More Than 100 Native American Tribes Consider Growing Marijuana


More than 100 Native American tribes have reached out to FoxBarry Farms, a management firm building the nation's first marijuana facility on tribal land, to express interest in the cannabis industry.

FoxBarry CEO Barry Brautman, whose company also works with tribes to build and operate casinos, told The Huffington Post there has been a surge of interest since the Department of Justice's announcement late last year that tribes are free to grow and sell marijuana on their lands as long as they adhere to specific guidelines.

"I really underestimated," Brautman said. "So many tribes are wanting to do this right now."

Brautman, along with the Denver-based United Cannabis Corp., recently inked a contract to build a giant medical marijuana growing operation on the Pinoleville Pomo Nation's ranch in Northern California. The $10 million, 2.5-acre facility will include spaces for cultivating, processing and selling products under the United Cannabis brand. Brautman said the operation plans to hire 50 to 100 employees, with preference to tribe members.

As more states legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes, the burgeoning industry may provide an economic boon for tribes across the country, Brautman explained. He's currently in talks with three other California-based tribes, as well as groups in seven other states. He said he hopes to finalize new deals every few weeks in the coming months.

"Tribes want what any government wants for its people, and that's financial independence," Brautman said. "They want to earn their own money, provide education, health care and housing. This new industry allows them to be more economically independent."

A U.S. Department of Justice memo issued in December states that Native Americans are free to grow and sell marijuana as long as they adhere to the same federal guidelines that govern state-legal operations. While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, 23 states have legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes, and four states and the District of Columbia have laws that permit recreational use.

Brautman said the Justice Department memo reiterated what he already knew. He said he had been in talks with at least one tribe about venturing into the marijuana industry before the memo was released. "We did our research and found that the federal government defers to local jurisdictions on how they're going to deal with marijuana," he said. "By the definition of sovereign territories, tribal reservations are exactly the same as local jurisdictions."

Following the Justice Department memo, some speculated that tribes would be reluctant to pursue marijuana-related business ventures. "Henceforward, Indian nations are exempt from the federal government’s rules on marijuana," reads a Daily Beast article from December titled, "Tribes to U.S. Government: Take Your Weed and Shove It" It continues: "But the feds missed an important point when they failed to consult with the 568 recognized tribes in America: they didn’t want to be."

Tribes that express hesitance argue that the federal memo's vague wording may leave them vulnerable to prosecution. "It’s like the medical marijuana clinics here in California," Ron Andrade, director of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission, told LA Weekly, referring to the hundreds of medical marijuana operations that have been targeted by federal prosecutors throughout the state. “Yeah, you can have one, but we’ll still arrest you.”

FoxBarry, however, isn't the only company being contacted by tribes eager to pursue opportunities in marijuana. Chad Ruby, the CEO of United Cannabis, told HuffPost that "dozens" of tribes have reached out to him as well. "This is just the start of our business model," he said. "It is absolutely our plan to team up with tribes all over the country."

Brautman said that for now, he will only enter cannabis-related projects with tribes whose land lies within states that already permit medical or recreational use, even though tribes from non-marijuana states have contacted him. "If an individual visits a reservation, purchases a product, then leaves, they're now in possession of a controlled substance," he said. "Although [tribes] still have the ability to do this legally, I don't think it makes sense from a business perspective."

Critics of the Pinoleville Pomo Nation plan expressed worry that the sheer size of the operation, located in an area of California already rife with marijuana businesses, will both push out small-scale growers and damage the environment. Brautman countered both of those claims, explaining that smaller growers will have the opportunity to sell their plants directly to the facility and that the tribe has a regulator from the Environmental Protection Agency on site.

While authorities in Mendocino County, where the tribe is based, voiced concerns when their project was first unveiled, Brautman said he and his team are working to communicate with local lawmakers.

"If I had to characterize these meetings, I'd say they were positive," said Brautman, who has met with the local sheriff's department and plans to sit down with the district attorney in the coming weeks. Mendocino County officials did not respond to HuffPost's request for comment.

Troy Dayton, the CEO of marijuana research firm ArcView, told HuffPost that the Pomo Nation operation likely marks a much bigger trend. "It makes a lot of sense," he said. "It's the right move that Native American lands have been opened up to the same freedoms that states have -- my hunch is that this is the beginning of something larger."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/03/native-americans-marijuana_n_6599984.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg0000001 3

[JK/SEA]

it will be like buying fireworks that are 'illegal'...cops will wait for you to leave the reservation.

[Danke]

Is this why Oyarde doesn't post so much anymore?

[acptulsa]

Disclaimer: This harmless plant is still illegal and no matter how many times someone in government promises that you won't be prosecuted for cultivating, selling or consuming it in this state or on that reservation, the government could change its mind and bust, incarcerate and/or kill you if you fail to meet its bizarre and persnickety 'conditions', if there's a regime change after an election, if any excuse such as (but not limited to) a spike in some probably unrelated crime statistics presents itself, if Big Pharma ups the ante with their brib--er, campaign contributions, if a new poll comes out that says a high-rate-of-voting demographic like old people decides they really hate it, or for no reason, good or spurious, whatsoever.

[Mach]

Hopefully the reservations keep a spiritual side to things, either way... ;)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPd9be8R5bA

[kcchiefs6465]

Disclaimer: This harmless plant is still illegal and no matter how many times someone in government promises that you won't be prosecuted for cultivating, selling or consuming it in this state or on that reservation, the government could change its mind and bust, incarcerate and/or kill you if you fail to meet its bizarre and persnickety 'conditions', if there's a regime change after an election, if any excuse such as (but not limited to) a spike in some probably unrelated crime statistics presents itself, if Big Pharma ups the ante with their brib--er, campaign contributions, if a new poll comes out that says a high-rate-of-voting demographic like old people decides they really hate it, or for no reason, good or spurious, whatsoever.
Generally speaking laws are hard to reverse. Public opinion is going one way on this. Some of the more intelligent of the tape worms may even ride the coattails to the top. Three seedlings and three plants... the whole thing is a joke.

Eventually the tide will turn. I'm not saying that the usual suspects won't be trying to tax the hell out of it, or regulate it in other inane ways, but they won't be putting you in a cage for it... at least, should you not drive smoking, smoke in public, smoke in businesses, grow more than an incredibly low number of plants (absent special state licensing, of course), and a host of other things I really can't even imagine. There is some positivity in there somewhere.

Hopefully the tribes are able to put cannabis and hemp cultivation to it's most beneficial extreme. That'd be interesting.

[Ronin Truth]

Interesting loophole, hmmmmm.

[oyarde]

Is this why Oyarde doesn't post so much anymore?

LOL , I can grow anything but have not grown any weed since the 70's .All that piss test stuff for employment , bummer.I do though intend to enjoy my retirement.I have never lived on a Res , those are just places to visit .

[PaulConventionWV]

It's the least we could do for them; that is, not subject them to our petty rules about what you can put into your body.

[luctor-et-emergo]

So people will no longer have to visit Amsterdam to go to a "coffeeshop - cool!

-t

Nice, fewer tourists... I like. (I have nothing against pot smokers but I generally don't like tourism)

[Mach]

Hopefully they read this and call me out as a consultant but, can you say, HEMP?

Native American Hemp Products..... NAH......$$$ :cool:

[Suzanimal]

A New Growth Industry for Native Americans: Weed

WARM SPRINGS, Oregon—The tribes on this reservation, located in the high desert on the eastern side of Mt. Hood, are accustomed to bad deals. Until the 19th century, the Wasco, the Walla Walla, and the Pauite survived off of the Columbia River, catching salmon and, eventually, trading for it. Then in 1855 they were forced onto the Warm Springs Reservation. It was 80 miles from the river, but they could still go there to fish—that is, until the U.S. Government started to build the Bonneville dam on the river in the 1930s and flooded their fishing spots.

...

Now, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are trying to reverse that history by taking advantage of the intricacies of federal law that made them sovereign tribes with the ability to make their own rules. Between 1778 and 1871, American Indian tribes signed treaties with the federal government in which they gave up land and were granted sovereign nation status. Under the treaties, tribes have the ability to make and enforce civil and criminal laws, to zone land, and to license and regulate activities on their lands (with some exceptions in the court system).

The tribes in Warm Springs want to use that sovereign status to grow cannabis on their land and sell it off the reservation in Oregon, which in 2014 approved the use of recreational marijuana. Because the tribes are a sovereign nation, leaders say, they will be able to start an operation quickly, without having to deal with the headaches of city, county, and state government. Recently, the tribes broke ground on a 36,000- square-foot greenhouse, and hope to get product to market by next year. Finally, after centuries of being on the bad end of deals with the government, the tribes’ status could give them a key advantage.

The idea of growing cannabis on the reservation has residents’ full-fledged support. In a referendum on whether to grow cannabis this winter, 1,252 voted for the idea, and just 198 voted against it, and turnout was high despite a snowstorm that could have kept people home.

...

The move to start a cannabis operation could also serve as a blueprint for other tribes that have yet to figure out how to gain from their sovereign status. “We’ve yet to see tribes fully exercise their sovereignty, and I think that cannabis is strangely a lens that will demonstrate the capabilities of taking that on,” Pi-Ta Pitt, the cannabis project coordinator for Warm Springs Ventures—the tribes’ economic development arm—told me.

...

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/05/weed-to-revive-native-american-reservations/483566/?utm_source=atlfb

[donnay]

I am going to a POW-WOW tomorrow. :cool:

[TheTexan]

Growing pot is illegal according to Federal Law... and the Federal government is just going to let them do this?

I can't believe, the Federal government can just completely ignore the laws of this country and just do what it wants.

[donnay]

Puyallup Tribe to Open Marijuana Testing Lab
http://www.cannalawblog.com/category/native-american-tribes/

[sam1952]

Indians live in India. Sheesh. Freakin' Californians...


Actually I think they just mis-spelled the word they were trying to use, "state recognized injun tribes".

If they're gonna insult someone they should at least do it correctly.