Tribal Marijuana Conference brings Tribal Leaders from around the Nation
- Seniors MMJ Network
- Mar 4, 2015
- 2 min read
Last week, the first Tribal Marijuana Conference was held in Tulalip, Washington. Tribal leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and Native health / social work professionals, and law enforcement personnel were on hand to examine the legal, political and social policy implications of marijuana legalization in Indian country.
In October 2014, the US Justice Department released a memo stating that it would allow Tribal Nations to legalize Marijuana on Reservation land. There was no specific language that restricted either Recreational or Medical Marijuana cultivation, distribution and sales.
Tribes will be under the same Federal enforcement guidelines and priorities as the States with current Recreational or Medical Marijuana laws.
Odawi Law PLLC and Harris Moure, PLLC co-sponsored the conference to help “leaders in Indian country fully understand the wide-ranging issues associated with embarking on the development of tribal marijuana legislation and considerations of commercial marijuana cultivation, manufacture and distribution in tribal jurisdictions,” according to a press release. "Our goal is to pursue a balanced discussion of the important legal, business, social, and cultural questions that would inevitably affect Native societies were legalization to occur."
The Tribal Marijuana Conference was also co-sponsored and co-organized with one of the foremost legal experts in the cannabis business – Hilary Bricken.
More than 60 tribes from at least 25 states were represented, said Erica Curnutte, who helped organize the event. Although it is a small fraction of the 566 recognized Tribes, “A great deal more are considering this than I thought would be considering it,” said Ken Meshigaud, chairman of the Hannahville Indian Community, a band of the Potawatomi Tribe on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
It could be a moneymaker,” said Michael Mason, who works in planning and economic development for the Nisqually tribe. “Even with that said, there are so many variables a tribe has to be concerned about.”
“It’s going to take a lot of work to convince our elders. It’s going to take a lot of work to protect our kids,” Henry Cagey, a council member of the Lummi Nation, told the audience.
FoxBarry Farms, a Kansas based firm, along with Denver-based United Cannabis Corp., recently signed a contract with California’s Pinoleville Pomo Nation to build a $10 million, 2.5-acre indoor cultivation facility, where they are expected to grow thousands of marijuana plants for medical usage. This will be the United States first Medical Marijuana facility on tribal land.
You can view the .pdf agenda for the Tribal Marijuana Conference here
Here are a few links to other sources covering the story -
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