“I think that decriminalizing
recreational use would benefit our people greatly since so many of us
use it and many have been incarcerated for possessing it. The tribes
certainly could gain by better controlling how it exists within our
communities as well as financially with sales and possible taxation …
We have retained aboriginal rights to utilize medicines within our
communities the way we see fit.”
Martin Reinhardt, Professor at Northern
Michigan University
It’s time to reconsider the
regulation of marijuana and hemp. With the Pineole Pomo Tribe of
California initiating the first tribal commercial marijuana grow
operation and the Department of Justice’s announcement that it
would not prosecute for marijuana or hemp, the door has been opened
to look at the regulatory scheme. This December, Justice Department
Director Monty Wilkinson announced, “The eight priorities in the
Cole memorandum will guide United States Attorneys’ marijuana
enforcement efforts in Indian Country, including in the event that
sovereign Indian nations seek to legalize the cultivation or use of
marijuana in Indian Country.”
In turn, the Pomo tribe, which is
located in Mendicino County, one of the largest marijuana growing
counties in the country, announced a commercial venture with two
partners, Colorado-based United Cannabis and Kansas-based FoxBarry
Farms. The 250-member tribe announced that it will grow thousands of
plants for the medical marijuana business on its 99-acre reservation.
What’s the catch? There are a lot of
them, especially in any states which have not yet legalized
marijuana. U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole, for instance,
said that the DOJ will retain the right to prosecute individuals who
engage in the distribution of marijuana to minors, where revenue is
going to criminal enterprises, drugged driving or diversion to a
state where it is not legal.
While some tribes are looking to this
as a highly lucrative business, others are considering just the local
economics and pros and cons of the industry. In the least on the
cautious side, tribal police are already pretty busy and under
funded, so the keeping of marijuana to within reservation borders,
may be a bit of a challenge for any regulatory authority. And that “
Driving While Indian” thing that occurs when you leave the
reservation boundaries is, well, going to be supremely tested if
tribes go ahead. There is, not an easy path in any case.
The Economics
I am told that 40 percent of my
community smokes the herb. The fact is we’re spending millions of
dollars a year importing marijuana from, largely unsavory characters
onto the reservation, creating a great loss to our tribal economy.
This is undeniable in every reservation. I haven’t done complete
studies, but in order to buy marijuana from dealers elsewhere,
conservative estimates indicate $60,000 a week is draining from the
my own reservation, White Earth. With a little math, it looks like
around $3 million annually is drained from the reservation for
purchases.
That is coming out of tribal pockets;
pockets in some of the poorest counties in the state. That is part of
our challenge. Could tribes stop that economic drain with a local
marijuana economy? There are some larger economic benefits, for both
hemp or marijuana, as well as risks.
Hemp Economics
Over 30 nations grow industrial hemp
today, including Canada, France, England, Russia, China, Germany and
Australia. China is the largest producer of industrial hemp. On the
other side, the U.S.is the largest consumer of hemp products, with
total annual retail sales in 2013 of $580 million. Between 60 and 90
percent of the raw hemp materials imported into the U.S. come from
Canada, which legalized hemp production in 1998.
This is some old stuff. The
Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper. I don’t know
if our treaties were written on hemp paper, but it’s possible. Both
the Navajo Nation and the Oglala Sioux Council passed ordinances and
resolutions on hemp. But at that time, the Drug Enforcement Agency
came down with a heavy hand – particularly on the White Plume
Tiospaye in Pine Ridge – which grew 0 percent THC hemp, from 2000
to 2002, on their family allotments.
That crop had been legalized by the
Oglala Sioux Tribe, however, in all three years, the crops were
raided by DEA SWAT teams destroying thousands of dollars worth of
seed. Federal prosecutions were extensive, but the family escaped
imprisonment, but was barred from any more hemp farming. Ironically,
the raids had dispersed seed throughout their land and the crops
remain today, although the family is barred from harvest. That was
then, it’s not clear what that means in light of the change in
Justice Department policy.
Marijuana Math
Tribal communities would be unable,
under the present regulatory scheme, to sell marijuana
off-reservation unless the surrounding state legalized marijuana.
This is the case of the Pomo, or a tribe in any state with medical or
recreational use. The licensing issue is not clear as of yet, but
when the state of Minnesota held its informational meeting on the new
medical marijuana policy, regulatory officials stated that tribal
sovereignty would dictate growing in that state, but no word on
distribution or sales off-reservation. This is likely to be
determined in the upcoming year. The question of a local tribal
economy in marijuana, however is worth some considering.
The Marijuana economy, however, is a
robust deal in Colorado. The state of Colorado is likely to haul in
around $43 million this year from marijuana taxes. That is a 27
percent tax on marijuana and that’s taxes, not business. It’s got
a huge ripple through the economy for sure, from growers to
hydroponic suppliers to bakers. Colorado is sort of unique in its
situation and demographics, but it’s a booming industry.
The Costs of Marijuana Prosecution
Marijuana has accounted for nearly
half of all total drug arrests in the U.S. for the past 20 years,
according to the FBI’s crime statistics. Washington state data
indicated that the arrest rates grew substantially until in 2010,
arrests were three times that of two decades before. The majority of
those arrested were white and young, but Natives were arrested at a
rate of 1.6 times higher than that of whites, although African
Americans were arrested at twice that rate. The possession arrests,
according to a Washington state study were at about $200 million in a
decade ending in 2010. That’s an expensive proposition; it also is
a social problem. A marijuana possession arrest creates a permanent
criminal record, easily found on the Internet by employers,
landlords, schools, credit agencies, licensing boards and banks. A
criminal record for the “drug crime” of marijuana possession
creates barriers to employment and education for anyone, including
whites and the middle class.
There is also the question of tribal
enforcement priorities. I talked to tribal officers on White Earth
reservation who told me, in effect, that they had a lot more
important things to do than arrest tribal citizens for possession of
marijuana. This makes some sense, considering the rest of the
domestic violence, DUI and other issues in tribal communities.
There are also employment issues for
tribes to regulate when it comes to drug testing for employment at
any federally-funded tribal facility (that is all of them). “We
sign an agreement to be a drug-free workplace,” Tara Mason,
Secretary Treasurer of White Earth tells me when I ask her about the
regulations, “that is not going to work well.” It appears that
those who would work for tribal agencies should not smoke marijuana
and that would not change. “A lot of us don’t work for the
tribe,” another tribal employer tells me which, I assume, is true
in most reservations.
Drug Wars
Bad date idea: Taking your mother to
see Oliver Stone’s “Savages.” It was horribly violent, drove
home the deadly price of the drug wars and how much I love Benicio
Del Toro. Put it this way, since 2007, around 80,000 people have lost
their lives as a result of the fighting between drug cartels and
Mexico’s armed forces, according to Reuters. And according to the
Department of Justice, a large portion of the U.S. illegal drug
market is controlled directly by Mexican cartels.
In 2012, a study by the Mexican
Competitiveness Institute found that U.S. state legalization would
cut into cartel business and take over about 30 percent of their
market. Vice News did an interview with retired DEA officer Terry
Nelson and found that legalization was effecting the drug trafficking
and cartels.
“The cartels are criminal
organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their
income from marijuana,” Nelson said, “They aren’t able to move
as much cannabis inside the U.S. now.” Minnesota’s Native Mob has
historically been involved in marijuana, as well as a host of other
drugs and weapons. While prosecutions landed many leaders of the mob
behind bars in 2010-13, it is not clear in a state, like Minnesota
what the effect on Native gang activity would be and that is worth
considering.
Addictions and More Addictions
“It is a powerful medicine. Like
sugar, and alcohol abuse creates family problems. Feel we should
always have the choice of what we put into our bodies. ”
Rachel Montour Ballard, Akwesasne
I surveyed a lot of people, on the
question of addictions and the impact of legalization and got many
opinions. What we know is that our tribal communities suffer from
epidemics of addictions. We alter our consciousness because of many
things: the pain of historic trauma, boredom, lack of cultural and
community strength and because we like it. The root causes of our
drive, need to be changed, that is long term work and healing. We
need solutions to our problems and we all know that drinking a six
pack or smoking a bowl is not going to make your life better. It
might help you forget for a few hours, but we have to change our
communities and ourselves.
Frankly, it’s easier to get IHS
prescription drugs on the reservation and snort them up your nose,
than probably anywhere else in the country and that’s been a pretty
bad idea. Sam Moose, Mille Lac Band Commissioner of Health and Human
Services, talks about the epidemic which is claiming new victims in
the Mille Lacs area: babies born addicted to opiates, both
prescription painkillers and illegal drugs like heroin.
According to Moose, the reservation is
one of the hardest hit communities in Minnesota. Twenty-eight percent
of babies with NAS in Minnesota are born to Native Americans, even
though Native Americans make up only about 2 percent of the state’s
population. In other words, American Indian newborns are 8.7 times
more likely than white babies to be born with NAS. Add to that FAS,
and we’ve got a pretty dire situation for the next generation.
What would marijuana do to this? Dr.
Melissa Gorake, told me, “As a researcher of FASD and a now doctor
of clinical psychology, I truly believe – on a personal community
and societal level – that legalizing marijuana will decrease rates
of FASD expression within our communities, hands down. Access to
marijuana will decrease women’s use of alcohol during pregnancy,
which is the most violent teratogen to brain development which lasts
a lifetime. It’s a start and its simplistic, but it’s something.”
That’s an interesting thought, but many people remain opposed to
“ transferring addictions.” At the same time, from my limited
survey, marijuana use is pretty prevalent on the reservations.
The Highest Risk for Marijuana: Teenage
Boy
“It is extremely rare to see kids who
are chronically using pot doing well in school,” Dr. Brett
Neinebar, a family and emergency ward physician near Brainerd, Minn.,
told me.
It might have to do with this
neuro-transmitter called dopamine. “Dopamine is the
neuro-transmitter which is associated with the rewards center of your
brain. If you do something well, like get an ‘A,’ or win a race, you
get a good feeling and that stimulates the reward system. Marijuana
stunts that. Because those who get that reward tend to be high
achievers, the loss of it is a problem. Marijuana use really stamps
out the dopamine.” In layperson terms, it’s sort of like when
your kid says “whatever” and rolls their eyes and that becomes
permanent. How horrible.
A new medical study quantifies this.
“This study suggests that even light to moderate recreational
marijuana use can cause changes in brain anatomy,” Dr. Carl Lupica,
Ph.D. at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said. “These
observations are particularly interesting because previous studies
have focused primarily on the brains of heavy marijuana smokers and
have largely ignored the brains of casual users.”
The team of scientists compared the
size, shape and density of the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala –
a brain region that plays a central role in emotion – in 20
marijuana users and 20 non-users. Each marijuana user was asked to
estimate their drug consumption over a three-month period, including
the number of days they smoked and the amount of the drug consumed
each day. The scientists found that the more the marijuana users
reported consuming, the greater the abnormalities in the nucleus
accumbens and amygdala. The shape and density of both of these
regions also differed between marijuana users and non-users.
Marijuana can also cause an early
onset of schizophrenia in young men, who are genetically pre-disposed
to it. “And normally you would have gotten it at 25,” Dr.
Neinebar explains, “you will more likely get your first psychotic
break at 13, which is a problem because the longer you have it the
more debilitating it is. The problem is that schizophrenics and
people who are pre disposed to it are really drawn to drug abuse.”
Marijuana is a medicine
Marijuana or peje (a nice Lakota word
for grass), does not solve all problems. It does not cure everything,
make you prettier or smarter. It is a plant and it is a medicine. As
much as our community deals with tobacco abuse, tobacco as a medicine
or peyote as a medicine, everyone agrees that we need to restore our
relationship to our plant relatives in a respectful manner.
Indigenous peoples know plants have spirit and power and need to be
addressed with reverence. Abuse is always not going to work out well.
There’s clear evidence of the
benefits of marijuana in the treatment and pain relief of glaucoma,
fibromyalgia, epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, seizures, PTSD (and
remember we have the highest number of living veterans of any
community) and a host of other medical conditions. My friend Kevin
Shore suffers from Gulf War Syndrome and he is struggling with a host
of major medical conditions.
“Actually they call it rheumatoid
variant disease at the VA, because, like in Vietnam, they don’t
want to call it an Agent Orange syndrome. They tried putting me on
morphine, oxycodone, all of that didn’t work well. I found that
cannabis was the least harmful to my body as the side effects go,”
Shore said. Because he is being treated by the Veterans
Administration, he cannot smoke marijuana, or take it in any form. So
the VA provides him with a synthetic form of marijuana. “ I’m
hoping to have a good case, because a federally-recognized doctor has
prescribed synthetic THC.” While medical studies indicate that
marijuana is helpful in many cases, it is, clearly not a panacea for
all illnesses.
Exploiting the Plant
Some of the heaviest cultural
criticism if the plant is grown would be the exploitation of the
plant. For instance, today, probably about 90 percent of the
marijuana available in commercial or black markets is grown with
chemicals, much of it indoors, pushing the plants to their capacity.
It’s sort of like a feedlot of industrial marijuana farming.
I traveled to Denver this past year
and did some window shopping at facilities. At one organic marijuana
retailer I asked what they used. The salesman didn’t know and there
was, in my limited review, little interest in that discussion. The
environmental impact of larger cultivation is comparable to other
industrial agriculture, adding energy use of grow houses. Washington
and Oregon are projecting a surge in power use, simply from grow
houses. Slow grow, outdoors and organic is pretty much the preference
of the connoisseurs and illustrates the conflicting relationship with
the plant: commercial, medicinal, home use, etc.
A Regulatory Scheme
What is clear is that regulation is
essential. Either we, as tribes keep the same historic criminal
standards for marijuana and hemp, or we change them. In either case,
we still regulate.
Oregon’s recently passed law
explains that state’s reasons for legalization and offers an
example. (a) To eliminate the problems caused by the prohibition and
uncontrolled manufacture,
delivery, and possession of marijuana
within this state; (b) To protect the safety, welfare, health, and
peace of the people of this state by prioritizing the state’s
limited law enforcement resources in the most effective, consistent,
and rational way; (c) To permit persons licensed, controlled,
regulated, and taxed by this state to legally manufacture and sell
marijuana to persons 21 years of age and older, subject to the
provisions of this Act; (d) To ensure that the State Department of
Agriculture issues industrial hemp licenses and agricultural hemp
seed production permits in accordance with existing state law; and
(e) To establish a comprehensive regulatory framework concerning
marijuana under existing state law.
So to make it happen, Oregon’s
Control, Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana and Industrial Hemp Act
removes penalties for adults, 21 years-old and older who possess, use
and grow a limited amount of marijuana.
Once the law takes effect, adults can
possess up to eight ounces of marijuana and grow no more than four
marijuana plants in their households. Those amounts are total limits
for the household. Each adult can possess up to an ounce in public.
Individuals 21 and older may also gift – but not sell – up to an
ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana products in solid form, or
72 ounces of marijuana products in liquid form to other adults. The
purchase limit will be one ounce or the amount set by the liquor
commission, whichever is lower.
Four types of marijuana businesses
will be allowed and regulated by the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission. “Marijuana producers” will cultivate marijuana for
wholesale. “Marijuana processors” will produce marijuana extracts
and products. “Marijuana wholesalers” may purchase marijuana and
marijuana products to sell to marijuana retailers and other
non-consumers. Lastly, “marijuana retailers” are allowed to sell
marijuana and related items to individuals 21 and older. Application
fees will be $250 and licensing fees are $1,000 per year.
Talking about it is key. Careful
regulation, honesty and courage may be an answer.