DEA Raids Indian Tribe to Destroy Hemp Plants
Ryan Allway
October 27th, 2015
Policy, Top News
The Drug Enforcement Administration has become increasingly aggressive in its crackdown on marijuana, despite the Justice Department’s past guidance instructing federal agencies from focusing on more harmful drugs and criminal activities.
In the latest sign of this aggression, federal agents swarmed the Menominee Indian tribe’s Wisconsin reservation and eradicated 30,000 cannabis plants that were part of a research project into growing industrial hemp. The move comes despite the federal government’s legalization of hemp cultivation for research purposes back in 2014, as well as the Department of Justice’s legalization of marijuana for federal recognized tribes.
The sudden intervention also comes despite the tribe’s upfront disclosures about what they were doing and an agreement to act itself to destroy individual strains of the hemp crop that the tribe and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed were problematic.
Read More Stories like this on CannaLetter
Differing Interpretations
The DEA’s invasion of tribal lands underscores the increasing divergence in federal marijuana policy. The 2013 Cole memo and the 2014 Wilkinson memo made it clear that states and Indian territories have the right to regulate marijuana on their own accord, but the Justice Department’s DEA branch has simultaneously increased their crackdowns in both states that have legalized marijuana and tribes that have been experimenting with it.
Earlier this month, a federal court in California found that the DEA’s interpretation of recent marijuana bills “defies language and logic”, “tortures the plain meaning of the statute”, and is “at odds with the fundamental notions of the rule of law” in a scathing ruling.
Read More: Federal Court Slams DEA for Harassing Legal MMJ Operations
The Justice Department responded by saying that it’s conceivable that some local U.S. attorneys, who have broad discretion to implement federal laws, are simply being more zealous than others. By taking a government-to-government stance, the agency aims to sidestep these criticisms and avoid putting it in the center of any disputes.
Potential Implications
The DEA’s actions in Wisconsin follow similar moves against Indian tribes in California and other states and could have broad implications throughout the country.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe in South Dakota is preparing to serve recreational marijuana to outsiders visiting its resorts, while CannaNative aims to setup cannabis banking solutions in order to serve the needs of cannabis-related business nationwide. Many other Indian tribes are exploring ways that they can take the same kinds of actions being taken by U.S. states in legalizing marijuana to realize the tax income, reduced crime, and other benefits.
Read More: CannaNative Wants to Bank the Unbankable
The DEA’s aggressiveness threatens to derail initiatives like these and prevent Indian nations from implementing their own laws autonomously and marks a disturbing trend in the way Indian nations are treated relative to how U.S. states are treated.
This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.
About Ryan Allway
Mr. Allway has over a decade of experience in the financial markets as both a private investor and financial journalist. He has been actively involved in the cannabis industry since its inception, covering public and private companies.
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