Native American tribes converge to discuss pot legalization

Audience members look on at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn't stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Audience members look on at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn’t stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

By The Associated Press

TULALIP, Wash. (AP) — Tribal representatives from around the country are converging in Washington state to discuss the risks and rewards of marijuana legalization.

Tribes have been wrestling with the issue since the U.S. Justice Department announced in December that it wouldn’t stand in their way if they want to approve pot for medical or recreational use. The agency said tribes must follow the same law enforcement priorities laid out for states that legalize the drug.

Representatives of dozens of tribes are attending a conference Friday at the Tulalip Indian Tribe’s resort and casino north of Seattle.

Topics under discussion include the big business potential for pot, as well as concerns about substance abuse on reservations and the potential creation of a tribal cannabis association.

Speakers, from right, Hilary Bricken, Douglas Berman, Salvador Mungia and Robert Odawi Porter bow their heads during an opening prayer at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn't stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Speakers, from right, Hilary Bricken, Douglas Berman, Salvador Mungia and Robert Odawi Porter bow their heads during an opening prayer at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn’t stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

 

 

Speakers Salvador Mungia, left, Robert Odawi Porter and Douglas Berman prepare to speak at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn't stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Speakers Salvador Mungia, left, Robert Odawi Porter and Douglas Berman prepare to speak at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn’t stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

 

Robert Odawi Porter speaks at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn't stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Robert Odawi Porter speaks at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn’t stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

 

Salvador Mungia speaks at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn't stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Salvador Mungia speaks at a tribal marijuana conference for tribal governments considering whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal, agricultural, or recreational use, Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, in Tulalip, Wash. Representatives of 75 American Indian tribes from 35 states gathered to discuss what might be the next big financial boon on reservations across the country: marijuana. Tribes have been exploring the idea of getting into the pot business since the Obama administration announced in December it wouldn’t stand in their way. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

 

Hash it out: A debate of popular facts and myths of marijuana use

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

marijuana businesses

Marijuana, the scourge of our time. The gateway to a criminal underworld. The black market miracle medicine. Whether you are part of the outcry pleading for the legalization of marijuana or part of the opposition and fear created from reefer madness, we’ve all heard the propaganda and conspiracy theories. As Tulalip is faced with the decision to legalize or not, the issue has become shrouded in a haze of claims about the benefits and dangers of marijuana consumption. Results from a recent online survey conducted by the Tulalip Communications Staff highlighted some popular facts, misconceptions, and fears about marijuana consumption, which will be examined here:

Marijuana is harmless to smoke. There are no downsides, either for medical or recreational use.

False – Marijuana has many adverse effects on the human body. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, heavy users of marijuana have long-term impairment of cognitive function, specifically with learning and the retention of new information. In testing, the American Academy of Neurology found that the rate of decreased productivity and cognitive impairment was directly related to the rate of increase in marijuana use.

Marijuana repairs the lungs, and actually is better for them.

False – The University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute reports that light use of marijuana, one to three times a month, caused no real harm or adverse effects on the pulmonary system. Heavy use, three to five times a week, caused a deterioration of lung tissue, and often contributed to users suffering a collapsed lung. In general, it is a lung irritant.

Marijuana repairs brain cells and promotes mental health.

True and false – This is a tricky aspect to understand, as it involves brain chemistry. The American Academy of Neurology explains that THC, the psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana, inhibits the endocannabinoid system. The human endocrine system produces cannabinoid compounds in various organs. When THC is metabolized in the liver, the liver releases unusually high levels of endocannabinoids into the bloodstream. THC inhibits some of the cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which can help with mental disorders such as epilepsy and autism, yet the endocannabinoid compound levels are so high that the natural system becomes overstimulated. It is unclear exactly what the effects of overstimulation are.

It is certain, though, that marijuana users show signs of improvements in the nervous system, specifically growth and repair of nerve endings throughout the body, and nerve pathways in the brain.

Marijuana cures cancer.

True – Though not a cure, this claim is not entirely false. Reports from the American Cancer Association show that marijuana, in most cases, inhibits the growth of cancer cells, slowing down the aggressive nature of cancer. That same component works to prevent cells from binding together, which inhibits tumor growth.

Marijuana is not addictive.

False – While marijuana does not create chemical dependency, the way opiates and pharmaceutical drugs do, there is still a strong mental aspect to addiction. The overactive endocannabinoid system resulting from marijuana use creates a craving in the brain. Studies from the National Institute of Drug Abuse show subjects that have been clean of marijuana for more than a month still have long-term mental and behavioral effects, most notably an inability to feel satisfied with everyday life.

Marijuana is a great antidepressant and anti-anxiety medicine.

True and false – According to an article in Science News, marijuana, in low doses, is an effective antidepressant. However, heavy use, or prolonged use, can prove ineffective and even worsen depression, mostly in relation to the lack of satisfaction one experiences when they are not high.

As an anti-anxiety medication, low doses prove effective. Again, as use increases, anxiety can worsen. The National Institute of Drug Abuse, in addition to lack of satisfaction in everyday life, recorded a lack of coping ability with stress, leading to increased anxiety and irritability when not high.

Nobody has ever overdosed on marijuana.

True – There has never been a recorded overdose or death from marijuana consumption. The Australian Department of health conducted extensive tests on animals, looking at how much marijuana had to be consumed before a toxic level was reached. The result proved to be an unrealistic number. Though no humans were tested, for obvious ethical reasons, the hypothesized amount of marijuana needed to be consumed by the average human to reach a toxic level is approximately 8.5kg in one sitting. That’s 20lbs, or more than 300oz.

While there are no recorded deaths or overdoses from marijuana use, there are recorded deaths from the use of hash oil, though less than ten. Hash oil is processed marijuana, which extracts the THC from the marijuana leaves, and is on average five times more potent that marijuana. THC toxicity levels can be achieved in one sitting with the use of hash oil, especially by first time users. THC poisoning typically causes users to pass out. Most common resulting causes of death are apnea (the user stops breathing) or cardiac arrest.

Neither of these include statistics for accidents involving marijuana DUIs, or death related to impairment from marijuana use.

Marijuana is clean to use, there is no residue.

False – When you smoke marijuana, the residue from the THC seeps into fabrics, walls, and your skin. The Journal of the American Medical Association of Pediatrics reports a rising number of cases of infant and toddler marijuana poisoning. Most often, the cases are a result of contact with surfaces where marijuana has been smoked. The children absorb the THC residue through their skin. Symptoms recorded are excessive vomiting, irritability, and lack of balance, especially upon standing. Because they are infants and toddlers and vomit and fall often, these symptoms often go unnoticed. They are more easily spotted, though, in young children, preteens, and kids in their early teens.

These points were the most prominent points brought up repeatedly in the survey. Some are true, some are not, and some are exceedingly ambiguous. The answers here are what science has to offer for the marijuana debate.

 

Andrew Gobin is a staff reporter with the Tulalip News See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulalipnews.com
Phone: (360) 716.4188

Marijuana: menace, medicine or moneymaker? Tulalip tribal leaders hold community meeting on the decriminalization of marijuana

By Andrew Gobin, Tulalip News

With the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in Washington State an ongoing discussion has emerged on the Tulalip Indian reservation about how the law will affect the Tulalip Tribes, if at all. Currently, marijuana remains illegal on the reservation in all forms, in accordance with federal policy. More than 100 people attended a community meeting on May 16, urging Tulalip to review its stance on marijuana, and consider whether the financial and medical benefits outweigh the potential risks that could jeopardize the tribes’ relationship with the federal government. A panel of experts made presentations at the meeting, speaking about the pros and cons associated with marijuana. The experts were; former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, a proponent for legalizing or decriminalizing, and Officer Patrick Slack of the Snohomish County Drug Task Force, who gave a testimony to the use of marijuana in our community today.

“I do subscribe to the idea that the reefer madness propaganda of the 1930s created an unnecessary fear of marijuana,” began Norm Stamper, giving a brief historical overview of marijuana in America.

He said, “Marijuana prohibition has, in my view, done more harm than good. It causes more crime. Anyone who traffics in marijuana is a criminal, anyone who buys it is a criminal, and anyone who grows it. Sellers will arm themselves to protect their investments. We force people to seek out dealers, and they won’t card, they will sell to children. All too often they sell marijuana laced with harder drugs to cultivate a future customer. If it is legal, it can be controlled. We can regulate it, sell it, and use the money to fight it.”

That idea was well received at the meeting, as people spoke highlighting other drugs that plague the Tulalip community.

“It helps people stay away from that other stuff [meth and heroin]. We have a store out here, if we sell it we would have more money to treat other people that are on that stuff,” said tribal member Richard Jones.

An overwhelming majority of people in attendance echoed the potential use of marijuana as a safer means for addicts to get clean and stay clean, as well as the medical benefits marijuana users enjoy.

Patrick Slack did not take a stance on the matter, though he shared his experience with marijuana through his years on the police force which gave great insight to the history of marijuana culture and what it has become today.

He said, “There are many cannabinoids in marijuana that are beneficial. In my experience, most people smoke marijuana for the psychoactive experience, not the health benefits. Tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, is the psychoactive cannabinoid that gives users that signature euphoria from marijuana consumption.”

Historically, the THC in marijuana averaged less than two percent. According to Slack, what is being taken off the streets today ranges between twenty percent up to the mid-thirties. Something becoming more prevalent today is hash oil; also called dabs or budder. Through a reduction process using butane or octane (gasoline), people can pull more of the THC out of marijuana.

“The hash oil averages about ninety percent pure THC. It gets you very high, very fast, and is potentially dangerous to use because the effects last longer,” Slack explained.

Tulalip councilman Marlin Fryberg Jr. said, “For me as a leader, who looks out for the youth? That’s my responsibility. If legalizing marijuana will have a negative impact on them, then I can’t support it.”

Stamper noted, “People like Richard Nixon, JFK, Bill Gates, even Barack Obama have tried marijuana. Those people, had they been caught as a result of their youthful indiscretions, as Nixon called it, would not have enjoyed the careers they did, and we would not be enjoying the benefits of their success.”

Slack addressed the difference of underage use today than in Nixon’s time, and the implication from Initiative 502, the ballot measure that legalized marijuana for recreational use in Washington State.

“I502 makes the consumption marijuana illegal to persons under the age of 21, specifying that there is no tolerance for underage consumption. That means if you are driving and you get stopped, if you are suspected of marijuana use, and you are underage, then you will be subject to a blood test. If cannabinoids are found in your blood, you are guilty of a DUI (Driving Under the Influence), whether or not you are under the legal limit of five nanograms. That’s a felony. And today, that limits your ability to get scholarships, go to college, and get a job.”

The legalization of marijuana is a tumultuous issue that has many potential ripple effects for tribes which would extend far beyond the business and moral aspects, should they choose to legalize. For Tulalip tribal leaders, they are torn on the issue.

Tulalip tribal councilwoman Theresa Sheldon said, “Our grants require us to be in compliance with federal policy. NAHASDA (The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act) for example explicitly says that the tribe’s program must comply with the all federal policies; that includes policies regarding drugs. Marijuana is still classified as a schedule 1 controlled substance at the federal level. It is unclear how legalization will affect our programs, but it is something that we need to understand fully before we proceed.”

“When it comes to medical marijuana, I am there,” said councilman Fryberg. “I’ve done a lot of research, and it took me some convincing, but I’m there. I don’t support the recreational use, though, and I don’t know that I ever will.”

Whether tribes decriminalize or legalize, the decision will have federal implications. The community and some tribal leaders seem to agree though, that the time has come to recognize marijuana as a medicine. What that means for regulation remains to be seen.

 

Andrew Gobin is a staff reporter with the Tulalip News See-Yaht-Sub, a publication of the Tulalip Tribes Communications Department.
Email: agobin@tulalipnews.com
Phone: (360) 716.4188

Oglala Sioux Tribe considers putting legalized pot to vote

 

February 10 2014

Written by ASSOCIATED PRESS

PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) – An Oglala Sioux tribal committee has started a process that could allow a public vote on whether to legalize marijuana use on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The tribal council’s business development committee approved the measure last week, and the full tribal council soon could approve a public vote, councilman Kevin Yellow Bird Steele told the Rapid City Journal.

Council members say they are considering marijuana’s medical uses, and some argued that it could ease the dependency of tribal members on powerful prescription painkillers.

“It’s not something the council wants to make a decision on by themselves,” Yellow Bird Steele said. “It will be up to the people across the reservation.”

Just last August, reservation members narrowly voted to end prohibition and sell alcohol on the tribal land.

The alcohol ban had been in place for most of the reservation’s 124-year history, with supporters arguing that legalization would only exacerbate the impoverished tribe’s problems with domestic abuse, suicide, infant mortality, unemployment and violent crime. But opponents noted that liquor stores in Whiteclay, Neb., a speck of a town along the reservation’s border, were selling millions of cans a beer a year.

Under the law, the tribe will own and operate stores on the reservation, and profits will be used for education and detoxification and treatment centers, for which there is currently little to no funding.

If the marijuana vote passes, the Pine Ridge reservation would join a number of states that have begun to turn the tide on pot use.

Tribal Councilman James Cross recalled the tribe’s reaction when South Dakota voters in 2010 rejected a proposal to legalize medicinal marijuana. The statewide vote failed by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. But a majority of Shannon County voters, where part of the Pine Ridge reservation is located, supported it.

Cross, who said he smoked in 1990 to help ease pain in his lower back when prescription painkillers left him unable to function, emphasized the medicinal needs over recreational use.

“It was really looking at the medical part of it first,” Cross said. “We really didn’t discuss revenue.”

Robin Tapio, a tribal councilwoman representing the Pine Ridge district, said she hasn’t decided whether she supports the proposal.

Tapio used marijuana to recover from cancer treatments in the mid-1980s, but she also regularly smoked pot until she was 45 and now worries that it may be addictive or cause health problems.

Legal Marijuana Raises Issues for Indian Tribes

Washington and Colorado each has their own set of pot problems

By Katy Steinmetz / San Francisco @katysteinmetz Feb. 06, 2014

 

 

Washington’s Yakama tribe lives on a one million-acre reservation in the southern part of the state, a relatively small patch left after nearly 12 million acres was ceded to the U.S. government by the nation in 1855. As state officials are racing to build one of the world’s first legal marijuana markets, tribe officials are making it clear that their reservation wants no part of it—and they don’t want anyone else growing or selling cannabis on their ceded land either, to which they maintain certain rights. But it remains unclear whether they have the legal authority to make a demand that affects nearly a third of the land area in the state.

The laws that govern American Indian reservations have long been confusing. Many tribes are subject to only their own laws and federal law, while certain reservations are under state jurisdiction. Now adding to the confusion in Colorado and Washington is the uncertainty about how those states can legally regulate a substance still considered illegal by the federal government. And while many Yakama are anxious to keep the marijuana market far away—fueled by concern about substance abuse—other advocates for American Indians are mad that tribes can’t enjoy the new freedoms that other state residents have.

People in Colorado and Washington who don’t live on reservations “are moving forward with this massive experiment,” says Troy Eid, chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission, a national advisory body focused on criminal justice in Indian territory. “And, once again, these tribes are getting screwed.”

AP Photo/Yakima Herald-Republic, Gordon KingYoung men wait to take part in an annual pow wow and rodeo in Toppenish, Wash. The boys are members of the Coleville and Yakama tribes.
AP Photo/Yakima Herald-Republic, Gordon King
Young men wait to take part in an annual pow wow and rodeo in Toppenish, Wash. The boys are members of the Coleville and Yakama tribes.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board is tasked with shaping the new market in that state. Right now, they’re sifting through more than 7,000 business license applications from residents who want to farm marijuana or run pot shops, and they plan to start issuing those licenses in March. This is where leaders from the Yakama tribe have addressed “several hundreds” of letters, each “pro-objecting,” as their attorney George Colby puts it, to individual applications made from areas the tribe occupies or once did. “Citizens of the state of Washington don’t get to vote on what happens” in those areas, he says. “The federal government wasn’t supposed to let alcohol come on the Yakama reservation, and thousands of people have died. We’re not going to let that happen again.”

There is little question about tribes in Washington being able to prohibit marijuana use among their own people on their own land (though there is some question about “tribes’ ability to regulate non-member conduct on the reservation,” the attorney general’s office says). The big unknown is how much authority they have over sprawling ceded lands, acres that were essentially handed up to the federal government more than 150 years ago with the promise that tribes would retain certain rights to those lands in perpetuity. In the Yakama’s case, members still have the exclusive right to hunt, fish and gather food on those 12 million acres.

Eid, an expert in tribal law appointed to his position by the president and Congress, says that while it’s not “absolutely clear,” he believes the Yakama do have the ability to object to marijuana being grown or sold on ceded lands. Meanwhile, the Washington state liquor board says they’re still planning to issuing licenses to businesses in those areas. “Objections are made all the time to licenses,” says spokesman Brian Smith. “You want to make sure you’re operating within the law as you know it, and that’s what we’ll be doing here.”

Neither side knows for sure, and that is a recipe for the conflict to end up in court, which might in turn force the question of how the discrepancy between state and federal law is going to be remedied when it comes to marijuana. The Washington attorney general’s office tells TIME that they will defend the liquor board if they’re sued, but that “the Liquor Control Board is still in the process of issuing licenses so it would be premature to speculate on the issue of how a court might rule on the issue of licenses on ceded lands.” Colby says that they will request the federal government to intervene if their ongoing pre-objections are not heard.

Other tribes in the state have yet to weigh in but Eid says that they are likely to stand with the Yakama, if only to make sure their rights to their own ceded lands remain as robust as possible. He also says that it would be ideal if everyone sat down in a room together and hashed out the issue. “They can work out what the scope of marijuana use and cultivation and distribution and so on could be,” he says. “They ought to be able to come to a voluntary agreement that would enable them to avoid any issues involving litigation.”

When Eid is not working on the commission, he acts as counsel for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, one of two in Colorado. Unlike the Yakama reservation, where state law enforcement has some authority, reservations in the Rocky Mountain State are bound solely by federal and tribal law. That means that while reservation-dwellers in Colorado were allowed to vote in favor of Amendment 64, the proposal that legalized recreational marijuana, it remains illegal to grow, sell or smoke on their reservations as it ever was. (La Plata County, one of two with large American Indian populations, voted to approve the measure by 62% to 38%.)

Some of the American Indians in Colorado view their current situation as a missed business opportunity. “Capital is flowing in here from all over the world,” Eid says. “The tribes are going to be left behind, because there’s been no change in state law that applies to them … These are some of the poorest areas in the country. They could be involved in this business as well, but instead they’re being prohibited from being part of what’s happening.”

One way or another, the federal government may have to weigh in on the issue, whether it’s Congress eventually giving tribes the authority to decide whether they want to legalize marijuana or a federal judge ruling on the status of ceded lands. “This is one of so many of the issues that we are pushing through,” says Smith. “We’re sort of the pioneers here. But we continue onward, into some unknown territory.”