Cannabis may soon be Legal in Some Native American Nations

In America there are a litany of Native American tribes who have to some degree semi-sovereignty and a measure of legal independence from the rest of the country. Thus some tribes have legal rights not afforded to other US citizens such as the legal right to consume substances like peyote for religious purposes. Other legal loopholes and exceptions have allowed many of these tribes to garner a great deal of wealth opening up and operating casinos, in states which would otherwise prohibit them from doing it on state “owned” land. However, with new law enforcement changes and inevitable court decisions cannabis too may be legal in America’s indigenous micro-nations.

According to a recent memo, called the Cole Memorandum, released by the US Justice Department federal prosecutors across the nation will allow American native tribes to cultivate and harvest marijuana if it is done on their own legally protected tribal lands. Furthermore, Timothy Purdon, a US attorney for North Dakota and chairman on Subcommittee on Native American Issues has clarified in an interview with the LA times that “…tribes have the sovereign right to set the code on their reservations”.

So while this may clash with state laws Native nations will evidently have the capacity to grow and sell cannabis on their own lands without coming against legal harassment from local authorities or the DEA. However, this doesn’t mean that we may necessarily a wide spread legalization of cannabis in Native nations. According to Cannabis News:

“The Yakama Nation in Washington state, for example, recently banned marijuana on its reservation, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe in Northern California is trying to fend off illegal pot plantations on its reservation that have damaged the environment.”

The same source also references some concerns which would cause cannabis to be banned. Specifically, Cannabis News mentions fears of marijuana aggravating existing chemical dependency issues within Native nations.

That said it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where any Native nations won’t take full advantage of this situation given the fact that many tribes previously have become quite wealthy of off casino and cigarette sales through similar legal loopholes. I for one predict to see a good portion of cannabis dispensing tribes crop up throughout the country once the metaphorical dust settles from this shift in legal policy, but it’s too early to say for certain.

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