Drug War Chronicle #908 - October 29, 2015

Double Standard? Marijuana or Hemp? DEA Indian Tribe Raid Raises Questions [FEATURE]

This article was produced in collaboration with AlterNet and will appear at http://www.alternet.org/drugs/.

Taking advantage of a 2014 Justice Department memo giving Indian tribes a green light to participate in marijuana commerce, as well as a 2014 congressional vote allowing for industrial hemp pilot programs, Wisconsin's Menominee Tribe earlier this year planted some 30,000 cannabis plants as part of a pilot project with the College of the Menominee Nation.

Last Friday, the DEA came and cut them all down.

The DEA says the plants were marijuana plants; the tribe says they were hemp plants. In either case, tribal officials and marijuana reform advocates don't understand why the grow was raided. Even if it were marijuana, it appears to be an operation well within Justice Department guidelines. And that's leading to some pointed questions about whether the feds have one standard for pot-legal states and another for the tribe-legal jurisdictions.

The memo that allows for marijuana commerce on the reservation includes eight potential enforcement triggers first formulated in a 2013 Justice Department memo (the Cole memo) advising federal prosecutors to lay off of recreational and medical marijuana operations in states where they are legal. Those triggers include diversion to other localities, money going to organized crime, and violence associated with the trade, among others.

The raid came after the tribe allowed a Bureau of Indian Affairs employee and local police to inspect the operation and take plant samples. And that visit came after a meeting between the BIA agent, the local cops, and an assistant US attorney.

According to the DEA affidavit for a search warrant, the samples tested positive for "marijuana," although there was no measurement of THC levels in the plants.

Industrial hemp is high in fiber, but low in THC, with levels at 0.3% or less. Pot produced for the recreational market, by contrast, typically has THC levels of 15% to 20% and beyond. There is a possibility some of the plants could exceed the 0.3% limit, but not by much.

The DEA affidavit also attempted to make a case that the hemp grow was violating those Justice Department triggers. The tribe had hired Colorado cannabis consultant Brian Goldstein to consult on its grow, and Goldstein, along with Tribal Chairwoman Ruth Wapoose, had in fact guided the feds and the local cops on their tour of the operation.

But Goldstein was "white," the affidavit noted, and several other people present appeared "non-native," and some vehicles had Colorado plates. This, the affidavit somewhat tortuously argued, violated the memo's provision about diversion from states where marijuana is legal to those where it is not. It seems to claim that hiring a cannabis consultant from a legal state is equivalent to importing pot from that state.

The affidavit also stretched to assert the operation was setting off other enforcement triggers. The lack of ventilation in a drying room "is a health and safety concern for the community and the individuals associated with the operation, which is a violation of the enumerated priorities listed in the Cole memorandum regarding adverse public health concerns of marijuana cultivation," it argued.

But drying hemp stalks in closed barns is standard practice and is used by farmers around the country, including those who produced legal hemp crops this year in Colorado and Kentucky.

And security personnel guarding the property had guns, leading the BIA agent to question "the ability for the security team to have weapons for protection because it would violate the Cole memorandum."

Now, the grow has been destroyed, any decision on criminal prosecution is in the hands of federal prosecutors, and the tribe and other observers are wondering just what is going on. After all, the Menominee aren't the only tribe to take the Justice Department at its word, only to be raided down the road.

This past summer, the DEA hit two California tribes, the Pit River Tribe and the Alturas Indian Rancheria, seizing 12,000 plants. The feds alleged Cole memorandum violations including financing from a foreign entrepreneur and fears the marijuana would be distributed outside the reservations in ways that violated the state's medical marijuana law. And the US attorney in South Dakota a month earlier refused to agree to lift an injunction barring Oglala Sioux tribal member Alex White Plume from growing hemp, which the Oglala Sioux Nation has legalized.

Are the tribes being held to a different standard than states where it is legal? Has there been a policy shift at Justice? Are individual federal prosecutors going off the reservation?

Menominee Tribal Chairman Gary Besaw doesn't know, but he isn't happy about it.

"I am deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has made the decision to utilize the full force of the DEA to raid our Tribe," he said in a statement after the raid. "We offered to take any differences in the interpretation of the farm bill to federal court. Instead, the Obama administration sent agents to destroy our crop while allowing recreational marijuana in Colorado. I just wish the President would explain to tribes why we can't grow industrial hemp like the states, and even more importantly, why we don't deserve an opportunity to make our argument to a federal judge rather than having our community raided by the DEA?"

Neither was Eric Steenstra, head of the hemp industry advocacy organization Vote Hemp.

"The DEA action in this case is egregious, excessive and presents an unjust prejudice against Indian Country and the rights of sovereign tribal nations," he said. "The Menominee Indian Tribe cultivated their industrial hemp in accordance with Federal Law, per the legislation put forth in the Farm Bill. This is a step backward, at a time when great progress has otherwise been made toward legalizing and regulating industrial hemp cultivation."

In an interview with US News and World Report, tribal law expert Lance Morgan, a member of Nebraska's Winnebago tribe who has worked with tribal governments pondering marijuana operations, said the Cole memorandum guidelines are not being applied consistently and warned the Menominee raid would be remembered as a historic betrayal.

"How can you allow people to buy marijuana in a retail environment in some states and then raid an industrial hemp operation of a tribe? The only difference is that there is a tribe involved," he said. "This odd federal policy of encouraging investment and then raiding the new business sets us back a few decades in federal tribal trust and economic policy."

The raids against tribal pot operations will kill investment in such ventures, Morgan said.

"The new federal policy of 'sort of' allowing tribes to get into the marijuana business is especially cruel and unusual because it encourages investment, but after the investment is made the federal government comes and shuts it down and the investors lose all their money."

Tribal law expert and former head of New York's Seneca Nation Robert Odawi Porter agreed that there is at least the appearance of a double standard.

"This certainly suggests a real divergence in policy approach for Indian country," compared to the pot-legal states, which have been allowed to develop enormous marijuana industries, he said. "It increasingly looks like the Justice Department guidelines are not being interpreted in the same way as they were intended."

It seems like the Justice Department has some explaining and clarifying to do. Can the tribes participate in the new marijuana economy like that states, or not? And does the DEA accept the legal definition and status of hemp? If not, why?

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Bernie Sanders Seeks End to Federal Marijuana Prohibition in the Senate

Presidential contender Bernie Sanders announced his support for ending federal marijuana prohibition at a town hall at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, Wednesday night. He will announce a bill that would remove marijuana from the list of federally controlled substances, end federal marijuana prohibition, and let states set their own policies without federal interference.

"Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have a criminal record as a result of marijuana use," Sanders said in prepared remarks for the event. "That's wrong. That has got to change."

No other presidential candidate in either party has gone as far as the independent Vermont senator. Democrat Martin O'Malley has called for placing marijuana in Schedule II, but Sanders wants it descheduled. Hillary Clinton has yet to stake out a position on federal marijuana reform, saying she wants to see how legalization is working in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington first.

The Sanders plan would not make marijuana legal in the states, but would remove the specter of federal interference for those states that choose to change their pot laws. His plan would also let marijuana businesses in legal states use financial services and take tax deductions currently unavailable to them under federal law.

Sanders is in line with national public opinion on the issue. Support for legalization has consistently polled at 50% or greater in recent years, and a Gallup poll this month had support at its highest level ever, 58%, tied with the poll's 2013 finding.

"Clearly Bernie Sanders has looked at the polls showing voter support for marijuana legalization," said Michael Collins, deputy director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Action, the political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Marijuana reform was already moving forward in Congress but we expect this bill to give reform efforts a big boost."

Look for Sanders' bill to be filed as early as tomorrow.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)

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Medical Marijuana Update

Of course there is a challenge to California's new medical marijuana law, New York takes another step on the path to medical marijuana, North Dakota petitioners will have to go back to the drawing board, and more.

California

Last Wednesday, a collective operator filed suit over the state's new medical marijuana law. Collective operator David Armstrong has filed a lawsuit claiming the state's new medical marijuana law violates the state constitution because it amends a voter initiative, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop 215). Armstrong's attorney, Nicholas Emmanuel, said that although the full effect of the law signed this month is not clear, his client wanted to "get a jump on things."

Florida

Last Thursday,the state Supreme Court set a December hearing date for the medical marijuana initiative. The court said it will hear oral arguments on whether language for a medical marijuana initiative complies with state requirements on December 8. The initiative is sponsored by People United for Medical Marijuana, the same group behind last year's failed initiative. (It actually won a majority of the vote, but because it was a constitutional amendment, it needed 60% to pass). The group said it has already turned in nearly half the 683,000 valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the 2016 ballot.

New York

Last Thursday, the state unveiled a new medical marijuana training course for doctors. The state Health Department this week rolled out an online medical marijuana training course for physicians who wish to prescribe it. Doctors who want to register to prescribe medical marijuana must first complete the four-hour course. The state aims to have medical marijuana available for patients by next January.

North Dakota

On Tuesday, medical marijuana initiative language was rejected. Secretary of State Al Jaeger (R) Tuesday rejected an initiative from the North Dakota Committee for Medical Marijuana, saying it had errors. Jaeger directed committee members to a petition drafting tool on state government web pages so they can get it right next time.

Washington

On Tuesday, calls came for signatures on a Change.org petition for the Kettle Falls Five. Prosecuted as marijuana traffickers for growing medical marijuana for their own use in a state where marijuana is legal, three of the Kettle Falls Five were sentenced earlier this month to federal prison. The petition here seeks "immediate orders of commutation and remission of jail time and fines for Rolland Gregg, his wife Michelle Gregg, and his mother Rhonda Firestack-Harvey. We seek complete pardons of their convictions so that they are no longer considered felons. Allow them to return to being the productive members of society they were, before this ordeal began." Click on the link to add your signature.

[For extensive information about the medical marijuana debate, presented in a neutral format, visit MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org.]

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This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

A Houston cop's foot fetish gets him in trouble, a Georgia deputy's meth habit proves problematic, and a New Mexico police chief's greed costs him his job. Let's get to it:

In Lawrenceville, Georgia, a Gwinnett County sheriff's deputy was arrested last Wednesday after police found drugs inside his home. Deputy Trenell Bullock was being served with administrative paperwork when police saw meth and drug paraphernalia in plain view. He has been charged with unspecified drug offenses.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the former Springer police chief pleaded guilty last Thursday to helping a deputy steal $7,500 from men they thought were drug dealers, but who turned out to be undercover state and federal agents. Former Chief Leon Herrera admitted to posing as a DEA agent to help his deputy persuade the supposed drug couriers to hand over the cash. He pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal officer, and is now looking at up to three years in prison. His deputy, Vidal Sandoval, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute and theft of government money.

In Houston, a former Cypress-Fairbanks school district police officer was sentenced last Wednesday to a year in jail for offering to not charge a woman he caught with marijuana if she let him lick her feet or gave him her underwear. Patrick Quinn, 27, told the victim he had a foot fetish, but he later relented and let her go without any kinky favors. He copped to one count of official oppression.

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Chronicle AM: OH Legalizers Spend Big Bucks, CO Cops Now Carrying Naloxone, More (10/23/15)

Ohio pot legalizers are throwing millions of dollars into the effort, the Federal Reserve throws up another obstacle to marijuana banking, some Colorado cops will start carrying naloxone, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Marijuana Banking Hits Another Road Block. In a court filing in Denver Wednesday, the Federal Reserve made clear that it does not plan to accept money from the marijuana industry because pot remains illegal under federal law. Last year, the Treasury Department issued rules for how banks can accept marijuana money, but the Fed isn't interested. Colorado officials aren't pleased. "We're frustrated," said Andrew Freedman, director of marijuana coordination for Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. "We tried to do the most with the building blocks of instructions they sent us, set up the most rigorous solution. And we still are left with confusion."

Ohio Legalization Campaign Outspending Opponents 16 to 1. The ResponsibleOhio legalization campaign has spent $15.4 million trying to get its initiative passed, while opponents have managed to raise only $712,000, most of it from the campaign arm of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. ResponsibleOhio is getting its money from investors, who stand to reap financial benefits by owning one of only 10 commercial marijuana grow sites. The figures come from campaign finance reports released Thursday. Two polls this week show the race to be dead even.

Medical Marijuana

Florida Supreme Court Sets December Date for Hearing on Initiative. The court said it will hear oral arguments on whether language for a medical marijuana initiative complies with state requirements on December 8. The initiative is sponsored by People United for Medical Marijuana, the same group behind last year's failed initiative. (It actually won a majority of the vote, but because it was a constitutional amendment, it needed 60% to pass). The group said it has already turned in nearly half the 683,000 valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the 2016 ballot.

New York Unveils Medical Marijuana Training Course for Doctors. The state Health Department this week rolled out an online medical marijuana training course for physicians who wish to prescribe it. Doctors who want to register to prescribe medical marijuana must first complete the four-hour course. The state aims to have medical marijuana available for patients by next January.

Harm Reduction

Colorado Springs Cops Become First in State to Carry Overdose Reversal Drug. Police in Colorado Springs are currently undergoing training on how to administer naloxone (Narcan), the opioid antagonist that reverses overdoses, and will begin carrying it once training is completed. That's the first police department in the state to do so. The state passed a law last year allowing people other than medical staff to carry and administer the drug.

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Chronicle AM: ME Legalizers Unite, OR Issues Rules for Marijuana Industry, More (10/26/15)

Two competing Maine legalization initiative campaigns will now work together, North Dakota will try again to get a medical marijuana initiative passed, the GAO has questions about National Guard drug war spending, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Maine's Competing Legalization Initiatives Join Forces. The Marijuana Policy Project-backed Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol announced today that it is suspending signature-gathering for its proposed legalization initiative, and will instead be joining forces with the group Legalize Maine, which agreed to have MPP spearheading the campaign to pass the similar initiative they had filed. This should end the threat of a splintered legalization movement losing next year, as well as the opposite-end threat of two legalizing initiatives passing, which would give the state legislature a chance to sort out conflicts between the two. Click on the title link for more details.

Oregon Sets Rules for Marijuana Industry. The state Liquor Control Commission last Thursday approved wide-ranging rules to guide the launch of the state's legal marijuana industry next year. The rules establish a seed-to-sale tracking system, two-tiered licensing for commercial grows, a home delivery system, standards for edibles packaging, a ban on felons working as budtenders, and much more. Click on the link to see it all.

Medical Marijuana

North Dakotans Will Try Another Medical Marijuana Initiative. Medical marijuana supporters intend to submit initiative language tomorrow for an initiative aimed at the 2016 ballot. The initiative would create a full-fledged medical marijuana system, complete with dispensaries. Past legislative and initiative efforts to bring medical marijuana to the state have all failed. The initiative will need signatures from 13,500 registered voters to qualify for the ballot.

Law Enforcement

GAO Says National Guard Drug War Spending Lacks Way to Evaluate Performance. Congress has been funding the National Guard Bureau's counterdrug budget to the tune of more than $200 million a year for the past decade, a new GAO report finds. It also finds that no one knows how effectively that money is being spent. GAO said the National Guard has performance measures, but doesn't use them to evaluate and inform funding levels. "Without collecting and using useful performance information to evaluate state-level programs and oversee the counterdrug schools, DOD and Congress cannot ensure that the counterdrug program is achieving its desired results and is distributing its funding most efficiently," the report says.

International

Third Jamaican Company Wins Marijuana Cultivation License. Herbal Health Care Ltd. has become the third entity granted permission to grow marijuana. Government officials granted the license last Thursday. "They were granted a permit this morning (Thursday) to cultivate marijuana/ganja for the purpose of research," said Phillip Paulwell, minister of science, technology, energy, and mining. "They do have long-term objectives in terms of commercialization, but they certainly would be awaiting the Cannabis Licensing Authority's regulations to pursue that aspect. What I do know is that they are very keen on doing research on the essential oils and to do value-added products for the export market."

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Chronicle AM: One Week to OH Vote, DEA Raids Menominee Hemp Grow, Iranians for Legalization???, More (10/27/15)

Menominee tribal officials are scratching their heads after the DEA cut down their hemp crop, Ohio votes on legalization in one week, some new federal sentencing statistics are out, the Iranians may be thinking about legalizing marijuana and/or opium, and more.

Marijuana Policy

DEA Raids Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, Cuts Down Hemp Plants. DEA agents swarmed the reservation last Friday and cut down 30,000 cannabis plants. The tribe says they were hemp plants; the DEA claims they were marijuana plants. Hemp has very low levels of THC, but it is not clear that the DEA actually tested THC levels. In any case, under a Justice Department policy announced last fall, tribes are supposed to be able to grow marijuana on tribal lands, provided they don't fall afoul of Justice Department concerns about out-of-jurisdiction trafficking, dealing to children, organized crime activities and the like.

Both Michigan Legalization Campaigns Have Money in the Bank. According to quarterly financial reports filed Monday, the state's two different marijuana legalization efforts are both pulling in cash, but still have a long way to go on signature gathering. MI Legalize has raised $308,000 and spent $249,000 so far as it seeks to gather some 252,523 valid voter signatures by December. The Michigan Cannabis Coalition has raised $351,000 and spent $284,000. The coalition has temporarily halted signature-gathering, even though it says it is roughly 50,000 signatures short, saying the move is a "strategic decision" and petitioning will soon resume. The coalition effort has until January to turn in signatures. MI Legalize would allow taxed and regulated marijuana sales with a 10% retail sales tax; the coalition effort also legalize, but would rely on the state legislature to set taxes and set licensing requirements.

Ohio Votes on Marijuana Legalization in One Week. The ResponsibleOhio legalization initiative is too close to call a week out from election day. The initiative would legalize marijuana, but only allow 10 commercial marijuana grows allotted to campaign backers. Polls in the past week have shown the race in a dead heat. Stay tuned.

Medical Marijuana

Change.org Petition for the Kettle Falls Five. Prosecuted as marijuana traffickers for growing medical marijuana for their own use in a state where marijuana is legal, three of the Kettle Falls Five were sentenced earlier this month to federal prison. The petition here seeks "immediate orders of commutation and remission of jail time and fines for Rolland Gregg, his wife Michelle Gregg, and his mother Rhonda Firestack-Harvey. We seek complete pardons of their convictions so that they are no longer considered felons. Allow them to return to being the productive members of society they were, before this ordeal began." Click on the link to add your signature.

Sentencing

More Than Half of Federal Drug Prisoners Are Doing Time for Cocaine. A new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics reveals that, as of 2012, 54% of federal drug war prisoners were sentenced for cocaine offenses. Then came meth at 24%, marijuana at 12%, and heroin at 6%. The vast majority (88%) of crack offenders were black, while more than half (54%) of powder cocaine offenders were Hispanic. More than half (59%) of marijuana offenders were Hispanic. Among meth offenders, it was 48% white and 45% Hispanic. One-quarter (24%) of all drug offenders were not US citizens. Click on the link to read the report.

International

Could Iran Be the Next Country to Legalize Marijuana or Opium? A prominent Iranian official has suggested as much. Saeed Sefatian, who made the remarks, is head of the working group for drug demand reduction in the country's Expediency Council, which is largely influential in the country's drug policies. Click on the link for more.

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Chronicle AM: VA Pot Arrests Up, Especially for Blacks; VT Organized Opposition Emerges, More (10/28/15)

Initiative proponents in Arkansas and North Dakota have to go back to the drawing board, Vermont legalization opponents get organized, Virginia pot arrests increase, especially for blacks, and more.

Marijuana Policy

Arkansas Legalization Initiative Language Rejected. State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has rejected a marijuana legalization initiative, citing spelling errors and "ambiguities in the text." The proposal, from Marry Berry of Summit, must now be resubmitted with fixed language.

New York Legislators Call for Marijuana Legalization. At a forum in Buffalo today, two state legislators, Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo) and Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), called for marijuana legalization. They are supporting the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act, Senate Bill 1747.

Vermont Anti-Legalization Group Organizes. There is now organized opposition to marijuana legalization in the Green Mountain State. Opponents have formed a state affiliate of the national anti-legalization group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The group is hoping to block legislative efforts to legalize it, warning that it could result in a "public health crisis." Click on the link for more details.

Virginia Marijuana Arrests Increasing, Especially in Black Communities. A new report from the Drug Policy Alliance finds that marijuana arrests have increased by 57% over the past decade, but have more than doubled for black Virginians. Click on the link for much more.

Medical Marijuana

California Collective Operator Sues Over New State Medical Marijuana Law. Collective operator David Armstrong has filed a lawsuit claiming the state's new medical marijuana law violates the state constitution because it amends a voter initiative, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop 215). Armstrong's attorney, Nicholas Emmanuel, said that although the full effect of the law signed this month is not clear, his client wanted to "get a jump on things."

North Dakota Medical Marijuana Initiative Language Rejected. Secretary of State Al Jaeger (R) Tuesday rejected an initiative from the North Dakota Committee for Medical Marijuana, saying it had errors. Jaeger directed committee members to a petition drafting tool on state government web pages so they can get it right next time.

Asset Forfeiture

Virginia Legislature Again Ponders Asset Forfeiture Reform. The legislature's Virginia Crime Commission met Tuesday to take a second look at passing asset forfeiture reform. A bill that would have ended civil asset forfeiture failed in the state Senate earlier this year. Any decisions on introducing bills on this issue have been held off until at least the next meeting in December.

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