A<\/span>s \u201cdomestic dependent nations,\u201d Native American tribes have their own state sovereignty\u2026 to a point.\u00a0Though it takes a meeting of law professors to sort out the exact relationship between the U.S. federal government and the Native Americans living on reservations \u2014 and even the professors would disagree \u2014 what is clear is that tribes are allowed to have their own courts and their own criminal codes. This is partially why most casinos in America are on tribal land (or in Nevada, a state with uniquely permissive gambling laws).<\/p>\n So shouldn\u2019t tribes also be allowed to grow cannabis, if they want, and don\u2019t they have the right to grow it and sell it outside of state law, which sometimes-but-not-always doesn\u2019t apply to them?<\/p>\n A group of\u00a0California<\/a>\u00a0tribes have publicly said that setting up their own system for legal cannabis sales is within their legal purview, and so that\u2019s what they might do \u2014 and there\u2019s nothing California can do about it, aside from grant them the right to do so, as many other states have done.<\/p>\n Last fall, the California Native American Cannabis Association pushed California Gov. Jerry Brown\u00a0to include specific and separate rules for sovereign Indian nations<\/a>\u00a0in the state\u2019s new commercial cannabis regulations, which went into effect on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n Brown didn\u2019t, and the state\u2019s $7 billion cannabis industry rolled out adult-use sales without any special rules for what could happen on reservations. Under California\u2019s temporary rules for the regulated cannabis market, tribes wishing to sell cannabis need to surrender their \u201csovereign immunity,\u201d and sign a waiver that attests to the state of California\u2019s right to regulate all marijuana activity on tribal lands.<\/p>\n According to the Native American Cannabis Association, that amounts to a violation of what limited rights they enjoy. Since they are legally allowed to set some of their own rules, obeying California state marijuana law amounts to little more than a courtesy \u2014 one they are not required to provide \u2014 and they can and might start growing their own, outside of the state\u2019s still-young recreational marijuana laws.<\/p>\n This is a big deal in California, which is the country\u2019s most populous state, the country\u2019s biggest cannabis market and the state with the most federally recognized indigenous tribes. There are more than 100 native nations in the state. As many as 20 are interested in growing cannabis,\u00a0as the Associated Press reported.<\/a><\/p>\n With California\u2019s legal recreational marijuana taxed so heavily, the prospect of an alternate market on tribal land with lower taxes is enticing for consumers and aggravating and concerning for regulators.<\/p>\n But California tribes say they want an agreement similar to the one in place between tribes in Washington and that state\u2019s governor. There, tribes\u00a0signed a compact<\/a>\u00a0with the state saying that they would operate under their own sovereign regulatory system, but would also enact the same tax rate as the state.<\/p>\n In this way, a tribe can grow and sell cannabis on its own terms on the reservation \u2014 as one tribe, the Suquamish,\u00a0has done with its Agate Dreams dispensary<\/a>, a successful operation that\u2019s set for expansion.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear why Brown hasn\u2019t inked such deals with his state\u2019s tribes, but either way, a compromise could come via the state legislature. Further complicating matters is the fact that what limited protections from federal marijuana law tribes enjoyed appear now to be gone.<\/p>\n In January, Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u00a0announced the revocation<\/a>\u00a0of a series of memos that gave state-legal cannabis operations some measure of protection. Among the Obama-era policies that no longer apply was a provision that limited the federal government\u2019s ability to crack down on cannabis operations located on tribal land.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s not certain the memo had much value in the first place.<\/p>\n In 2015, a combined state and federal drug task force\u00a0raided the Pit River XL Ranch Reservation<\/a>\u00a0near Alturas in Modoc County, in California\u2019s remote northwestern corner. Agents seized 12,000 plants and more than 100 pounds of processed cannabis \u2014 an operation run by some members of the tribe, dimed out by other members who didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n The threat of enforcement would seem to be enough to keep investors away from reservations. But would tribes be subject to drug raids if they went ahead with their threats? You could ask a law professor. For now, the question is still academic.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/b>\u00a0did you know that Native Americans have tribal sovereignty?<\/p>\n The post Native Tribes Assert Sovereignty Over CA Pot Laws<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Can California Native American tribes grow and sell their own marijuana? Given that Native American tribes are semi-independent nations within the United States, some Californian tribes are arguing they shouldn\u2019t have to abide by the authority of the Golden State\u2019s cannabis program. As \u201cdomestic dependent nations,\u201d Native American tribes haveContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3567,40,148,50,80,3568,3569,81,98],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24219,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24218\/revisions\/24219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Native Tribes Assert Sovereignty Over CA Pot Laws<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"