The federal bureaucracy hasn\u2019t yet caught up with the law where hemp cultivation and commerce are concerned \u2014 leaving a lot of would-be entrepreneurs and enterprises in the lurch.<\/p>\n
Legislation is now\u00a0pending on Capitol Hill<\/a>\u00a0that calls upon the Food & Drug Administration to finally regulate CBD products, addressing a dilemma that has been outstanding since hemp-derived CBD was legalized under last year\u2019s\u00a0Farm Bill<\/a>. The failure of the FDA to create regulations for CBD as a food additive or drug means many such products actually remain illegal \u2014 despite the clear will of Congress.<\/p>\n The\u00a0U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0has also failed to bring its regulations into conformity with the Farm Bill. The USDA in late May\u00a0issued a memo\u00a0establishing protocols for interstate commerce in hemp.\u00a0But it has still failed to provide any legal clarity on the question of hemp cultivation, including on Native American tribal lands.\u00a0<\/p>\n Given the unique jurisdictional status of such lands, it is the USDA that has the authority to permit and oversee such cultivation. Its failure to issue regulations on the matter is another\u00a0legal hindrance to Native American cannabis cultivation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now the USDA is under pressure from litigation. The\u00a0Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe<\/a>\u00a0has launched suit in a South Dakota federal district court, seeking to force the USDA to approve its plan to regulate hemp production on tribal lands \u2014 or get out of the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under provisions of the Farm Bill, states must submit their plans for hemp cultivation to the USDA for approval before planting can begin. For South Dakota, this doesn\u2019t really matter anyway, as Gov. Kristi Noem in March\u00a0vetoed a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would have allowed hemp cultivation in the state. The good news is that since Indian reservations are considered sovereign entities under federal law (just like states), they may apply separately to cultivate even if the state they are situated in doesn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n The bad news is that the USDA hasn\u2019t issued its own regulations for approval of such plans, meaning everything is at a standstill.<\/p>\n According to the Farm Bill, both state and tribal hemp plans must be approved by USDA within 60 days of being submitted. The USDA received the Santee Sioux plan back on March 8, and the tribe made clear that it had already invested money in anticipation of planting a hemp crop in 2019. The tribe says the USDA\u2019s inaction on the plan places it at jeopardy of losing a revenue source it counted on.<\/p>\n \u201cA delay in approval of the tribal plan and unlawfully withholding tribal authority curtails receipt of the tribal revenue from hemp production at grave cost to tribal members, putting tribal members\u2019 health, safety, and welfare at risk,\u201d the lawsuit states, according to the\u00a0Argus Leader<\/a>\u00a0in Sioux Falls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of approval, the tribe received a letter dated April 24 from Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, saying that no plans would be approved until the USDA established regulations to oversee hemp cultivation and that these regs are not expected to be completed until this fall.<\/p>\n On June 6, the case was dealt a setback when Judge Karen Schreier in Sioux Falls denied the tribe\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction that would have allowed cultivation to commence. The Santee Sioux must now wait until the case is resolved or until the USDA approves the tribe\u2019s production plan, Sioux Falls\u2019\u00a0KSFY<\/a>\u00a0reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n The court\u00a0concluded<\/a>\u00a0that the Farm Bill \u201cprovides exclusive authority to the Secretary to issue rules and regulations\u201d relating to hemp. The court continued: \u201cA harmonious reading of the statute lends to the likelihood that the 60-day window to approve or deny a plan does not begin until regulations are promulgated by the USDA.\u201d<\/p>\n The USDA on June 24 had a series of \u201csummary descriptions\u201d of pending regulations\u00a0published in the Federal Register<\/a>. Among these was \u201cEstablishment of a Domestic Hemp Production Program.\u201d It noted: \u201cThis action is required to implement provisions of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill).\u201d The timetable for this regulation indicated that an \u201cInterim Final Rule\u201d would be ready by August \u2014 too late in the year for the Santee Sioux to plant a hemp crop.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Flandreau Santee Sioux\u00a0voted to legalize<\/a>\u00a0cultivation and use of cannabis on their tribal lands in June 2015. Later that year, tribal leaders announced\u00a0plans for the addition of a cannabis-themed resort to the reservation\u2019s successful casino. Marijuana grown on the rez was to be available in a new nightclub and \u201csmoking lounge.\u201d Plans for \u201csocial consumption<\/a>\u201d of cannabis were being pioneered by the Santee Sioux before various states and municipalities around the country started pursuing the idea. \u201cWe want it to be an adult playground,\u201d tribal president Anthony Reider told the\u00a0Associated Press<\/a>\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n But that November, the Tribal Council voted to temporarily suspend their marijuana operation. Immediately after the vote, the tribe\u2019s first cannabis crop was burned in the fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n The decision was taken after South Dakota officials, including then-Attorney General Marty Jackley, warned that legalization on the reservation would only be seen as applying to tribal members. Therefore, non-tribal members using cannabis on the reservation risked prosecution under state law. Rather than risk a confrontation with state authorities, the tribe agreed to suspend the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the move was explicitly seen as a tactical retreat. Tribal attorney Seth C. Pearman said in a statement, published by\u00a0Indian Country Today<\/a>: \u201cAfter government-to-government consultation with the United States, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is temporarily suspending its marijuana cultivation and distribution facilities. This suspension is pivotal to the continued success of the marijuana venture\u2026 The Tribe will continue to consult with the federal and state governments and hopes to be granted parity with states that have legalized marijuana. The Tribe intends to successfully participate in the marijuana industry, and Tribal leadership is undaunted by this brief sidestep.\u201d<\/p>\n After this setback, hopes were revived for reservation hemp cultivation after the passage of the Farm Bill last December \u2014 only to be met with frustration yet again, this time by USDA foot-dragging.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Santee Sioux are certainly owed a little bit of long-delayed justice from Uncle Sam. Their history is the all-too-familiar one of expropriation of their traditional lands, followed by forced relocation.<\/p>\n The Santee Sioux briefly\u00a0made news<\/a>\u00a0in December 2012, when tribal members made a horseback pilgrimage\u00a0to Mankato, Minnesota. The cross-country ride was made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1862 mass public hanging there of 38 Dakota Sioux men, for crimes allegedly committed in that year\u2019s\u00a0U.S.-Dakota War<\/a>, the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The\u00a0execution order was personally signed by President Abraham Lincoln. After the war, the Dakota were pushed west from their Minnesota homeland and became known as the Santee Sioux. They settled at Flandreau, and a second Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska. <\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, who do you think should be in charge of regulating hemp production?\u00a0<\/p>\n The post South Dakota Tribe Sues USDA Over Right to Grow Hemp<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The federal bureaucracy hasn\u2019t yet caught up with the law where hemp cultivation and commerce are concerned \u2014 leaving a lot of would-be entrepreneurs and enterprises in the lurch. Legislation is now\u00a0pending on Capitol Hill\u00a0that calls upon the Food & Drug Administration to finally regulate CBD products, addressing a dilemmaContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,6846,2667,11175,296,90,11176,11177,1577,11178],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36557"}],"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\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36558,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36557\/revisions\/36558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bureaucracy Bottlenecks Tribal Sovereignty\u00a0<\/h4>\n
First Crop Was Burned \u2014 And Not the Good Way<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: South Dakota Tribe Sues USDA Over Right to Grow Hemp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"