The uncertain state of cannabis rights for Native Americans

Many lawmakers continue to say that marijuana policy should be left to individual states. Often, they then either oppose the federal legalization of marijuana or revert to their belief that it is a state matter. As more states legalize marijuana, it might seem that slowly but surely, the United States could legalize marijuana completely, with or without federal legislation. However, this logic overlooks a large group of people: Native Americans.

Cannabis and its thorny legality among indigenous peoples and their sovereign nations remains such an unresolved issue that the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs launched a hearing entitled “Cannabis in Indian Land” which a listening session lately.

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While this committee can stimulate needed dialogue and highlight important issues on the subject, there is no one-size-fits-all opinion or solution. This is because almost every tribal nation has its own unique views and challenges when it comes to legalizing marijuana.

A sovereign nation should, by definition, have ultimate authority over how it operates, but history has shown that this is not always the case with Native Americans, and that includes marijuana laws. While many rules and governance cannot be violated by the federal government, “under U.S. law, Congress has the authority to legislate on tribal matters. Therefore, in connection with efforts to legalize marijuana in the Indian country, federal laws may affect the implementation of legalization.” CDC.

Federally recognized Native American tribes, of which there are well over 500, are often in limbo when it comes to legalizing marijuana. “State and territory medical marijuana markets have been protected by Congress for years. But Native American tribes have never been included in this protection,” he wrote Politically. The article goes even further, saying that some tribes have ceded some of their own sovereignty to states just to ensure their cannabis markets are protected from the federal government. Such deals between states and tribal peoples are just one way to blur borders.

Countries within the Cherokee Nation, for example, became the first area in North Carolina to legalize medicinal cannabis, making marijuana policy somewhat foggy in this western region of the state. In New York, where marijuana was recently legalized, a strange twist of fate in the form of an ordinance currently allows the Mohawk Tribal Council in upstate New York to legally sell marijuana in dispensaries months before it was legal off the reservation.

William Roger Jock, a Good Leaf Dispensary partner on Mohawk lands, explained this change of fortune to ABC News: “We’ve been stepped on for so long, and to have something like this happen is almost liberating.” While this shift in fortune is short-lived, it’s a welcome opportunity for those who often seem to get the short end of the loophole.

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Cannabis in the Native American nations is a complicated issue. There is no single answer or solution as to how to improve the current state of cannabis in indigenous sovereign nations as the issue is complicated and opinions and challenges vary from tribe to tribe across the country.

However, there is one simple thing that can be done to rectify these conflicting and confusing laws. And this thing is that legislators should keep Native Americans in mind and give careful consideration when passing future marijuana laws, and how those laws will affect their lands and the countries that border their nations.