Pubdate: Sun, 28 Dec 2014
Source: Desert Sun, The (Palm Springs, CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Desert Sun
Contact:  http://www.desertsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1112
Note: Does not accept LTEs from outside circulation area.

TRIBES SHOULD CAREFULLY WEIGH POT MOVES

The recent U.S. Justice Department move giving Native American tribes 
the green light to legalize marijuana on their reservations gives us pause.

While we respect the sovereign right of tribal governments to run 
their affairs as they see fit, the situation in the Coachella Valley 
is somewhat unique. The close proximity of tribal territory and 
adjacent cities gives decisions made by one entity tremendous impact 
on the entire region.

This is especially true in Palm Springs, where the Agua Caliente Band 
of Cahuilla Indians has authority over 32,000 acres in the western 
Coachella Valley, including a checkerboard grid of sections 
encompassing about half the city.

For now, it doesn't appear there will be a rush to legalize.

Jeff Grubbe, chairman of the Agua Caliente, told The Desert Sun's 
Barrett Newkirk in an email the tribe had no comment on the Justice 
Department announcement.

Riverside County law enforcement officials say they don't anticipate 
any changes in their dealings with any of the 12 tribes in their jurisdiction.

Capt. Ray Wood, commander of the Riverside County Sheriff's 
Department's Hemet Station and head of the department's Tribal 
Liaison Unit, said marijuana hasn't been a focus of discussion at 
regular check-ins with the tribes.

John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's 
Office, also said it was too soon to speak on what the new federal 
guidelines could mean.

"This is a complicated issue that will need to be discussed with the 
tribes in this county as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office before we 
can comment further," Hall wrote in an email.

The issue arose after some tribes sought Justice Department guidance 
on enforcement of federal drug laws on tribal land following 
legalization in states like Colorado.

The department responded in October with a policy statement to 
federal prosecutors and other law enforcement officials noting that 
the diversity among Indian nations requires flexibility when working 
with tribal leaders on the issue of marijuana.

The policy statement is a sign the Obama administration respects 
tribal authority, and is not really about marijuana legalization, 
said Stephen Pevar, an instructor on American Indian law at New York 
University Law School and author of the book "The Rights of Indians 
and Tribes."

"It's not pro-marijuana or anti-marijuana," Pevar said. "It's pro-sovereignty."

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but has been 
decriminalized for medical purposes in 23 states, including 
California. Recreational marijuana use is legal in two states, 
Washington and Colorado. Voters in two more states, Alaska and 
Oregon, approved initiatives legalizing recreational use set to take 
effect in 2015.

Carl Artman, former U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs assistant secretary 
and member of the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin, suggests that many U.S. 
tribes likely won't be too interested in the marijuana trade.

"When you look at what tribes have to offer - from gaming to 
ecotourism to looking out over the Grand Canyon, just bringing people 
out on the reservation for art or culture - this is not one of the 
things they would normally want," Artman told The Associated Press. 
"It hearkens back to something that's archaic and stereotypical as 
opposed to what the modern day Indian is about."

The rapid spread of legal pot in various forms concerns others as well.

The attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma sued Colorado in the 
U.S. Supreme Court last week, arguing state-legalized marijuana from 
Colorado is improperly spilling across state lines.

The suit invokes the federal government's right to regulate both 
drugs and interstate commerce, and says Colorado's decision to 
legalize marijuana has been "particularly burdensome" to police 
agencies on the other side of the state line.

In June, USA Today highlighted the flow of marijuana from Colorado 
into small towns across Nebraska: felony drug arrests in Chappell, 
Neb., just 7 miles north of the Colorado border have skyrocketed 400 
percent in three years.

These are the types of problems we fear could crop up here if tribal 
legalization occurs absent thoughtful preparation.

Our local tribes have done a great job managing their lucrative 
gaming enterprises. These operations fund tribal development and are 
an integral component of the valley tourism picture. Grubbe has said 
the Agua Caliente tribe employs 2,500 people - clearly a benefit for 
the region.

A 2012 study commissioned by the California Nations Indian Gaming 
Association, a coalition of casino-operating tribes, found that 
Indian gaming has created more than 52,000 jobs in all in California, 
and generates nearly $500 million in state and local revenues.

Marijuana could be another lucrative business for tribes operating 
under the eased federal enforcement guidelines.

We trust Coachella Valley tribes will act wisely if they choose to go 
the path of legalization, following the example of cities such as 
Palm Springs, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs in formulating 
deliberate zoning and licensing policies for such operations. Ideally 
tribal officials will work as good neighbors in close consultation 
with law enforcement and valley city officials to draw up such safeguards.

An excerpt from a (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Gazette editorial 
published Dec. 21 on how the Justice Department could help neighbor 
states with Colorado marijuana:

A weird lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court of the United States 
against Colorado only formalizes what we know. Colorado's marijuana 
free-for-all is a burden to our neighbors. We grow and sell some of 
the most potent pot in the world and it crosses into other states as 
dealers and drug tourists come and go. Colorado voters chose to 
subject themselves and their children to this ill-fated experiment, 
but neighboring states get to live with an abundance of our spillover.

It makes us the neighborhood drug house, lowering the quality of life 
for the rest of the block. That's why Oklahoma and Nebraska want 
judicial relief.

The effect of one state's laws on another state's population is one 
reason the United States Constitution contains an interstate commerce 
clause. It's too often abused, but serves as the only authority the 
federal government has to enforce federal drug laws. The federal 
supremacy clause gives federal law more weight than a conflicting 
state law, but only if the federal law complies with powers granted 
the federal government by the Constitution. In Gonzales v. Raich 
(2005), the Supreme Court ruled the United States Congress may 
criminalize production and use of home-grown marijuana in states that 
approve its use - even for so-called medicinal purposes - because it 
affects interstate commerce. Some call it a gargantuan stretch, but 
nevertheless it is the law.

"The federal government could, tomorrow, come in and shut down every 
dispensary in Colorado under the Substance Control Act," John Suthers 
told The Gazette's editorial board Friday. "But, as you know, the 
Justice Department has sent out all these memos saying if a state is 
in compliance with this, this and that, we're not going to use our 
power to force compliance."

It's only because the federal government has chosen to look the other 
way that Oklahoma and Nebraska felt compelled to sue. They want the 
law enforced, so their children aren't subjected to dangers Colorado 
voters ostensibly imposed only upon themselves.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom