Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jan 2018
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: 2018 The Hamilton Spectator
Contact:  http://www.thespec.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181
Author: Jeff Mahoney
Page: A1

POT ISSUE COMING TO BOIL ON SIX NATIONS

Responses from survey questioned

Ohsweken - If you ever thought the legal pot thing would go down nice
and mellow anywhere, from Salt Spring Island to St. John's, or Six
Nations in between, what were you smoking?

Case in point. Sunday's gathering at Yogi's Barn, 2318 Chiefswood
Road, Ohsweken, to discuss the results of a recent survey about
cannabis use and regulation in the Six Nations community.

The survey in question shows massive support (in the 80 to 90 per cent
range, based on answers from 731 respondents) for the availability of
marijuana in their territory and for the "sovereign right" of the Six
Nations people to "determine their own path and choices regarding cannabis."

The meeting, attended by about 40 people, was convened by Jeff Hawk,
owner, and Aaron Sault, manager, of Green Health For Six, the cannabis
dispensary (raided by Six Nations Police Jan. 9).

They not only commissioned the survey, but worded the questions and
sent out the questionnaires (through a random post office mailing on
the reserve and, it seems, among some New Credit people). Then they
compiled the results. According to the survey, 88 per cent of
respondents use marijuana, 72 per cent on a daily basis.

"Even a majority of those who don't consume still believe marijuana
should be on the reserve for medicinal purposes (94.9 per cent). And a
little less (86.4 per cent) favour it for recreational purposes," said
Sault, who outlined the results to the gathering.

Most at the meeting seemed to favour the findings of the survey. But
hardly all.

During the long question period after the presentation, Barb Smith,
who lives in Ohsweken, asked, "How many New Credit? The survey was
mailed out to both."

Sault promised he would email the information to her
later.

"You should know now. You're dealing with councils. You're New
Credit," Smith shot back.

Audrey Hill, also of Six Nations, said: "There are flaws in the
survey, and your data is sometimes mixed and obscured. If you do a
survey, you should do it well. But it's a good start. My hat's off to
you."

Hawk, the dispensary owner who led the meeting, argued that the survey
demonstrates the will of the people. He praised the medicinal and
recreational virtues of marijuana, and also questioned why a methadone
clinic is allowed to operate on the reserve when it is, according to
Hawk, not wanted. And yet marijuana, which according to Hawk is
wanted, gets blackballed.

"I'm a healer, not a dealer," Hawk told the gathering.

The meeting went sideways at one point when marijuana activist John
Turmel inflicted a self-aggrandizing lecture on those gathered, about
how to deal with the courts, capped by a sales pitch for his $2 legal
kit. Hawk had to ask him to relinquish the microphone.

Some, while sympathetic, suggested Hawk and Sault were, in effect,
preaching to the choir.

"Maybe we should have a meeting for those against it (marijuana on the
reserve)," said Jim Windle. "Maybe knowing who is putting this on,
they might have stayed away." But some opponents were there. "I'm
against it," said David Bomberry. "I'm against all of it. I don't
think it's OK for Native people. You say it's part of (traditional)
medicine, but it's not part of anything. It doesn't grow here; you
have to plant it."

People at the meeting discussed what might be the shape of taxation
and regulation. According to the survey, most think cannabis
consumption should be regulated "by traditional medicine people,
according to Haudenosaunee custom," with the next most popular option
being "an association of Indigenous cannabis retailers."

Despite the mainly pro-marijuana consensus at the meeting, several
acknowledged that, regardless of what the survey shows, the elected
council and the traditional hereditary councils will have to be
brought in to the debate, as will elders and traditional healers, some
of whom worry that marijuana is a "mind-changer."

The meeting probably left no one with a clear sense of where the path
ahead lies, but no doubt the debate, in Six Nations and elsewhere,
will be a lively one.
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MAP posted-by: Matt