Zephier: tribal cannabis would bring economic growth to Oglala Oyate

Recall President Tony Reider and officials of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Nation advanced their cannabis initiative after an Iowa casino on the border cut into the tribe's gaming business.

The Kul Wicasa Oyate could be the next tribe trapped inside South Dakota to legalize cannabis.

Vice-Chairman Kevin Wright says it's a matter that's crossed the minds of members in the community. “What I gathered from a small group of people is that they want it legalized and they're asking us what we're going to do about it,” said Wright. [KDLT teevee]

Lower Brule has struggled with synthetic "marijuana" but the Nation has off-reservation property in Fort Pierre to test their sovereignty. Tribes are the 51st State to the US Environmental Protection Agency. It just awarded the Lower Brule $200,000 to clean up contamination in their community.

Standing Rock, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Oglala Lakota Nation are also mulling cannabis projects.

“Hemp is a no-brainer and the well regulated legalization of marijuana has been used to jump-start non-Native communities throughout the country,” said Dr. Richard Zephier Ph.D. “Our status as sovereign nations afford us this right, but there are also treaty standards and promises that I plan to stand on.” The land of the Oglala has some of the highest rates of alcohol addiction in the country, and it also has a growing opioid and methamphetamine epidemic. In places where marijuana has been legalized statistics have shown that use rates of other illegal drugs have slowed. It is believed that this is the result of fewer opiate prescriptions being handed out to treat chronic pain. [Candidate For OST President Says He Wants Marijuana And Hemp]

Legislators and other stakeholders should use my model as a roadmap to legalization.

South Dakota media outlets are rife with stories about suicides, meth and heroin epidemics yet Attorney General Marty Jackley chose to take on a sovereign nation alleged to have bought fifty five cannabis seeds even as his homeboys and minions in the law enforcement industry look away from the Sturgis Rally bacchanal.

Now, the State of South Dakota wants to conduct lateral violence on the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

For the record, this blog can't support widespread growing of industrial cannabis (hemp), especially on tribal lands: it is an invasive species capable of overgrowing native grasses. Even in Canada using home grown seed is illegal. Why anyone would want to buy genetically engineered seed from Bayer Crop Science/Monsanto or some other earth hater every year remains a mystery.

CBD products being sold in South Dakota are little different from raw milk, preserves, pies or juices sold at farmers markets but do you always trust their origins? Black market cannabis not tested or subject to inspection makes America and South Dakota less safe so legalizing and regulating a product that so many people enjoy is reasonable public policy aligned with life/safety concerns.

Washington's Suquamish Tribe was a pioneer in the cannabis industry signing the first cannabis compact with any state. Governed by tribal law and by conditions in the compact they operate a retail cannabis shop just across Puget Sound from Seattle on the Port Madison Indian Reservation.

It's time to test South Dakota's jurisdiction over nations where cannabis is legal and for tribal medical professionals to establish clinics that perform abortions on non-contiguous off-reservation parcels as islands of health care that supersede state law.