In May the Red Lake Nation in occupied Minnesota voted to legalize therapeutic cannabis expanding the list of qualifying symptoms for tribal patients seeking treatment in the first application of cannabis flower in the state. The White Earth Nation voted to legalize for some patients and according to activist, Winona LaDuke hopes are high that voters will embrace the Oklahoma model, home to the loosest therapeutic cannabis rules in America.
With the help of an Indigenous firebrand a Chinese syndicate had been growing cannabis on the Navajo Nation so the tribal council has changed the definition of marijuana to include the entire plant, industrial or otherwise.
“Oklahoma, it’s like a heaven there,” said Bryan Peng, a Los Angeles-based marijuana farm manager whose grow site in New Mexico was shut down by the federal raid in November. “The sky is the limit. We can take it to the next level.” By any measure, the New Mexico venture was a disaster for Chinese investors and growers alike. “We are victims, we lost our money and our reputations all because of a scam by Dineh Benally,” said Peng, the farm manager. “We tried to help the local people here and bring up the economy. Why did they show us so much disrespect and chase us off like rats?” Unlike other states, growers in Oklahoma have no cap on the number of plants they can grow. [Fields of Green, Searchlight New Mexico]New Mexico has more patients in its therapeutic cannabis program than Colorado does and Speaker of the New Mexico House Brian Egolf not only supports legalization for all adults he serves as legal counsel for the state's cannabis volume leader, Ultra Health. As New Mexico's therapeutic cannabis program exceeds 103,000 patients the legislature is poised to legalize cannabis for all adults despite the state being the most water-stressed in the entire US.
Last year the cannabis legalization task force established by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham released details of its discussions to the media. Kelly O’Donnell, an economist and consultant who has studied the market, told participants New Mexico should expect increased tourism especially from red states like Texas and Oklahoma.
Today, Big Dope Ultra wants to monopolize the industry in New Mexico.
“No other state in the entire country is better postured, better positioned to succeed at legalization than New Mexico,” said Duke Rodriguez, founder of Ultra Health, the largest chain of dispensaries in the state. While transporting cannabis across state lines remains illegal under federal law, Rodriguez and O’Donnell agreed that Texans would likely make up a significant customer base for New Mexico recreational cannabis. Rodriguez said that Texas has more adults living within 200 miles of the New Mexico border than New Mexico has adults statewide and that visitors could account for around 40% of a potential market for New Mexico cannabis. [Albuquerque Journal, How much green would recreational cannabis bring?]A failure to reach a consensus on legal cannabis for all adults in New Mexico during the last legislative huddle was due in part to Rodriguez' objection to home growing but now with oil and gas revenues in the shitter legislators are far more receptive to legalization.
The US House just passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019 or MORE Act which removes cannabis from Schedule 1 but legalization remains in the hands of the states. The bill's lead sponsor in the Senate is Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala Harris. It's unlikely the bill will pass in the current Senate but after the Georgia runoffs in January Vice President Harris will vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Indian casinos are small banks. It's time for more states to enter cannabis compacts with tribal nations.
— interested party (@larry_kurtz) December 29, 2020
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