Wisconsin Indian tribe: We won’t plant any more hemp — for now
GREEN BAY, Wis. The leader of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin says it wont plant a new crop of industrial hemp until a federal judge resolves the tribes lawsuit against the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Chairwoman Joan Delabreau says the DEA raid last fall that destroyed the tribes first crop has cost the Menominee millions of dollars and unfairly suggested that we were growing high-grade marijuana. She made her comments Friday after attorneys for the tribe and the federal government presented oral arguments before U.S. District Judge William Griesbach on the DEAs motion to dismiss the case, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported.
Its been a considerable struggle, Delabreau said outside the courthouse in Green Bay. We just want to get the ruling and move on.
Industrial hemp usually has very low levels of THC, the active chemical in marijuana, but it has commercial uses from hemp oil for health and beauty products to hemp fiber for boards and even a hemp-based concrete. The tribe wants to explore the cultivation of hemp as a way to boost the struggling economy on its reservation near Shawano in northeastern Wisconsin.
Tribal attorney Tim Purdon argued that the College of the Menominee Nation has the right to grow industrial hemp for research purposes.
Federal law allows cultivation of hemp as a research project by states and institutions of higher education in states that have ...
