U.S. moves to stop Oglala Lakota hemp farm

--------------

From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stanford@crrh.org>

Background: Pine Ridge is the site of the incident
which keeps Leonard Peltier in prison. Alex White
Plume is also the guy in the movie "Dances With
Wolves" who steals Kevin Kostner's hat.. the movie was
filmed on Pine Ridge.

--------------

THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2002

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered an Oglala Lakota
family to stop planting and harvesting hemp on their
South Dakota ranch after tests showed traces of
marijuana.

U.S. District Judge Richard Battey granted a temporary
restraining order against Alex White Plume and his
family. The White Plumes have come to national
prominence for asserting a sovereign right to grow
hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Law enforcement authorities don't see it that way.
During a pre-dawn raid in August 2000, about 25 armed
agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S.
Marshals Service and the Northern Plains Safe Trails
Drug Task Force stormed the reservation and seized
more than 5,000 plants. No criminal charges were ever
filed and the White Plumes, who have made no secret of
their hemp farm, began planting again. Crops were
destroyed in 2001 but the family wasn't deterred. A

After a planting this past spring, the U.S. Attorney's
office in South Dakota charged the family and others
last week with manufacturing and distributing
marijuana. The suit came after Special Agent J.C.
Salley of the DEA collected at least 400 grams of
plants from the White Plume farm in July. The sample
was sent to a DEA testing facility in Chicago, where
traces of marijuana were detected, according to a
court records.

The dispute here is one of scientific and legal
debate. Hemp and its illicit cousin marijuana both
contain an active ingredient called
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In marijuana, a certain
amount of THC gives users a characteristic "high."
Hemp doesn't do that.

Recognizing the difference, the Oglala Lakota Tribe in
1998 passed a law that legalizes hemp, which can be
used for a number of purposes. The most significant
use on the cash-strapped and equity-poor reservation
is for homes.

"The people used to have the buffalo for our food,
clothing and shelter," said former President Joe
American Horse at the planting of hemp seeds in April
2000, on the 132nd anniversary of the Sioux Nation
Treaty of 1868. "Now, hemp can do that for us."
Federal law doesn't differentiate, however, and the
U.S. considers hemp to be in the same category as
marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.

"The provisions of the Act are general federal laws
concerning the manufacture, possession and
distribution of controlled substances which apply on
the Pine Ridge Reservation with the same force as the
laws apply elsewhere," the U.S. Attorney's office
wrote in an August 9 court document.

Attorneys for the White Plumes did not file court
documents in response to the federal action. After a
hearing on Tuesday, Judge Battey immediately granted
the temporary restraining order pending a full hearing
scheduled for October 1 and October 2. The judge was
acting quickly based on a sale of hemp the White Plumes
negotiated with a Kentucky company. The Madison Hemp
and Flax Company was to pick up the supply yesterday.
The U.S. Attorney wants a permanent injunction against
the White Plumes.

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail: CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email: crrh@crrh.org
phone: (503) 235-4606
fax: (503) 235-0120
web: http://www.crrh.org/