Hemp Farmers Sue Over Seizure

THE ARGUS LEADER
September 9, 2000
By Jennifer Gerrietts

PINE RIDGE, SD - A fight over whether hemp plants seized last month by federal drug agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation are to be destroyed is becoming a question of tribal sovereignty. Both the growers of the hemp and a company that contracted to buy the material have filed lawsuits in federal court in Rapid City seeking to prevent the destruction of the plants.

They argue that a 1998 Oglala Sioux tribal ordinance allows for the growing of industrial hemp - defining hemp and marijuana as distinct products. Under the tribal statute, hemp can be grown if it contains less than one percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the drug that gives marijuana its high.

"We're not afraid because there's the truth on our side," said Tom Cook, project director for the Slim Butte Land Use Association - a group of Oglala landowners who planted the hemp with plans to build homes on the reservation using hemp products. "They can tell the difference between hemp and marijuana; they just don't have the guts to do so," Cook said.

US Attorney Ted McBride said federal law doesn't distinguish between marijuana and hemp - both considered the cannabis sativa plant. The THC amount measured does not matter. "The plant is the plant," McBride said.

On August 24, federal drug agents seized more than 3,700 plants from two small plots. About two dozen armed officers cut down the plants and hauled them away. McBride's office is asking a federal judge for permission to destroy all of the plants, except for ten samples taken for drug testing.

Under some circumstances, farmers can apply for a federal permit to grow hemp, McBride said. The regulations are strict to prevent growers from hiding the marijuana plants within the industrial hemp, he said.

Los Angeles lawyer Thomas Ballanco, who represents Oglala land committee members and the growers, said the tribe has the right to develop new agricultural products on the reservation under federal treaties. Ballanco, who helped the tribe write its 1998 statute on hemp, said the case could lead to other reservations using hemp as a cash crop. "The case is uniquely framed as to what can a tribe do in using agriculture for self-sufficiency," Ballanco said.

Cook said his group is working on prototype housing using recycled tires and a hemp mixture to make an adobe-type home. They have built a test home that uses industrial hemp to make 60 different materials, such as insulation and paneling.

A Delaware-based company called Tierra Madre also has filed suit against the Drug Enforcement Agency and the hemp growers, saying that it had a contract to purchase hemp from grower, Alex White Plume. The company, which researches, develops and trades in industrial hemp products, argues in its suit that the federal government is holding its property. It also argues that the hemp stalks seized by the federal agents cannot be considered marijuana, being a different part of the plant.

Neither company President Joseph W. Hickey, Sr., nor the company's lawyer could be reached for comment Friday. Hickey is known for his association with actor Woody Harrelson who has demonstrated in favor of legalizing hemp and marijuana. In an affidavit, Hickey stated that the seizure of the plants has halted the housing project on the reservation. His company had planned to donate the hemp stalks to build a home for a Lakota elder.

"They demonstrate that building materials may be grown on the land in the community and used to created jobs and housing in the same community where they are most needed," Hickey's affidavit said.

McBride's office filed a motion in the case Friday, saying that the agreement between the company and White Plume was note complete and was entered into following seizure of the plants. "The purpose of entering into the purchase agreement was not lawful, but was to subvert the drug laws of the United States of America, which govern the production of industrial hemp," the federal filing stated.

Lawyers involved in the case expect it to be scheduled soon before a federal judge, who would hold a hearing on the request for an injunction to stop destruction of the plants.

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