A federally recognized tribe concentrated largely in the Great Lakes region announced last week that it will decriminalize cannabis.

“The Ho-Chunk Nation recognizes that marijuana and its derivatives are natural growth plants with medicinal and industrial applications,” the tribe said in a statement, as quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Indigenous people have used marijuana and hemp for hundreds of years for a variety of purposes and the Ho-Chunk Nation acknowledges its functional purpose.”

Rob Pero, founder of the nonprofit Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, called it “a historic day for Ho-Chunk.”

“We commend their commitment to increasing accessibility to plant medicine. … They are building an environment now, before prohibition ends, that will position them to lead the industry, create sustainable economic opportunity and improve the health and wellbeing of our people,” Pero said, as quoted by the Journal Sentinel.

“Tribes are able today to self-determine their interests in cannabis and the complex landscape requires the navigation of local, tribal, state and federal policy,” Pero adde. “We see the reclassification empowering tribes to engage meaningfully throughout the supply chain, from farming to processing to retail and more, as well as to facilitate interstate nation-to-nation commerce.”

The Ho-Chunk Nation reportedly made the announcement on April 30. According to Wisconsin Public Radio, it means that cannabis will be decriminalized on tribal lands “and Ho-Chunk police will not issue citations for possession.”

What it does not mean, however, is that marijuana is legal there. Wisconsin Public Radio noted that “tribal law experts advise the drug is still illegal,” and that an “FAQ distributed within the Ho-Chunk nation indicates county or state police could still issue citations.”

“Wisconsin is one of six states that has criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans on reservation land under a law known as Public Law 280. The law applies to all federally recognized tribes in Wisconsin except for the Menominee, which is under the jurisdiction of the federal government,” the public radio station said, adding that it “could make it difficult to set up businesses that cultivate or sell cannabis for medicinal or recreational purposes” and that it “could even deter customers who now travel to neighboring states where cannabis is currently legal.”

According to its official website, the Ho-Chunk Nation legislature “is comprised of four branches of government; executive, legislative, judicial and the general council,” which are “made up of 13 representatives called Legislators from four districts, who can serve up to two terms of four (4) years.” Three of the four districts are in Wisconsin, with the fourth covering all districts outside Wisconsin.

Both medical and recreational cannabis are illegal in Wisconsin –– one of the few remaining states with total prohibition on pot. 

A Republican-led effort to pass a medical marijuana bill in this year’s legislative session failed in February. 

The proposal “drew opposition for being too conservative in severely limiting who could have access to medical marijuana and how it would be distributed, while others faulted it for not going far enough,” according to the Associated Press, which added that Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate “objected to having state-run dispensaries, while Democrats pushed for full legalization.”

Democrats in the Badger State, including Gov. Tony Evers, has been an outspoken supporter of marijuana reform, pushing Wisconsin lawmakers to legalize both recreational and medical cannabis.

Evers said in January that he backed the GOP medical marijuana measure, even though it wasn’t as comprehensive as he would prefer. 

“I would think that getting it all done in one fell swoop would be more thoughtful as far as meeting the needs of Wisconsinites that have asked for it,” Evers said at the time. “But if that’s what we can accomplish right now, I’ll be supportive of that.”

Wisconsin could be losing out on precious tax revenue due to its ongoing prohibition. An economic analysis released last year found that neighboring Illinois, where marijuana is legal, has received millions of dollars from cannabis shoppers crossing the border from Wisconsin.

Ho-Chunk Nation leaders said that they anticipate the tribe “entering the cannabis business once it becomes legal in the state,” according to the Journal Sentinel.

The newspaper said that “tribal law experts say there’s still a legal question about whether tribal nations can allow cannabis sales on federal trust reservation land — land that isn’t subject to local jurisdiction or taxes but still must abide by federal law.”

“The only way to do that would be on tribal trust land/Indian country land, and since federal law still bans cannabis, no, there’s no way,” Matthew Fletcher, a law professor at the University of Michigan told the newspaper. “That doesn’t mean tribes won’t do it, but they are at the complete mercy of the whims of the federal government’s decision to prosecute or not. It’s no way to do business. Same is true even if the state makes it legal.”

The post Ho-Chunk Nation Decriminalizes Cannabis first appeared on High Times.

The post Ho-Chunk Nation Decriminalizes Cannabis appeared first on Paradise Found.

For the state of Illinois, a thank you might be in order for its neighbors to the north. A newly released analysis says that Illinois collected millions of dollars in tax revenue from Wisconsin residents who crossed the border to buy legal marijuana. 

The two Great Lakes states border each other––Wisconsin abutting Illinois to the north––but they have very different laws on cannabis.

Illinois legalized recreational marijuana in 2019, and a state-sanctioned adult-use market launched at the beginning of 2020. The state also legalized medical cannabis in 2013.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, is one of the last remaining states where both recreational and medical marijuana are still illegal. 

Democrats in Wisconsin are determined to change that––including one lawmaker who released an analysis last week showing that the state is losing millions in potential tax revenue to Illinois. 

The report from Wisconsin’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau “estimated that $36.1 million of Illinois cannabis tax revenues in fiscal year 2022 were attributable to sales of cannabis made to Wisconsin residents.” 

The analysis “assumes that all sales to out-of-state residents in counties bordering Wisconsin were made to Wisconsin residents, which are estimated to constitute 7.8% of total Illinois cannabis-related tax revenue,” according to the report, which said that of “the sales made in counties bordering Wisconsin, $121.2 million, or 50.6%, of these sales were to out-of-state residents.”

“Relative to marijuana sales statewide, approximately 7.8% of total cannabis sales revenue in Illinois came from sales made to out-of-state residents in counties bordering Wisconsin in calendar year 2022,” the analysis said.

The report came at the request of Democratic state Sen. Melissa Agard, who has championed marijuana legalization proposals in the Wisconsin legislature for years. 

Agard, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, expressed frustration at the findings.

“It should upset every Wisconsinite that our hard earned tax dollars are going across the border to Illinois. This is revenue that could be going toward Wisconsin’s public schools, transportation infrastructure, and public safety. Instead, Illinois is reaping the benefits of Republican obstructionism and their prohibitionist stance on marijuana legalization,” Agard said in a statement last week.

Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of the Wisconsin legislature, as they have for more than a decade, which has diminished the chances for legalization. 

Wisconsin Democrats like Agard, and the state’s governor, Tony Evers, overwhelmingly support an end to the prohibition. 

“Republicans’ continued refusal to legalize marijuana is fiscally irresponsible. Wisconsinites paid more than $31 million – just in taxes – to Illinois in 2022. Wisconsin’s loss of potential revenue is even larger if we include taxes paid to Michigan, as well as Minnesota in the near future. Wisconsin is losing out on significant tax dollars that could be used to make our communities stronger, safer, and healthier,” Agard said in the statement. 

“We are an island of prohibition and the people of our state are hurting because of it. As seen in our neighboring states, legalizing marijuana for responsible adult usage will generate significant revenue for our mainstreets, safely regulate the existing illicit market, reinvest in our agriculture and farming heritage, support entrepreneurship, and address the massive and egregious racial disparities from marijuana prohibition,” Agard continued. 

“The fundamental aspect of our job as legislators is to listen to the people we represent. The people of Wisconsin have been asking the legislature to take up common sense measures that will push our state forward. We know that legalizing cannabis for responsible adult use is wildly popular among Wisconsinites, including the majority of Republicans.”

The post Northern Windfall: Wisconsin Residents Spend Millions on Pot in Illinois appeared first on High Times.

The post Northern Windfall: Wisconsin Residents Spend Millions on Pot in Illinois appeared first on Paradise Found.