Family seeks the right to grow hemp

Members of a family say they were growing hemp, not marijuana, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and asked federal appeals judges Monday to return the matter to a lower court to consider the legality of their crop.

The White Plume family tried three times to grow an industrial hemp crop on Oglala Sioux reservation land from 2000 to 2002, only to have the plants seized and destroyed by the federal government. The family was later ordered by a judge to halt the plantings permanently.

"Our contention is we're not growing a drug, and since we're not growing a drug, we don't need to apply to the government for permission," said lawyer Bruce Ellison, who represents brothers Alex and Percy White Plume.

A lawyer for the government said the family could have applied to the Drug Enforcement Agency to seek permission to grow the crop. Without that permission, the plantings could not be allowed, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Salter.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MO_HEMP_HEARING_KYOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-12-14-06-19

to grow hemp? I did not know that. What in the hell am I doing farming brome grass then?

Good luck to them.

and they apparently have the power to grant permission.
But don't hold your breath.

the difference between hemp & marijuana. This is a crop that would grow out here without irrigation and we import millions of tons of hemp from Canada for processing into the various products that are manufactured in the US. It is an insane law. And what the federal govt has done to the White Plume family is insane too.

why do they need permission to do anything? Especially, if their tribe has been granted sovereignty.

Most live a Third World life. Suicide, drug addiction, disease, and extreme poverty are the norm. Many live through a SD winter with NO heat, in sub-standard shacks. There are zero jobs, except for maybe the BIA, and that's very much "who you know." If the damned government can't make companies "outsource" jobs to Pine Ridge, then let them grow hemp and try to make some money.

I sponsor a college student from this reservation -- the way these US citizens must live is disgusting! This nation needs to help them, instead of spending our money on stupid stuff, like the Iraq war or Ipods. I mean it.

The living conditions are deplorable...

That's one reason why Pine Ridge has had so much of it's land basically given away to mining companies...

their own police and state police/feds aren't allowed to go there unless invited. They aren't taxed, either. So why can't members of a res grow hemp?

...and because the US federal courts uphold government injunctions.

White man speak with forked tongue.

Or, as Alex White Plume once told me: "White man's ways are crazy ways."

When they WANT to. I know there are technically sovereign, but I also know alot of Ogala, and they think that concept is a joke.