Pubdate: Fri, 31 Mar 2017
Source: Eastern Door, The (CN QU)
Copyright: 2017 The Eastern Door
Contact:  http://www.easterndoor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2464
Author: Jessica Deer

GROUP HAS HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR BUDDING BIZ

With the federal government expected to legalize recreational
marijuana use by 2018, Indigenous people across Turtle Island are
trying to stay one jump ahead of the competition.

The National Indigenous Medical Cannabis Association (NIMCA) was
officially launched on Saturday in Tyendinaga, with the goal to
promote and defend Indigenous peoples relationship with cannabis.

"We are not allowing the Canadian government to regulate the
Indigenous medical cannabis industry. You know who is going to
regulate that? Indians," said Brian Marquis, who was elected at the
president of NIMCA's Ontario chapter.

"All we are doing is asserting our sovereignty by developing another
economic base for our seven generations."

Marquis has been a patient at Legacy 420, Tyendinaga's first medical
cannabis dispensary, for the past three years. He said last year, the
company pulled in significant profits, giving money back into
programming for the community.

"Our little store in Tyendinaga pulled in $28 million last year. Could
you imagine if we put stores in Kahnawake?" said Marquis.

"Our community at first was a little skeptical. I want people to know
that we're not drug dealers. What we are is a group of Mohawk men and
women, and other Indian people from all over this country. This is not
a bad thing for our communities, this is a good thing."

The ability to benefit communities economically is what is driving
Kanehsata'kehro:non Clifton Nicholas' involvement with the new
association.

"The communities can benefit from that. I look at the community, and
this is what attracted me to what they're doing, because they give
back so much. We've become so dependent on those federal dollars -
they do anything they can to keep us down," he said.

"Onkwehon:we people, the original people, most of us don't even have a 
pot to piss in. It's outrageous. There's a billion-dollar market that is 
being developed right now with medical and recreational cannabis. We 
need to get in there before we get shut out."

Marquis said the group is also promoting the benefits of cannabis as
an alternative to dealing with the opioid crisis in First Nations
communities.

"We have a 64 percent success rate when it comes around to treating
people with opioid addictions," he said.

It's something Marquis has had personal experience with, being on
painkillers for eight years following a back injury.

"I got to my doctor one day and said, you know what doc? I'm just
going to stop taking these things. I don't really like them and they
don't work really well for me anymore. He laughed at me and said
you'll never get off those," said Marquis.

"I stopped that day and never took a single one of them. Cannabis
didn't stop the withdrawal symptoms, but they helped me deal with them."

This new association isn't the only Indigenous group turning to the
cannabis industry as a source of socio-economic development.

Last month, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) announced the idea
of entering the medical and recreational cannabis industry at its
winter community meeting.

MCK grand chief Joe Norton said council is continuing to research the
idea, including an upcoming visit to the Toqibue First Nation in New
Brunswick to check out their newly constructed medical cannabis facility.

"They have not applied for a license from the federal government.
They've gone ahead and designed what they have to design. They've
empowered themselves to do what they're doing and they're moving ahead
with that. They've asked us to be involved with them from a
nation-to-nation point of view," said Norton.

"I'd just like to make sure people understand that we're working
diligently, getting them as much information as we can and deciding
whether or not this is something to go into. There's two facets to it,
there's a medical side and the benefits from that, then there's the
business side and whether it's lucrative enough to do this given that
by next year it's going to be legalized in Canada, then what's the
competition like?"

When asked about his thoughts on NIMCA, Norton expressed some
concerns.

"This new organization has a lot of work to do, a lot of convincing to
do," said Norton. "There's merit to it, but in terms of compliance
with the laws out there and in terms of regulatory issues, I would be
very concerned about what's going to be developed as a result."

As the newly-elected Quebec representative for NIMCA, Nicholas said 
he'll be putting together a regional board consisting of Onkwehon:we 
across the province.

"After that we can start approaching communities and gauge what their
interest-level is in medical cannabis," said Nicholas.

However, he said the biggest obstacle they'll face is the stigma
attached to cannabis.

"There's a lot of conservatism in our communities. I think we gotta
start broadening our horizons a little more. We had to be conservative
for the longest time to preserve ourselves and to fight against the
encroachment of white culture, I understand," said Nicholas.

"The future in this industry is right now. It's a billion-dollar
industry and we'd certainly be fools if we let that pass us by."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt