Tribe Could Become State's First to Grow and Sell Marijuana on Its Lands

Indian tribes have the right to legalize marijuana on their own lands, the federal government now says.

At least one Minnesota tribe may do just that.

The Red Lake Band of Chippewa announced in January that it will study the idea legalizing medical marijuana and industrial hemp on the reservation north of Bemidji.

"Whatever we do, it will be done very carefully," Red Lake Chairman Darrell Seki Sr. announced after the Red Lake Tribal Council voted Jan. 13 to conduct a feasibility study into the economic benefits - and potential risks - of getting into the cannabis business. Seki will conduct a series of community meetings around the Red Lake Nation throughout February.

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The Body of Andrew Sadek Was Recovered From the Red River Last Year.

A North Dakota college student whose body was found last year in the Red River had worked as an informant for a drug task force until shortly before he died, according to a report by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

Andrew Sadek, who died of a gunshot to the head, was recruited as an informant after he allegedly sold less than an ounce of marijuana to a police operative twice on the North Dakota State College of Science campus in April 2013. After authorities allegedly found a marijuana grinder in his dorm room in November 2013, they interviewed Sadek and told him about the charges he could face.

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Gov. Mark Dayton's proposals this year include a half-cent metro-area sales tax increase to pay for transit. In my industry as a jeweler, our sales tax is already high enough to drive a very high percentage of diamond buyers online to avoid many hundreds of dollars in tax on their once-in-a-lifetime, expensive engagement ring purchase.

Instead of raising the sales tax, how about embracing the inevitable and legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana? New taxes collected could be designated for infrastructure renewal without raising sales taxes and driving more business out of state. This could be quite a boon to our economy, provided lawmakers strike a good tax rate balance to avoid driving pot sales underground.

James Roettger, Minneapolis

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MADISON, MINN. - Minnesota mother Angela Brown, who gave her son an illegal drug that will be legal by this time next year, appeared in Lac qui Parle County court Wednesday morning, where her attorney appealed for the charges against her to be dismissed.

Brown stands accused of two gross misdemeanor counts of child endangerment for giving cannabis oil to her son Trey, who suffered seizures and agonizing pain from a head injury.

By July, medical marijuana will be legal in Minnesota. But since that law isn't in effect yet, the Lac qui Parle County attorney opted to prosecute Brown after an official at Trey's school tipped off child protective services. Brown is charged, not with possession of the small amount of cannabis in the dropper bottle, but of endangering her child by involving him in a drug transaction.

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Minnesota's eight medical marijuana centers won't be conveniently located for many outside the Twin Cities.

Minnesota has 87 counties, but you'll only be able to buy medical marijuana in eight of them. With half the state's proposed clinics clustered around the Twin Cities, gaps in the cannabis coverage map will leave some families hours away from the nearest clinic.

Four marijuana distribution sites will open within 20 miles of the Twin Cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Eagan and Maple Grove. Four more will open outstate: St. Cloud, Hibbing, Moorhead and Rochester. The first clinics will open by July, when patients with serious, chronic or terminal illnesses can begin lining up to buy cannabis products legally.

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Minnesota's leap into the era of legal weed began with the selection last week of two companies that will grow, process and sell medical cannabis to patients.

LeafLine Labs and Minnesota Medical Solutions proved to the state that they had the financial wherewithal, technical prowess and security procedures to do the job.

But if you want to know the details, you're out of luck.

Much of that information has been redacted from the companies' applications, which have been posted on the website of the state Department of Health. They're considered trade secrets, nonpublic business data or sensitive security information. Minnesota law allows the state to keep that information from us.

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The State Will Reveal Two Suppliers on Monday.

Next week, the Minnesota Department of Health will name the two companies it has selected to grow and refine the state's entire supply of medical marijuana.

While some communities are ready to welcome new agribusinesses, others have taken steps to block marijuana outlets from setting up shop.

The city of Duluth, which spent years battling a downtown head shop, just passed a six-to 12-month moratorium on any talk of zoning for medical marijuana manufacturing or dispensing facilities. The Minneapolis suburb of Richfield passed a similar moratorium in October after two different cannabis companies approached the city about setting up dispensaries there, should they get the nod from the state.

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By putting "Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis" and "Legal Marijuana Now" under the names of legalization candidates, Minnesotans saw legalization on the ballot for the first time and voted for it in record numbers.

Dan Vacek's plebiscite-by-proxy theory worked so well that even the monopoly media censorship of minor parties couldn't stop the voters from seeing legalization on the ballot. Vacek earned 57,602 votes for Legal Marijuana Now, spent less than $500 and outpolled better-funded, better-publicized candidates from the Independence, Green and Libertarian parties - all of whom supported marijuana legalization but didn't say so on their ballot designation.

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Two years ago, we lost the vote on two vital issues: The marriage amendment and voter ID. There is another big issue lurking and, it seems to me, will be coming up in the near future. That is legalization of marijuana. It is already legal in Minnesota for medical use, and that has been a first step to further open the door to "recreational" marijuana. From information out of Colorado, it has been socially disastrous and legally chaotic.

We failed to protect the future of our children and grandchildren two years ago. Don't let it happen again. Get out and vote for the conservative candidates who will support your values. It really is important.

DON ENGEBRETSON, Excelsior

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Don't drool over the tax revenue. Know that medical cannabis is competition. Worry about edibles.

Colorado and Washington state knew they were jumping into the unknown when voters legalized recreational marijuana two years ago. They just didn't know the half of it. But thanks to what we've learned from the two pioneering states, it is easier for those that follow to separate hype from hemp.

The experience should not discourage other places from taking the legalization plunge but rather help them design a system that works better, a necessary step as the movement spreads. (Legalization plans are on the November ballot in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C. - and California and Nevada, among others, are likely to follow in a year or two).

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It Took Four Years to Obtain Approval for One Pain Study.

Within a year, patients will be lining up to buy medical marijuana legally in Minnesota.

But for the state's scientists, it's still a struggle to do basic research into the plant's medicinal properties.

Kalpna Gupta, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, spent four years entangled in federal paperwork before winning approval to study whether vaporized cannabis was an effective pain relief treatment for patients with sickle cell disease. The research itself will take another four years.

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Minnesota business owners say the inability of some job candidates to pass a simple drug test adds an extra burden to running a factory.

Erick Ajax spent years designing a program that trains students to use the hulking machinery inside his Fridley metal stamping plant. But a troubling, pervasive trend is preventing some from ever making it to the factory floor: drug use.

"In 2007, I lost 10 percent of my workforce to methamphetamine. That was just heartbreaking. It's clearly an issue and an ongoing challenge," said Ajax, who now drug tests all new hires and randomly tests his 60-person staff.

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Elk River may add a new weapon to the local war on drugs.

Funding for a new drug task force detective is in the city's preliminary budget for 2015.

Council members heard more about the position during a budget work session Monday and expressed some support for it. But a final decision won't be made until the budget is finalized later this year.

Under the plan, the Elk River Police Department would assign an existing officer to the Sherburne County Drug Task Force as a detective, and hire a new entry-level officer to fill that vacated position. Total cost is estimated at $67,000 to $77,000.

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A path Jessica Hauser never expected to be traveling is moving her and her family toward a crossroads.

The journey began when the Woodbury woman's son, Wyatt, was diagnosed seven months into his young life with an epileptic condition called infantile spasms.

As Hauser and her husband Jeremy learned over time, the condition would cause Wyatt to have about 200 seizures a day.

"It's horrible," Jessica said of watching her son experience the seizures. "I wouldn't wish this upon anyone."

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ST. PAUL -- Dr. Marshall Brinton saw the headlines after Minnesota passed a medical marijuana law, looked around at the equipment in his old veterinary laboratory and thought, "Yeah, I could do that."

A retired veterinarian in Willmar, Brinton hopes to convert the lab where he once made vaccines for animals into one of Minnesota's two medical marijuana production facilities.

After the long slog to legalize medical marijuana, the state's real work has begun to get the unconventional medicine in severely ill patients' hands by this time next year. Next steps range from the mundane, such as securing office space, to integral pieces, such as building a computer system to register patients and track their medication, hiring a research director to help determine dosages and placing eight dispensaries across Minnesota.

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WILLMAR -- The Willmar Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday to consider a conditional use permit requested by retired veterinarian Dr. Marshall Brinton to allow a medical marijuana production lab/dispensary.

Brinton has requested the permit to operate the production lab/dispensary in laboratory facilities he owns at 208 Lakeland Dr. S.E.

The hearing will be held in the meeting room at the Willmar Fire Station, 515 Second St. S.E.

City Planner Megan DeSchepper said the conditional use permit is required because medical marijuana production is not listed as a land use in any section of the city zoning ordinance.

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Minnesota's new medical marijuana law is intentionally and appropriately

narrow. Those who truly need the beneficial compounds in cannabis will be able to get it, not by smoking but by ingesting pills or liquid, just like other medications. The law is written tightly

enough to discourage the abuse and problems seen in other states, especially those that have legalized marijuana for recreational use.

That's because "disquieting new trends and statistics are proving (marijuana's) unique dangers for those most vulnerable to its effects: children," Dr. David Sack, an expert in addiction psychiatry, especially among adolescents and young adults, wrote in a commentary published last week by the Los Angeles Times.

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Medical marijuana is coming to Minnesota next summer.

Rather than joints or other illicit forms of the street drug, medical pot will be made into oils, vapors or pills by two Minnesota manufacturers to be chosen by the state yet this year.

Those two manufacturers will set up eight distribution centers, or dispensaries, between them, spread geographically across the state to make patient access easier, said Michael Schommer, communications director with the Minnesota Department of Health.

To receive the drugs, patients must be certified as having one of several medical conditions outlined in new legislation created by the Minnesota Legislature, and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton.

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The November ballot will have a handful of candidates who hope to legalize recreational marijuana in Minnesota.

In November, in a number of high-profile political races, voters will be able to choose between a Democrat, a Republican and a bunch of candidates who want to legalize marijuana for everyone.

Take the contest for governor. Don't expect Gov. Mark Dayton, or any of his potential Republican opponents, to back a law that would make Minnesota like Colorado or Washington, the two states where citizens in 2012 voted to decriminalize pot. It's still the rare prominent Democrat or Republican politician who will get behind a move like that, despite the growing number of states including Minnesota that now have medical marijuana laws.

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Independence Party congressional candidate John Denney wants to legalize marijuana and has other libertarian views.

It's one of many libertarian stances taken by Denney, a candidate in Minnesota's 6th Congressional District. Yet Denney says he's more pragmatic than some other libertarians and takes a different tack on campaign finance reform, which he champions.

In April, the Independence Party endorsed Denney for the 6th District seat. He's a 28-year-old law student from Stacy who hasn't held or run for other elected offices.

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