NEWS

Menominee hemp crop on hold until lawsuit settled

Jeff Bollier
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREEN BAY - Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin Chairwoman Joan Delabreau said Friday the tribe will not plant a new crop of industrial hemp until a federal judge rules on its case against the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Delabreau said a DEA raid last fall that destroyed a crop of industrial hemp plants has cost the Menominee millions of dollars and painted the tribe “with a very ugly brush that we were growing high-grade marijuana.” She made her comments after attorneys for the tribe and the federal government presented oral arguments before U.S. District Judge William Griesbach on the DEA’s motion to dismiss the case.

“It’s been a considerable struggle,” Delabreau said outside the federal courthouse in Green Bay. “We just want to get the ruling and move on.”

She said the tribe’s attorney, Tim Purdon, made strong arguments Friday that the College of the Menominee Nation has the right to grow industrial hemp for research purposes.

Industrial hemp has a minuscule concentration of THC, the active chemical in marijuana, but it has myriad commercial uses from hemp oil for health and beauty products to hemp fiber for boards and a hemp-based concrete. The tribe wants to explore the cultivation of hemp as a way to boost its struggling economy.

Federal law allows cultivation of hemp as a research project by states and institutions of higher education in states that have adopted laws permitting such projects. Purdon argued that the Menominee Indian Tribe is a sovereign nation that has met the requirements of the law by approving a tribal ordinance to allow the growth of industrial hemp for research purposes.

He said the tribe acted as a state and the grow was done in coordination with the College of Menominee Nation.

Under its motion to dismiss the case, Department of Justice Attorney Kathryn Wyer argued that the term “state” only applies to Wisconsin. Growing hemp is illegal in Wisconsin and the law prohibits colleges from growing industrial hemp for research purposes.

Griesbach has not scheduled a timeline for ruling on the motion.

jbollier@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GBstreetwise .