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Posts published in “Issues”

Jamaican Cannabis Struggles to Integrate Traditional Growers

From Talking Drugs by MillaMay Garrow November 9 2023 The regulation of cannabis in Jamaica is an important issue to get right given the countries’ historical and cultural link to the drug. With its arrival in the mid-19th Century from Indian indentured servants, cannabis quickly became aligned with social and political movements of…

Former National Chief Del Riley to assist Mi’kmaw fisherman in New Brunswick constitutional challenge 

CAMPBELLTON, NB – On October 12th, 2023, Mi’kmaw fisherman Copy Caplin appeared in court to fight an attempt by Crown prosecutor Denis Lavoie to summarily dismiss his constitutional challenge as “manifestly frivolous.” Caplin, a Mi’kmaw man from Ugpi’ganjig Eel River Bar First Nation, has been fighting charges under the Fisheries Act for exercising his Aboriginal and treaty rights to fish for food. 

Quebec decision on Mohawk tobacco trade a ‘game-changing advancement’ in Aboriginal law, says lawyer

Court proposes new test to determine existence of Aboriginal right based on Indigenous legal system From Canadian Lawyer Mag by Aidan Macnab November 7 2023 A Quebec court has proposed a new test for determining the existence of an Aboriginal right based on whether the right was protected in the…

Is the Indigenous cannabis industry under financial blockade from Canada?

While some Indigenous dispensary owners have had their accounts closed for years, there seems to have been a recent uptick in financial actions taken against Indigenous entrepreneurs, almost to the point of an economic embargo. Many of these actions have taken place against individuals living in territories where Band Councils have passed by-laws acknowledging the sovereign right of their residents to cultivate and sell cannabis and where referendums and surveys have shown community support for the cannabis industry.

Chief Del Riley speaks at Highway 17 Dispensary and Trading Post in Massey

Over forty people came out to hear former National Chief Del Riley speak at the grand opening of the Highway 17 Dispensary and Trading Post in Massey on August 17th, 2023. The trading post is the latest sovereign cannabis dispensary to open up off-reserve as Indigenous entrepreneurs move beyond the Indian Act and assert Aboriginal and treaty rights to their traditional territory.

Brantford police raid sovereign Indigenous cannabis shop on Mohawk lands

A sovereign Indigenous cannabis store operating in downtown Brantford, Ontario was robbed on Tuesday Sept 12th by the Brantford Police department. Sovern 4/20, which opened the day before the raid occurred, is located at 14 Dalhousie Street on lands deeded by the Crown to the “Mohawks and such others of the Six Nations” by the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784.

Stratford police board says ‘no extra attention’ will be paid to unlicensed Indigenous pot shop

The owners of an unlicensed Indigenous pot shop are celebrating after the Stratford police services board said “no extra attention would be paid” to the business at Wednesday’s meeting. From Simcoe Reformer by Galen Simmons September 14 2023 The Indigenous co-owner of an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary says he feels…