Here’s an interesting tactic that could be taken up by opponents of a tribal pot smoking business being opened up by the Flandreau Santee Sioux – a federal racketeering lawsuit:
A federal law crafted to fight the mob is giving marijuana opponents a new strategy in their battle to stop the expanding industry: racketeering lawsuits.
A Colorado pot shop recently closed after a Washington-based group opposed to legal marijuana sued not just the pot shop but a laundry list of firms doing business with it — from its landlord and accountant to the Iowa bonding company guaranteeing its tax payments. One by one, many of the plaintiffs agreed to stop doing business with Medical Marijuana of the Rockies, until the mountain shop closed its doors and had to sell off its pot at fire-sale prices.
With another lawsuit pending in southern Colorado, the cases represent a new approach to fighting marijuana. If the federal government won’t stop its expansion, pot opponents say, federal racketeering lawsuits could. Marijuana may be legal under state law, but federal drug law still considers any marijuana business organized crime.
This could also be a boon for pot opponents if medical or recreational pot interests try to set up in South Dakota if ballot measures succeed next fall.
And I wonder…. Could the AG file a lawsuit of this nature on behalf of the state against the tribe or it’s designers, should the Flandreau tribe continue down their path of opening up recreational pot use in the state?
That might be a drastic step. But it might also be a necessary one.
This is similar to the strategy pro-abortion activists have used in filing federal “racketeering” lawsuits against advocates of the right to life.
It was wrong there, and it’s wrong here.
Wow this is such a contradiction to Republican thinking… So Pat, you love prohibition so much and you think pot is so bad that you can now use big gov to your advantage and shut down a small economic opportunity on one of our reservations, just because you ‘don’t like it’… don’t go there Pat stay the H*** away if you don’t like pot but stop using your big government tactics to stop other peoples efforts to advance freedom and the FREE market. Lets talk about federalism and states rights, lets talk about indian soverignty, but lets NOT talk about PP promoting the abuse of the courts to advance a political-moral viewpoint… You promote this when it’s convenient for your views, but you criticize it when it’s done by those nasty far leftwing liberals…………… wow wake up you’re not a conservative if you think wasting billions of dollars to lock people up for pot is worth it…
FREEDOM PAT, FREEDOM WILL WIN WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!
So, you’re a little nervous about that possibility, eh?
Sioux are an independent sovereign nation so it’s not the same situation and a lot of rules don’t apply to the Sioux as they do to us
I would not be a bit surprised if pot is decriminalized in the next General election and the Feds follow suit in 2017.
Not promoting getting stoned but a weed you can easily grow in your basement or backyard cannot be controlled.
let’s see if they can even get enough petitions turned in first that actually count. every time there is a pot related ballot initiative they seem to always have a super high error rate on their petitions. Gee I wonder why? 🙂