COURT UPHOLDS SEIZURE OF HEMP ON RESERVATION

A federal appeals court said Thursday that authorities were correct
to confiscate industrial hemp grown on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The crop comes from the same plant as marijuana but doesn't contain
the chemical that's responsible for the drug's high.

Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe maintained that federal drug laws
don't apply to industrial hemp and that tribal sovereignty gives them
a right to harvest the plants. The tribal council legalized
industrial hemp in 1998, but federal agents destroyed three
consecutive years of crops grown by the White Plume family.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision acknowledged the hemp
as a viable agricultural commodity with countless beneficial uses,
but said U.S. law does not allow for its production."These are policy
arguments better suited for the congressional hearing room than the
courtroom," the opinion says.