TRIBAL PANEL ENDORSES HEMP

WINDOW ROCK — Growing hemp on the Navajo Reservation has received a major
endorsement.

The council's Public Safety Committee passed a resolution last week
recommending that the Navajo Nation Council allow industrial hemp to be
grown on the reservation, despite the fact that hemp is closely related to
the marijuana plant.

Another resolution approved by the committee, however, shows its members
aren't getting soft on drugs.

The second resolution recommends a "zero tolerance" approach to the
possession of marijuana on the reservation and asks that the jail time be
doubled to six months and the fine increased from $50 to $500.

The question of growing hemp on the reservation has been going on now for
more than four years, with a number of chapters considering the idea. The
proposals, however, have been deflected by attorneys for the tribe because
of state and federal laws prohibiting it without a special federal permit.

Federal law also requires that hemp be grown in areas where special laws
have been passed to decriminalize its production and processing.

Ervin Keeswood, the delegate from Hogback who sponsored the marijuana
resolution, said stiffer tribal laws are needed.

Possession of less than an ounce of marijuana "has become an increasing
problem within the Navajo Nation, including in state public schools, private
schools and Navajo local community-controlled schools," the resolution says.

"The Navajo Nation Council has been requested to consider a proposed
resolution to allow the decriminalization of industrial hemp, a plant which
bears some similarity to marijuana but does not possess the intoxicating
qualities of marijuana, to lay the groundwork for the establishment of
industrial hemp as an agricultural crop within the Navajo Nation," the
resolution says.

Keeswood and the committee concluded the light penalty for possessing the
limited amount of marijuana is "inappropriate" because of problems in
schools and "the concerns raised on the state and national levels relative
to the legalization of industrial hemp."

The committee's resolution also concluded, "The establishment of 'zero
tolerance' policy for possession of marijuana within the Navajo Nation is in
the best interests of the Navajo Nation."

The resolution also would allow judges to use the Navajo peacemaker process
along with the restoration of harmony or restitution. The judge would be
able to sentence the convicted person to community service.