Pot Raid Has Pit River Tribe Fuming; Rips BIA

[bluedigger]

Last Wednesday, July 8, dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement agents, including officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), orchestrated a six-hour raid on two marijuana-growing operations on Pit River tribal land in the Northern California town of Alturas.

Officials confiscated 12,000 marijuana plants and over 100 pounds of processed marijuana, according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

At the time, Pit River tribal authorities were reluctant to talk to Indian Country Today Media Network, although one tribal council member said he was unaware of any raids on their property. But now, the Pit River Tribe is talking, and it is fuming. “We are very disappointed with the decision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the lead federal agency, to descend on sovereign land with an army of nearly 50 law enforcement officers,” said Tribal Chairman Mickey Gemmill Jr. in a detailed press release. “That the BIA would take such a disrespectful approach to an Indian tribe on its own land is a serious assault to the tribe’s right to self-governance.”

The tribe claims that federal agents destroyed patients’ plants and seized confidential patient information. What’s more, people got hurt, according to Gemmill. “This action was especially appalling given that some tribal members were subjected to excessive police force, severely injured and arrested during the search,” he said.

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/17/pot-raid-has-pit-river-tribe-fuming-rips-bia-161119

[Warren DeMontague]

1. Way to go- keep pissing people off who have jobs and are part of a booming entrepreneurial sector

What are they gonna do if (when) CA legalizes for Recreational use?

[RussBLib]

2. doesn't smell right

Some 12,000 plants were confiscated, and the US Attorney says the facility was "capable of producing (an) estimated 40,000-60,000 plants."

"Capable of" is not quite the same thing as what is actually growing. Or did the raiders leave a number of plants intact to meet the tribes usage?

As so often happens in news stories.....he said....but he said....and there is no resolution until some court case months down the road that may not even get a mention in the news.