Illegal Cannabis in the Navajo Nation

<p>During the pandemic, migrants who lost their jobs moved to a remote city on the Navajo Nation Indian reservation in New Mexico, to do what they thought was legal agricultural work. Instead, they and the local Native community found themselves pitted against one another in a bizarre cautionary tale about the boom in cannabis production in the US, and the impact on Asian migrant laborers.</p> <p>It was part of a recent, surprising expansion of Chinese-American investment into the US cannabis industry. Investors sought to recoup losses from shuttered restaurants, spas and tourism businesses by ploughing millions into cannabis - all despite the fact that marijuana remains a social taboo in the Chinese immigrant community.</p> <p>While hardly the only minority community interested in cannabis, in rural parts of the US, the Asian workforce stood out. This set the stage for a bitter fight with locals on the Navajo Nation, where unscrupulous entrepreneurs took advantage of the complex and confusing laws governing the industry, and set the farms on course for disaster.</p> <p>The situation was yet another example of just how complex law enforcement in Indian Country can be. Tribal hemp laws got the farm started, however, since workers were non-Native, the tribal police had no authority to charge them with anything. Similarly, the county sheriff and the local police department had no jurisdictional power on the reservation or over Native workers.</p> <p>The next steps got the federal authorities involved like the Bureau of Indian Affairs & the FBI - but with limited staffing and notoriously slow response, it took 3 years. Ultimately operations moved from NM to OK without skipping a beat.</p> <p>Show Notes:<br /> Chinese dreams on Native American land: A tale of cannabis boom and bust<br /> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56835897</p> <p>Guest:<br /> Katrina Glogowski, Seattle Attorney & Angel Investor<br /> https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-glogowski-711a985/</p> <p>Host:<br /> Josh Kincaid, Capital Markets A