Native American Church Leaders Ask Congress For Funds To Support Peyote Cultivation And Preservation
Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues
Arkansas Poll Shows Growing Majority Support For Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative As Top Republicans Urge ‘No’ Vote
Defense Department Warns That Hemp Granola And CBD Hand Sanitizer Can Compromise ‘Military Readiness’
Oklahoma Marijuana Legalization Initiative Faces Two More Legal Challenges In State Supreme Court As Complaint Deadline Closes
Marijuana Doesn’t Turn People Into Lazy ‘Stoners’ As Stereotyped On TV, Study Finds
Pharmaceutical Industry Suffers Billions In Losses After States Legalize Marijuana, New Study Finds
More Americans Now Smoke Marijuana Than Cigarettes, For The First Time Ever, Gallup Reports
U.S. Border Officials Want To Buy ‘Cannabis Analyzers’ To Detect Cannabinoid Profiles And Distinguish Marijuana From Hemp
Psilocybin Treatment Associated With ‘Robust Decreases’ In Heavy Alcohol Use, American Medical Association Study Finds
World Anti-Doping Agency Set To Keep Marijuana On Banned Substance List, Saying U.S. Didn’t Back Its Removal
Mormon Bishop And Former GOP Utah Rep. Champions Ayahuasca After Faith-Affirming Psychedelic Experience
Americans Say Marijuana Is Better For People And Society Than Alcohol, Gallup Poll Shows
SXSW Opens Voting On Nearly 100 Marijuana And Psychedelics Panels For 2023 Festival
NBA Players’ Union Partners With Former Star Al Harrington On CBD Product Line To Be Sold By Amazon And Walmart
Illinois Adult-Use Marijuana Sales Top $3 Billion Since Market Launched, With $1 Billion Sold So Far This Year Alone
Pharmaceutical Industry Suffers Billions In Losses After States Legalize Marijuana, New Study Finds
Here’s How Many Marijuana Shops New York Plans To Approve In Each Region Of The State In The First Licensing Round
Arizona Medical Marijuana Sales Continue To Drop As Recreational Purchases Grow
New Jersey Recreational Marijuana Sales Hit $80 Million Since Post-4/20 Launch
Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues
Local Michigan Lawmakers Vote To Make September Psychedelics Awareness Month After Decriminalization Enacted
Marijuana Banking Sponsors Step Up Reform Push As Industry Holds Over 100 Lobbying Meetings In Congress This Week
Atlanta Lawmakers Discuss Psychedelics Decriminalization Resolution
New Jersey Employers Can’t Punish Workers Based On A Marijuana Test Alone, State Officials Say
OK cannabis ballot challenges finalized for court (Newsletter: September 16, 2022)
Direct-to-consumer cannabis shipment bill in Congress (Newsletter: September 15, 2022)
Feds want more cannabis banking info (Newsletter: September 14, 2022)
GOP lawmakers call out cannabis’s environmental impact (Newsletter: September 13, 2022)
WH says don’t expect Biden cannabis moves before midterms (Newsletter: September 12, 2022)
Leaders of the Native American Church of North America (NACNA) held multiple meetings with congressional offices this week to advocate that federal funding be dedicated toward efforts to preserve habitats where peyote can be grown.
The psychedelic cacti is used in religious ceremonies that are already federally protected, but its supply is limited and NACNA members are asking for assistance to ensure it can remain available for generations to come.
While peyote is a Schedule I controlled substance, the church has been permitted to cultivate, harvest and use the cacti under a 1994 amendment to the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The primary peyote habitat is located near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, and NACNA is seeking $5 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or Interior Department funding to conserve the ceremonial medicine.
This has become especially necessary as climate change and unsustainable agriculture practices has threatened peyote conservation efforts. Some Indian leaders have also voiced concerns about increased non-Native peyote use amid the psychedelics decriminalization movement in recent years.
Peyote is a uniquely vulnerable crop, as it takes over 10 years for a cactus to mature and start flowering. To that end, NACNA is asking for Congress to step up with aid.
Specifically, church leaders and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) are lobbying lawmakers to allocate $5 million in funding from USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program or Interior’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs to provide compensation to landowners who agree to convert their property to protected peyote habitats.
The church is also asking for the establishment of an advisory committee comprised of tribal, state and federal representatives, as well as private landowners, to support the continued, long-term conservation of the psychedelic cacti, according to Native News Online, which first reported on the lobbying push.
On Facebook, NACNA shared a list of meetings that were scheduled congressional staff for Thursday. Leaders secured meetings to discuss the issue and funding request with staff of more than a dozen offices for individual lawmakers and committees.
That included meetings with the offices of Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-MN), John Tester (D-MT), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), John Hoeven (R-ND), John Thune (R-SD) and Reps. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ), Tom Tiffany (R-WI) and Matt Rosendale (R-MT).
Members also erected a tipi on the grounds of the National Mall to help draw attention to the issue, which is gaining more mainstream interest as cities and states across the country move to decriminalize psychedelics and promote research into the therapeutic potential of a variety of entheogenic substances.
“Prayers and songs will be offered that our heartfelt words in the meetings with officials will be taken into consideration when decisions are made about the conservative and preservation of the Holy Sacrament’s habitat,” NACNA wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The specific topic of peyote has created some tension between advocacy and Native communities. Some lawmakers and activists have revised psychedelics reform proposals to account for sustainability concerns from indigenous groups who use peyote-derived mescaline for religious ceremonies.
Last year, the Santa Cruz City Council amended a psychedelics policy to remove peyote from the list of plants and fungi that had been effectively decriminalized due to those concerns, for example.
Other advocates have pushed for decriminalizing only synthetic mescaline, while preserving non-Indigenous criminalization for the peyote-derived psychedelic to ensure that the Native American supply is not further disrupted.
While NACNA is stepping up its push to provide funding to protect peyote habitats, the church has been discussing methods of promoting conservation for over a decade.
The church passed a resolution in 2009—ten years before Denver became the first U.S. city to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms—that called for the formation of a working group “to address the issue of access to the peyote gardens and access to peyote.”
The measure stated that the working group would “explore all possible options to protect access to peyote, including but not limited to potential legislation creating a peyote reserve/refuge.”
Congress hasn’t quite kept pace with the local and state psychedelics reform movement, but more lawmakers have started engaging on the issue. For example, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) told Marijuana Moment earlier this month that psychedelics could be a therapeutic “game changer.”
Federal health officials are also taking note of the increased adult use of certain entheogenic substances. As National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow put it earlier this year, the “train has left the station” on psychedelics.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently said that it is actively “exploring” the possibility of creating a task force to investigate the therapeutic of certain psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA in anticipation of federal approval of the substances for prescription use.
That came in response to letters from bipartisan congressional lawmakers, state legislators and military veterans, who implored the HHS secretary to to consider establishing an “interagency task force on the proper use and deployment of psychedelic medicine and therapy.”
Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues
Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues
Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment's Sacramento-based senior editor. His work has also appeared in High Times, VICE and attn.
Congressman Says Ending Marijuana Testing Could Help Resolve Labor Disputes And Supply Chain Issues
Arkansas Poll Shows Growing Majority Support For Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative As Top Republicans Urge ‘No’ Vote
Defense Department Warns That Hemp Granola And CBD Hand Sanitizer Can Compromise ‘Military Readiness’
OK cannabis ballot challenges finalized for court (Newsletter: September 16, 2022)
Oklahoma Marijuana Legalization Initiative Faces Two More Legal Challenges In State Supreme Court As Complaint Deadline Closes
Majority Of Republicans Support Variety Of Marijuana Reforms, New Poll Finds As GOP Congressman Talks Bipartisan Next Steps
All the cannabis news you need, all in one place. Copyright © 2017-2022 Marijuana Moment LLC ® and Tom Angell