John Hult

jhult@argusleader.com

The U.S. attorney for South Dakota says tribes both in and outside of the state have expressed an interest in legalizing marijuana in Indian Country.

Other tribes, however, have asked the state’s top federal prosecutor for reassurance that federal marijuana laws will continue to be enforced on reservation land.

Brendan Johnson says his office will continue to prosecute marijuana cases on the South Dakota’s nine Indian reservation as usual, however, even as a memo from the Department of Justice clarified that the federal government will respect the right of tribes to legalize the drug.

At a recent meeting with tribal leaders in Washington, D.C., Johnson said there was a lot of discussion about the possibility of tribal legalization.

“This was a topic a lot of tribes wanted to discuss,” Johnson said.

Last week, a memo from the Department of Justice clarified that tribes can legalize pot as surely as states such as Washington and Colorado have.

Tribes that want to legalize marijuana would be expected to regulate the drug’s sale and use and have a plan in place to keep the drug from leaving its jurisdiction, Johnson said. Similar expectations were outlined for state in a Justice Department memo from last year.

Simply passing a resolution at a tribal council wouldn’t be enough to give tribal members total immunity from prosecution on drug trafficking charges, he said.

“If a tribe did decide to go down this road, we would want to make sure they had an effective regulatory scheme in place,” Johnson said.

The U.S. Attorney would not say which tribes had contacted him but said the discussions have begun. He said only that he’s been in touch with some tribal representatives and that to his knowledge, no legalization decision is imminent.

The federal government has the authority to prosecute crimes in Indian Country, but state prosecutors have jurisdiction over tribal members who leave reservation land.

Non-Indians who commit crimes on tribal land — including casinos or other tourist destinations — still are under the jurisdiction of state law enforcement, as well.

For that reason, Johnson said, “It would make sense for tribes (considering legalization) to have some conversations with the state attorney general.”

Attorney General Marty Jackley hasn’t had those discussions yet, but says he understands that there’s little his office can do to stop tribal legalization.

South Dakota citizens should be wary of bringing marijuana out of the reservation and onto state land.

Jackley’s chief concern is people smoking marijuana and driving, he said.

“In the event one of our reservations would authorize some level of marijuana possession or use, that decision would be respected so long as the tribal member did not possess or use outside of the reservation boundaries or drive while under the influence of marijuana on roads within state jurisdiction,” Jackley said.

Calls to several tribal chairmen and presidents were not returned this week.