Legalized marijuana won't save Indian reservations

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You know what our most impoverished, crime-ridden, ill-educated communities in the country need? More drugs.

On Tuesday, the Seneca Nation in Western New York voted to consider growing and selling medical marijuana on its territory. Other Indians tribes are going to follow suit. Thanks to a new ruling by the Justice Department, tribes can now distribute marijuana, irrespective of the policy of the state in which they’re located.

Perhaps this sounds familiar. It’s how we got Indian casinos. The 1998 Indian Gaming Regulation Act (IGRA) cemented the notion that Indian lands were sovereign and answerable only to the federal government, not the state governments, with regard to gambling.

Before that there were the cigarettes. Until 2010, Indians could sell them tax-free, even if the state they were located in taxed them.

Smokes, gambling, drugs. What destructive industry could we give Native Americans next? Prostitution?

Proponents present marijuana as an opportunity,...

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