A New Mexico man is planning to file a lawsuit after federal agents raided his medical cannabis garden over what cannabis advocates are claiming to be an example of racial discrimination in cannabis enforcement.
In September 2021, the Bureau of Indian Affairs raided the garden of Charles Farden, a member of the Pueblo of Picuris, and destroyed nine cannabis plants he was growing for personal use in compliance with the state and tribal laws in New Mexico. At the time of the raid, Farden had a New Mexico cannabis card as well as a personal production license.
Farden is now suing for $3.5 million in damages and argues the raid was conducted illegally without a warrant and reveals a federal double standard that unfairly discriminates against Native peoples. The tort claim for Farden says the policy results in prohibition to be enforced in a “racially discriminatory way.” The BIA has previously entered Picuris land and destroyed about 30 cannabis plants the tribe was growing for medicinal purposes.
In 2014, the first federal protections for state-regulated cannabis programs were passed and included a congressional spending bill rider prohibits the Justice Department from using federal funds to interfere with state medical cannabis programs, but the BIA falls under the Interior Department and doesn’t have to adhere to the rules of the rider. The Obama Administration also passed the Cole Memo, which instructed U.S. Attorneys to ignore state-controlled programs, with the Department of the Interior passing the Wilkinson Memo to extend the protections included in the Cole Memo to Native American tribes.
New Mexico legalized cannabis for both medical and recreational use, and the Pueblo of Picuris decriminalized cannabis in 2015.
“By unlawfully cutting down and burning Mr. Farden’s medical cannabis plants,” the lawsuit states. “Federal law enforcement officers committed an act that is tantamount to these same officers unlawfully entering into Mr. Farden’s home, without a warrant, going into his medicine cabinet and flushing his prescription diabetes medication down the toilet.”
“One of the driving factors why the damages are so high in this case, we contend, is also how patently racist the Department of Interior’s enforcement of federal drug policy is,” said Jacob Candelaria, an independent state senator and attorney who is representing Farden in the case. “If you’re a non-Native person engaging in the same conduct Mr. Farden did on non-Native land, your chance of federal prosecution and conviction is next to zero because Congress has prevented the Department of Justice from using any money to enforce the law.”
After the raid in 2021, two tribal communities in New Mexico were reassured they would be able to take part in New Mexico’s legal recreational cannabis program without interference from federal law enforcement through agreements signed with state regulators which outlined plans for a cooperative oversight of cannabis production in the Picuris and Pojoaque pueblos. The agreement also lays the groundwork for a cannabis industry among the 23 Native American tribes federally recognized in New Mexico.
“We consider yesterday’s raid at the Pueblo to have been a gross invasion of the Pueblo’s sovereign authority over its members and other persons residing on its lands,” the Pueblo of Picuris said in a letter sent to the BIA the day after the raid. “While possession of cannabis is, as we acknowledged, technically a violation of federal law, the fact that the United States has plainly adopted a hands-off attitude in the many states that have legalized cannabis possession and sale, for medical purposes and, increasingly, for personal, recreational use, demonstrates that cannabis possession is not considered by the federal government to be a matter warranting law enforcement attention.”
