Washington’s Puyallup Tribe of Indians can grow cannabis for recreational and medicinal use after amending their compact with the state, the News Tribune reports.
The tribe opened a marijuana testing lab in the state earlier this year after striking a deal with Gov. Jay Inslee and the Liquor and Cannabis Board. They are prepping a 5,700-square-foot warehouse in the Port of Tacoma for the venture, which at first will only be used for medicinal crops.
“I think it’s really important that somebody take the lead in this industry and in this medicine and it just came around this time it was us,” Tribal Chairman Bill Sterud said in the report.
According to a report from the American Indian Cancer Foundation, Native American cancer rates are “often much higher than non-Hispanic whites.”
The Puyallup tribe is the third to reach a compact with the state, following Washington’s Suquamish and Squaxin Island tribes.
The marijuana grown by the tribe will be tested by the tribe-owned Medicine Creek Analytics in Fife.
“We want to produce a good, clean, quality medicine that is tested at our lab because it’s all about the health factor of this product,” Daniel Duenas Jr., the tribe’s executive cannabis director said. “Making sure people know what they’re ingesting or inhaling or topically putting in their bodies is a clean product.”
There is currently no timeline to begin the growing project.