The Moapa Band of Paiutes, hosts of this year’s High Times Cannabis Cup, will proceed as planned, although in a scaled down concert format. This will be the first time the event will be held on tribal lands. After receiving an ominous letter from the U.S Attorney General’s Nevada office in February, there was a looming question about whether or not the event would be able to move forward.
The letter from U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden warned the tribe that under federal law marijuana is still a controlled substance, despite state laws that legalize it. Nevada passed a recreational pot law in 2016.
According to a press release on March 1, the tribe will still host the event scheduled for March 4 and 5. “Vendors, guests, performers, and attendees are not allowed to distribute cannabis in any amount at the event. The event will go forward with musical entertainment and vendors selling arts, crafts, food, and clothing. We hope that attendees enjoy themselves and comply with the applicable law including the Controlled Substance Act.”
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“We’re not promoting any distribution or selling of any [marijuana] product on the reservation for this event. We want to move forward on informing U.S. Attorney Bogden on what we’re working on with our law enforcement. We’ll have our tribal police there; it’s in a fenced in area…bags will be searched at the entrance and there will be metal detectors. Tribal police will be patrolling the parking lot. It’s going to be a regular concert event now, just using the Cannabis Cup name,” Chairman Daboda told ICMN.
Paraphernalia will also be prohibited from sale by vendors. Under normal circumstances, the Cannabis Cup is a trade show that features a competition for best cannabis varieties.
In talks with the tribe, Bogden emphasized the fact that tribes were subject to federal law.
“They were talking about this [being] federal land, this is federal law,” Chairman Daboda said. “The first thing I tried to let him know was that we were trying to exercise our sovereignty and this is what our council decided. We tried to make comparisons to other events that happen in Nevada. We have the EDC (Electric Daisy Circus), and there’s Burning Man up north. When he brought up federal land, it was like why are they not really targeting them because they have to get a permit from the BLM. We didn’t really get an answer on that. It looks like they are focused on tribes instead of other events that happen in our state. There’s also another event coming up soon, 420, and it’s exactly what Cannabis [Cup] is, celebrating marijuana. We’re keeping our eye on that event,” the Chairman said.
On Saturday Ludacris, B Real, and Chief Keef are scheduled to perform, and scheduled for Sunday is J Boog.