The Green Rush
Akwesasne’s budding economy is ready to bloom thanks to a new medicinal marijuana operation. BY CHANTAL TRANCHEMONTAGNE
There’s a concerto of construction happening here. Drills whining, saws whirring, impact hammers pounding, steel-toed work boots stomping. To the average person, it might look like a regular warehouse in the process of being retrofitted. To Lewis Mitchell, it’s the future of Akwesasne. The close to 50,000-square-foot space on Kawehno:ke (Cornwall Island) was once the bottling plant for Iroquois Water. Today, it is poised to become the site of one of—if not the first—majority Indigenous-owned and -operated medical marijuana facilities in Canada. Lewis, an affable 61-year-old, previously served as Chief of Police for the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service for 13 years. Today, he is President of the Seven Leaf medical marijuana production company. “Akwesasne has always been regarded as a leader among First Nations,” he says. “We’re working hard to build on that.”
1922
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A TIMELINE
26
Canadian pioneering feminist Emily Murphy published “Black Candle” arguing that marijuana turns users into raving maniacs.
1923
Cannabis becomes a controlled substance in Canada.
Lewis and his executive team— Lorraine White, a local law firm owner and former Chief of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and Michael ‘Gus’ Pyke, a veteran pharmacist—have been talking about and navigating the waters for becoming a licensed medical marijuana producer for the past five years, something he still laughs about. “We thought getting licensed would take eighteen months from the time we applied,” he says. “It’s been challenging but I can’t really complain. It’s been an adventure and I’m okay with that. There aren’t too many people, especially those in First Nations communities, who have been down this path.” In fact, there are very few companies—Indigenous or otherwise—who have received commercial licenses to produce medical marijuana in Canada. At press time, there were 104 approved and operating. Two hundred applicants, await approval, Seven Leaf included.
2000
The courts rule that Canadians have a constitutional right to use cannabis as medicine.
2001
The Canadian Medical Marijuana Access Regulation (MMAR) grants legal access to cannabis for medical patients to grow their own.
