MONTREAL—Is it a cash crop to lift struggling First Nations out of poverty, or a vice posing a particular risk for a vulnerable population?

As Canada forges ahead with the legalization of marijuana, slated for July 2018, Indigenous people are split about what to do on their territory.

A number of First Nations have signed investment deals with marijuana producers, lured by the promise of profits and other benefits. Others have slammed on the brakes until they can draw up their own rules for growing and selling what is, for a few more months, an illegal drug.

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“What the communities are obviously going to be looking at is how far we go with this. Do we accept it fully? Do we accept it in part? Or do we just say ‘Absolutely not’?” said Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Isadore Day, who represents Ontario.

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, south of Montreal, issued a moratorium earlier this month on the production, distribution and sale of cannabis on its territory until such time as it can adopt its own regulations.

Summer consultations revealed there is support for establishing marijuana-related businesses in the community and an appreciation of the therapeutic uses of the drug. But there are also significant health and public safety concerns, said Kahnawake Council Chief Gina Deer.

“We’re a vulnerable population and due to that there’s concern about legalization and the abuse of (marijuana), because we’ve also seen the abuse of alcohol,” she said. “Yes, it’s a good tool for certain things and it is used in the medical industry, but it can’t become a crutch and that’s the fear being a vulnerable population.”

Deer said the marijuana moratorium in Kahnawake became an urgent matter for the community only after a recent trip west along Highway 401 to visit the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, near Belleville, Ont., where cannabis capitalism has run amok.

There are currently 16 marijuana dispensaries—some run out of storefront operations, others run out of peoples’ homes.

None are registered businesses with the band council and all are technically illegal, the Tyendinaga council said in a statement this summer. But there is little impetus or urgency by police or prosecutors to shut the unlicensed pot shops down and lay charges.

“The council did meet with the federal Crown attorney, who advised us that the judges in the Belleville court do not want to hear these cases, that it’s not a good use of court resources and time, and the police believe that it’s a grey area, so there’s really no law enforcement,” Tyendinaga Chief Don Maracle said in an interview.

Everyone is looking for direction. First Nations representatives from both Quebec and Ontario are meeting with their respective provincial government officials this week to discuss the matter, though many Indigenous communities don’t know themselves what direction to take.

“There are some communities who are saying that Canada can do what it wants but in terms of our community we’re the sole entity who will decide,” said AFN Regional Chief Ghislain Picard, who represents Quebec and Labrador.

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“At the same time some chiefs are saying that it’s going to happen so let’s be ready for it and if there are economic spinoffs from it, it’s for the benefit of the community.”

Chief Day said the AFN wants to ensure that provincial taxes collected on marijuana sales and federal excise taxes paid by marijuana producers come back to Indigenous communities.

“If there is an uptake of, say, $300-million in excise tax from a facility that goes to the federal government, why wouldn’t that excise tax be placed in First Nations to ensure our health systems can become much more able to deal with the health issues and impacts of addiction?” he asked.

The Wahgoshig First Nation, with a registered population of about 230 people, is far ahead of the others. Located about 100 kilometres north of Kirkland Lake, Ont., near the border with Quebec, it was the first Indigenous community in the country to sign an investment and benefits deal with a medicinal marijuana producer.

In return for a $3-million investment in Delshen Therapeutics in November 2015, which operates its cannabis facility out of a former Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources tree nursery on Wahgoshig territory, the company was offering a seat on its board, employment guarantees and funding for a drug and alcohol treatment centre, said Mylon Ollila, Wahgoshig’s executive director.

At first there was debate about the ethics of investing in cannabis. But it was not so difficult to rationalize involvement in marijuana cultivation in a community that is otherwise reliant on non-renewable industries like mining.

“First Nations have been harvesting traditional medicines and plant medicines for generations. This is something that already was much more aligned with First Nations’ values,” Ollila said, adding that marijuana’s medicinal attributes could also help deal with the community’s prescription painkiller problems.

“We kind of see it as replacing something that has been harmful to our community.”

Since that deal was signed, 48 other First Nations communities have also invested in Delshen Therapeutics. That has been the work of Jacob Taylor and Jonathan Araujo, the Indigenous advisers for the cannabis company and founders of the Pontiac Group, which work on First Nations economic development.

Araujo said there have been a range of reactions to the idea of partnering with a medicinal marijuana company.

“Some people who morally object to it still see the economic impact and the inevitability of its arrival,” he said. “Other people object on moral grounds and still have no interest in it.”

“On the flip side,” said Taylor, “this is a plant and it is in line with our Indigenous values. We’ve consulted elders and traditional healers and they’ve advised us that this is a plant that they used for medicine.”