Picuris Pueblo man files $3.5m damages from Department of Interior

In 2019 officials from the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs BIA seized and destroyed medical marijuana plants from a Picuris Pueblo man who is now suing for $3.5 million in damages from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Charles Farden, from Picuris Pueblo, one of 23 tribal nations in the state, filed a suit with the federal agency earlier this month, alleging violations of his federal and state constitutional rights.

By unlawfully cutting down and burning Mr. Farden's medical cannabis plants, the document states. Federal law enforcement officers have committed an act that amounts to them unlawfully entering Mr. Farden's home, without a warrant, going into his medicine cabinet and flushing his prescription diabetes medication down the toilet. The BIA didn't want to say anything. A spokesman for the agency wrote in an email that they did not comment on issues regarding ongoing litigation.

Jacob Candelaria, an Albuquerque attorney who is representing Farden in the case, said the three BIA agents entered Farden's property without a search warrant. They proceeded to cut down and then burn and destroy nine medical cannabis plants that Mr. Farden was growing, Candelaria said. He had a medical cannabis card in New Mexico and a personal production license at the time. My vegetables, my medical cannabis, replied Farden when the officers asked him why he was growing weed.

Candelaria noted that his client is diabetic and did not have access to food or water while he was handcuffed. The tort claim states that Farden has used medical cannabis for several years to treat several disabling conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain, in full compliance with New Mexico state law as well as the laws and traditions of the Pueblo of Picuris.

One of the factors that the damages are so high in this case is how patently racist the Department of Interior's enforcement of federal drug policy is, Candelaria told The Santa Fe New Mexican.

If you are a non-Native person engaging in the same behavior as 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. According to the Taos News, Farden told police that he was growing cannabis plants for medicinal purposes and only for personal use. Farden, who was unsure of the officer's authority to seize the marijuana plants, told police he followed and complied with state production regulations.

One officer wrote in the report that Farden explained several times the violations of manufacturing marijuana within federal jurisdictions.

For indigenous people on indigenous lands, there is a huge risk and desire to criminalize, but on non-Native lands, the federal government has taken a completely hands-off approach, said Candelaria, who is also an independent state senator.

In Mr. Farden's view and in my opinion, this is a fundamental example of racialized enforcement of drug policy. I think the Interior Department and Secretary Deb Haaland need to explain why they chose to take a much different approach than the Department of Justice and deny my client his right to medical care, medicine, Candelaria concluded.

Picuris Pueblo has signed an intergovernmental agreement with New Mexico, setting up their own cannabis companies to operate within their communities.