GREEN BAY (AP) -- A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Menominee Indian Tribe which sought protection for industrial hemp.
The tribe filed a lawsuit last November against the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice after the agencies destroyed its hemp crop grown on its reservation in northeastern Wisconsin.
Industrial hemp has low levels of THC, the active chemical in marijuana. But it has commercial uses, including its oil for health and beauty products and hemp fiber for building materials.
The tribe argued that it was exempt from a state law banning the crop. Judge William Griesbach disagreed. He wrote that because the tribe is located in Wisconsin, the exemption does not apply.
