VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — The evolving national policy regarding tribes and cannabis makes for perfect timing of the Native American Marijuana and Hemp Conference and Expo.
The event will be Sept 9-10 at the Harrah’s Resort Southern California, just north of San Diego.
The show is not geared toward consumers, but people that would be directly involved in the business. The target audience is the decision-makers, economic development personnel and health department officials, but anybody in the cannabis industry is welcome to attend, said Russell Anderson, director of operations for Native Nation Events.
Anderson said the goal of the event is to help tribes gather the information and resources needed to make a valued and educated decision about whether to pursue the cannabis industry. It’s not about companies that are just looking to cash in on some of the 567 federally recognized Native American tribes that could be considering cannabis as a business move.
“We’ve actually had to turn a lot of people away, because we’ve found their reputation in the industry is not very favorable,” Anderson said. “We do a lot of vetting of our exhibitors and sponsors. This is the gold rush of our generation. There are a bunch of charlatans out there who are just dying to get their hooks into Native America and they’ll say anything to do it.”
This is the second cannabis-related conference Native Nation Events and the Indian Country Cannabis Association have hosted. Anderson said the March event was well-attended, but the September show should be much more in-depth in terms of the content. He said the first show was very much a “Cannabis 101” seminar for introductory purposes.
The event will feature vendors, sponsors and exhibitors.
More information: nativenationevents.org/conference/native-american-marijuana-conference.