More than 4,000 of people lined up at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co. this past weekend as the tribal marijuana retailer began the first-ever legal adult-use cannabis sales within North Carolina.
Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which voted a year ago to legalize adult-use cannabis on its 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary, called the launch “a significant milestone for our tribe, marking a new chapter of opportunity and growth.”
“This initiative is our right as a Tribal government to assert our Sovereignty,” he wrote.
“I want to take a moment to personally acknowledge and thank everyone who has poured their hard work, time, and passion into making this day possible,” he said. “Your dedication has been instrumental in bringing this vision to life, and I’m confident that this is just the beginning.”
Sales began at 10 a.m. local time on Saturday, with any adult 21 and older eligible to buy marijuana products.
“It’s a special day for us,” Forrest Parker, general manager for Qualla Enterprises, which operates Great Smoky Cannabis Co., told the tribe’s newspaper, Cherokee One Feather. “It’s a special day for the Eastern Band of Cherokees, period.”
Videos posted to social media on opening day Saturday showed a long line of cars waiting to take advantage of the dispensary’s drive-thru.
“When you see the people in this line, it’s clear,” Parker said. “And it’s very validating, I think, to the plant and to the medicine that comes from the ground. Which, nobody understands that more than Indigenous people.”
Great Smoky Cannabis began selling medical marijuana on April 20 of this year. In July, the store began recreational sales, but only to members of EBCI and other federally recognized Indian tribes. Saturday marked the first time any adult 21 and older could purchase cannabis from the store.
Speaking to local reporters on Monday, Parker said the opening was “humbling” and that he expects even more activity as momentum builds.
“It was just an absolutely humbling and insane turnout,” Parker told Blue Ridge Public Radio on Monday.
He added, according to local ABC affiliate WLOS: “You’re going to see us in the next weeks and months be working on a lot of things that are visible and a lot of things that hopefully are very positively felt.”
One hiccup so far is that since the weekend’s launch, Great Smoky Cannabis Co.’s Instagram account appears to have been deactivated, though it has since launched a new one.
Representatives at Great Smoky Cannabis Co. could not be reached for comment this week. Contacted by email, Neil Denman, executive director of the tribe’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB), referred Marijuana Moment’s request for comment to representatives of Qualla Enterprises, who did not respond on Monday or Tuesday.
Denman himself said CCB couldn’t immediately speak to sales metrics from the weekend’s launch.
EBCI Principal Chief Hicks also did not respond to a request for comment.
None of North Carolina’s neighbors—Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina or Virginia—has legal adult-use cannabis sales, meaning the Great Smokey Cannabis Company is the sole marijuana retailer within a region in the Southeast spanning hundreds of square miles.
Notably, products purchased at Great Smoky Cannabis Co. cannot legally be taken off tribal land. Nor, however, can cannabis be consumed on store property.
EBCI’s moves to legalize and regulate cannabis sales to not just tribal members but also visitors has been a controversial affair. Last year’s vote prompted blowback from congressional lawmakers from North Carolina and an effort to reduce federal funding for tribes and other jurisdictions that legalize marijuana.
Passage of the measure on a 70–30 margin represented not just members’ support for the reform itself but also an assertion of tribal sovereignty.
Rob Pero, founder of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA), recently told Marijuana Moment even outside the region, EBCI’s move to legalize and launch sales have “sent shockwaves through Indian country,” underscoring the power and potential of what sovereign tribes can do.
“A lot of tribes have already taken action on their own, on their own lands, to either decriminalize or legalize in some cases—and now for the betterment of the state, not just their own interests,” Pero said.
Marijuana legalization on the Qualla Boundary is expected to eventually bring in millions of dollars in revenue for EBCI. Parker at Qualla Enterprises said last July that “If adult-use were legalized, revenue could conservatively reach $385 million in the first year and exceed $800 million by year five.”
In March, ahead of the dispensary’s start of medical marijuana sales, two Republican senators wrote to federal, state and local officials to ask what steps they were taking to enforce marijuana prohibition.
“As our nation is facing an unprecedented drug crisis that is harming our communities, it is vital to learn what measures your departments and agencies are taking to uphold current federal and state laws,” wrote Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Budd (R-NC). The matter, they added, “raises multiple questions on how North Carolina communities will be kept safe.”
The tribe’s moves to legalize despite North Carolina’s ongoing prohibition of marijuana drew criticism from other politicians, as well, including Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC). Ahead of last year’s election on adult use, Edwards, who is not Native, authored an op-ed in Cherokee One Feather, the tribal newspaper, warning that legalization on EBCI land “would be irresponsible, and I intend to stop it.”
While the U.S. legally cannot block the tribe from passing its own laws around marijuana, Edwards threatened to cut federal funding from the tribe if legalization proceeds. He said legislation he introduced in Congress called the Stop Pot Act that would “defund governments that ignore federal law.” The bill has not progressed, however.
Edwards told local a local news outlet earlier this summer that he planned to “remain steadfast” in his opposition to legalization.
District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch, meanwhile, has said that she respects EBCI’s tribal sovereignty but intends to enforce state law against marijuana.
“The mission, duty and privilege of the 43rd Prosecutorial District is to enforce state laws. We do not pick certain laws to enforce and ignore others,” she told Citizen Times in April.
Prosecutorial District 43 spokesperson Quintin Ellison recently told the paper that Welch’s earlier statement stands “as is.”
ICIA’s Pero told Marijuana Moment that EBCI’s willingness to navigate the pushback from U.S. and North Carolina officials has been inspiring to other tribes attempting to assert their own sovereignty, regardless of members’ views on cannabis legalization itself.
“Tribes have decided, at least in some cases, we want to own the narratives,” he said. “We’re going to tell our stories regardless of fear of repercussions and judgment.”
As the tribe was trying to get its medical marijuana program off the ground last year, operators ran into numerous delays over matters such as marijuana transportation, lab testing and banking.
One obstacle was that its cannabis production plans involved transporting medical marijuana along a short stretch of state-owned roadway, which Swain County officials said presented a problem.
Tribal governments in a handful of U.S. states have entered the marijuana business as more jurisdictions legalize. Notably, in Minnesota, where state lawmakers passed an adult-use marijuana program last year, tribes are leading the way.
Minnesota’s cannabis law allows tribes within the state to open marijuana businesses before the state itself begins licensing retailers. Some tribal governments—including the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the White Earth Nation and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe—have already entered the legal market.
It’s believed that in 2020, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, located in South Dakota, became the first tribe to vote to legalize marijuana within a U.S. state where the plant remained illegal.
In Wisconsin, where Pero is located, indigenous leaders have worked together to craft a campaign called Wisconsin Wellness, which earlier this week held an event at the state Capitol in favor of legalizing medical marijuana.
