Medical marijuana dispensary opens on 4/20 with NC bill still pending
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A marijuana dispensary will open in western North Carolina on April 20, just days before the North Carolina General Assembly reconvenes, with a bill to legalize medical marijuana statewide still pending.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Cannabis Control Board says it has received applications from more than 1,000 people for medical cards in order to purchase marijuana at the Great Smoky Cannabis Company. It remains illegal to use it off tribal land.
“This is a momentous occasion. And, it means so much not just for myself but for other patients in North Carolina,” said Chris Suttle, an advocate for marijuana legalization who spoke to CBS 17 as he traveled to obtain a medical card.
Even though the EBCI held a referendum last year showing there was majority support for allowing recreational marijuana sales, for now it will be restricted to medical cannabis.
Republican U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd recently wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland raising a variety of concerns about the situation. Among them, they asked about the legality of Qualla Enterprise LLC transporting marijuana potentially on state roads from where it’s grown to where it will be sold, liability if someone is harmed using marijuana sold there, and whether it would attract criminal organizations to the area.
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At a Tribal Council meeting in February, Qualla Enterprises LLC general manager Forrest Parker said it could be transported by air or on other roads that he declined to specify.
The North Carolina General Assembly has been divided for the last few years on whether to legalize medical marijuana. The Senate once again passed a bill last year that would allow marijuana for specified debilitating medical conditions and only with a doctor’s prescription.
Called the “NC Compassionate Care Act,” the bill has been a top priority for Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), a cancer survivor who says marijuana helped him through his treatments.
“And, the NCGA even for naming their cannabis bill the Compassionate Care Act have still lacked the compassion to help those that are dying in the dark,” said Suttle. “Despite the outdated thinking of a lot of NCGA members who still look at films like Reefer Madness as a documentary rather than a farce, we have to change their minds.”
House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said the bill would not come to the House floor unless a majority of Republicans support it, which last year they did not.
“I think between gaming and marijuana, about every lobbyist in the whole lobbying community has been retained on one side of the other at this point. And so, you’re hearing the conversation and the chatter there. But, in terms of members I haven’t heard really much,” he said.
Moore says while he is supportive of the idea of legalizing marijuana for medical use, he has heard from other Republicans who oppose it for a variety of reasons, including on religious grounds or questioning whether it truly has a medical purpose.
Marijuana is legal for medical use in 38 states and Washington, DC, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A House committee has spent the last few months studying substance abuse issues. At the end of the most recent meeting in March, the committee heard from two people about their experience using marijuana, including Casey Temple, who said he started using it in high school while dealing with depression.
“And so this marijuana, I thought it was helping my depression at first, but it soon started having adverse reactions with my depression. At the age of 20 in 2000, I stuck a 12-gauge shotgun under my head and I pulled the trigger,” he told lawmakers.
Democratic state Rep. Carla Cunningham, a nurse from Mecklenburg County, said marijuana has been used for years for glaucoma and to help cancer patients dealing with nausea while undergoing chemotherapy.
“In most cases when the marijuana is grown and it’s pure, pure, and not mixed with any other derivative then in most cases it’s not going to harm you to the extreme level,” she said.
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