Stop delaying Cherokee marijuana sales to any adults who want it, 2 tribal leaders say

Two prominent members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians criticized the tribal council recently for the time it’s taking to expand sales at the tribe’s new medical cannabis superstore to all adults.

Council members replied at a May 7 council work session that plans remain on track to approve the required ordinance in June.

“This was the plan all along,” council member Michael Stamper said at the work session in response to criticism by fellow council member Richard French and former council member Teresa McCoy. “This isn’t kickin’ it down the road.”

Great Smoky Cannabis Company opened April 20 as the only dispensary in the state where such marijuana sales are legal. But sales are limited to those with a medical cannabis card issued by the tribe’s Cannabis Control Board or a similar board out of state.

The dispensary is in the tribe’s massive former bingo hall at U.S. 19 and Bingo Loop Road, near Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, 46 miles west of Asheville in the Great Smoky Mountains.

In a historic vote on Sept. 7, tribal members by 70% approved adult use of marijuana on tribal land. The tribe on the 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary had already approved the use and controlled sale of medical cannabis.

But adult or recreational use for people without a medical card remains illegal on the Qualla Boundary until the tribal council finishes crafting and then approves an adult-use ordinance.

“Do what we asked you to do”

At the May 7 work session, French and McCoy said the council has spent too many months deliberating language in the ordinance and what to include and not include.

“Let’s get this on the floor and vote on this, because over 70% of our people voted to do this,” French told fellow members. He is a former council chairman.

“I’m getting calls every day: ‘Do what we asked you to do,’” French said.

“You’re taking us straight backwards,” McCoy said of the council not having already approved the ordinance. McCoy made the motion last year that set the September adult-use referendum.

“Finally, you have something in your own yard that can bring in revenue and income and medicine, my God,” she said. “People are ready to move forward, and all they’re waiting on is you, just you. What is the problem? Gentlemen, why are you holding this up?”

Marijuana revenue estimates

The dispensary could generate nearly $206 million in gross sales revenues in its first year if limited to medical patients, compared with $385 million if product is available to all adult users, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

The figures were released by Qualla Enterprises, the tribe’s cannabis subsidiary, before last year’s adult-use referendum.

In its fifth year, the dispensary could generate a respective $578 million and $843 million in gross sales revenues, according to the estimate.

“Yes, it can be frustrating”

At the end of the May 7 work session, council members defended the time it’s taken to finalize the adult-use ordinance.

“We are being deliberate for a cause,” member Perry Shell said. “We have an obligation to do this. We need to be very deliberate and thorough for when this comes before council for a vote.”

On May 7, for instance, the council discussed language in the ordinance to still allow tribal members to grow marijuana in their yards, to allow the tribal Cannabis Control Board to continue to issue medical cannabis cards, if people wanted them, and for private hemp shops on the Qualla Boundary. Four or five such shops operate there now, officials said.

Cherokee Attorney General Mike McConnell told the council that he “appreciated (its) deliberative approach” to the adult-use ordinance.

“I disagree with the idea that we need to ‘hurry, hurry, hurry,’” he said. “Yes, it can be frustrating. But we want to put the tribe on the best footing” with adult-use sales.

Council chairman Mike Parker said he invited the sheriffs of neighboring Jackson, Haywood and Swain counties and the Tennessee county of Sevier to offer input at the work session, and the head of law enforcement for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. None replied, he said.

Having a medical cannabis card doesn’t entitle buyers at the dispensary to take product off tribal land, according to the EBCI Cannabis Control Board.

That’s because marijuana remains illegal under federal and North Carolina law, according to the board.

Tribal officials said they’ve heard of no law enforcement-related issues involving dispensary visitors.

5/7/24 Work Session- Cannabis from EBCI Communications on Vimeo.