Despite the success of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ marijuana megastore, other tribes in North Carolina remain hesitant to open their own.
It’s been over 80 days since The Great Smoky Cannabis Company in Cherokee, North Carolina, opened their doors to everyone 21 and older, becoming the first and only place in North Carolina to legally purchase marijuana and marijuana products. During this time, the outlet has drawn tens of thousands of customers. Despite concerns that police would set up checkpoints outside tribal land, not a single arrest related to store purchases have been reported.
With this apparent success, The Marijuana Herald reached out to the other seven tribes in North Carolina to ask if they had any plans to try and legalize marijuana on their own land.
“The Occaneechi-Saponi Tribe has no immediate or future plans to sell, distribute, or produce Cannabis for medical or recreational use!”, Tony Hayes, Chair of the Occaneechi-Saponi Tribe, told us.
This sentiment was shared across all four tribes that responded, as of the time of this article’s publication. Two of the tribes have yet to respond (we will update this article if they do).
In North Carolina, possessing up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 120 days in jail. Possessing more than 1.5 ounces is a felony, carrying a potential jail sentence of eight months. However, tribes operate their land sovereignly and have the authority to establish their own legal marijuana systems.
