Cherokee tribe members are now able to lawfully purchase recreational marijuana. Earlier in the spring, Cherokee approved the selling of medical marijuana, so that was the first. Adults 21 years of age and older are now allowed to purchase marijuana recreationally.
Currently, marijuana can only be consumed on the Qualla boundaries and is only permitted for recreational sales to tribal members.
Bill Devine has previously used marijuana for medical purposes.
“If I can get off the pain medicine and [use] something that doesn’t have no side effects, then I’m all for it,” he stated.
Now that Cherokee’s Great Smoky Cannabis Company is offering recreational marijuana for sale, Devine is unsure of the consequences of this.
“My concern was: what was going to happen if the people that need the medical stuff — are they going to have enough supply of it?” Devine stated.
With recreational sales open to Cherokee and other federally recognized tribe members, he anticipates a significant increase in traffic. Devine questions if people will take it outside of Cherokee, a sovereign nation, given its legality there.
“How many people are coming from all over to buy it here?… We’ll see how that plays out,” he stated.
North Carolina is still a state where marijuana is outlawed. Watching are sheriffs from nearby counties.
“We’ll educate them if we catch them with it. We’ll charge them for it,” Curtis Cochran, Swain County sheriff stated.
Some locals, such as Jackson County resident Sue Cunniff, believe that marijuana legalization is beginning to gain traction.
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“I support it. I don’t have any objections. I think that it’s going in that direction, anyway,” Cunniff stated. “I think that there are more benefits than there are negative side effects.”
Some, meanwhile, are vehemently against it, like Republican Representative Mark Pless of District 118.
“It helps me to be able to stand where I’m at because this is where North Carolina will go. If we allow it to be medicinal, it will become recreational very quickly,” Pless stated.
Later this summer, the general population in Cherokee (aged 21 and up) will be able to use marijuana recreationally, but only within the Qualla boundaries.
