More than a week after legal marijuana sales kicked off to all adults at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co., in Cherokee, North Carolina, thousands from across the region have now made purchases at what’s currently the only regulated cannabis retailer within hundreds of square miles.
Marijuana remains outlawed for all purposes in North Carolina, and none of the state’s neighbors—Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina or Virginia—have legalized recreational sales. That puts Great Smoky, located on the 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), in a unique and sometimes complicated situation.
Ahead of last year’s election in which the tribe legalized adult-use cannabis, for example, a U.S. congressman representing North Carolina introduced legislation that would have cut federal funding for tribes where marijuana is legal.
But since first opening to all adults 21 and older on September 10, the mood at Great Smoky has been celebratory. Tribal members—including Great Smoky’s general manager, Forrest Parker—and the thousands of non-members who’ve showed up in recent days are reveling in the significance of the moment.
Parker himself described the project as “the most inspiring thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
“We’re the first regulated cannabis in the Bible Belt—in this region,” he told Marijuana Moment in an interview last week. “When you go talk to some of these people, even if they’ve been waiting way longer than they expected, a lot of folks are showing up to just be part of history.”
Hellbound and Down 