Cherokee vote passes: NC’s first recreational marijuana market likely in ’60-75 days’

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council has voted to amend Tribal Code to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, opening the door for North Carolina’s first recreational marijuana dispensary to open on the Qualla Boundary by the end of the summer, despite the drug being illegal in the state.

During a June 6 EBCI Tribal Council session, the Tribal Council approved Ordinance 63, revising Chapter 17 of the Cherokee Code to change language from just allowing medical marijuana sales to allowing recreational cannabis sales. The ordinance was passed in an 8-2 vote, with Tribal Council member Dike Sneed and council Vice Chairman David Wolfe voting against.

The marijuana market has been touted as a huge economic boon for the EBCI, as the drug remains illegal in North Carolina.

North Carolina state legislators have not legalized the drug for medical or recreational purposes, despite some bills being proposed to do such, but President Joe Biden recently moved to reclassify the drug from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug, meaning it could become federally legal to prescribe marijuana as medication.

The EBCI land — known as the Qualla Boundary — is a sovereign nation that has its own elections, laws, government and institutions that are self-governed and autonomous. It lies primarily in the Western North Carolina mountain counties of Swain and Jackson, with smaller parts in Cherokee, Graham and Haywood.

[Read more at Asheville Citizen Times]