Cannabis Business Times
The delicate relationship between a tribal nation’s sovereignty and North Carolina’s cannabis laws is now being tested by a pair of U.S. senators taking issue with a planned adult-use sales launch.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which controls the roughly 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina, announced Feb. 28 its target date to launch adult-use cannabis sales on April 20, 2024, within its territory, as first reported by The Charlotte Observer. An industry holiday, 4/20 is the biggest sales day of the year for most cannabis retailers.
This intended sales launch comes after a 70% majority of the EBCI nation’s voters supported an adult-use cannabis ballot question in September 2023 to allow anyone 21 and older—tribe member or not—to purchase and possess cannabis in the Qualla Boundary, a territory just south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and roughly a two-hour car ride from Knoxville, Tenn.
RELATED: North Carolinians Could Soon Have Access to Adult-Use Cannabis Following Tribal Vote
And while “one of the roles of the federal government, since the time of this nation’s founding, has been to protect tribal nations from state regulation, intrusion, and overreach,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, two federal lawmakers are now asking various agencies and departments to “uphold current federal and state laws.”
U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, both Republicans of North Carolina, wrote a March 1 letter to leaders in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of the Interior (DOI), and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as well as various state agencies, asking about measures the departments are taking regarding to the tribe’s planned sales launch.
The letter (below) was also addressed to the National Indian Gaming Commission, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch, who serves in North Carolina’s seven westernmost counties.
“In recent months, we have heard directly from North Carolinians who have communicated their concerns about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and Qualla Enterprise LLC establishing an operation to produce, cultivate, and sell marijuana,” the senators wrote. “As our nation is facing an unprecedented drug crisis that is harming our communities, it is vital to learn what measures your departments and agencies are taking to uphold current federal and state laws.”
