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CHEROKEE, North Carolina (WLOS) -- People flocked to the Great Smoky Cannabis Dispensary on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, for its first recreational marijuana sales for anyone over the age of 21.
It's another first for the state of North Carolina, where marijuana remains illegal outside of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' (ECBI) territory.
"I think each and every one of us has been waiting for this to happen," George, one of many customers lined up outside the dispensary on Saturday, said.
The Great Smoky Cannabis Dispensary first opened on April 20, 2024, for medical cannabis purchases. A referendum was then passed in July to begin recreational sales, following a 2021 ordinance approved by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which legalized medical cannabis within the Qualla Boundary.
"We're a sovereign nation, so we set it up to let people come visit, explore our community, visit our people, just come in and help themselves to any cannabis need they need," Boyd Allen, a Cherokee tribal representative, said Saturday.
Despite laws passed by the ECBI, marijuana remains illegal in the rest of the state. The sheriff of Swain County, which borders Cherokee land, said in a June interview that his department would enforce state law.
"They need to educate their people up there that when they come off the boundary, they're in a different world," Sheriff Curtis Cochran said. "We'll educate them if we catch them with it. We'll charge them for it."
Bill Trebanier, a Lac Courte Oreilles tribe council member from Wisconsin, attended Saturday's opening and said tribes can lead the way for states regarding regulation.
"The tribes really are going to lead the way because we regulate things heavily, like gaming," Trebanier said. "So, we know what we're doing when it comes to regulation. We can show the states and these governments how there's a path forward."
