Planned Cherokee marijuana superstore in NC alarms Senators Tillis and Budd
Responding to concerns about the Cherokee Indians’ planned marijuana superstore in their state, North Carolina’s U.S. senators are demanding answers from top federal, state and local law enforcement officials.
“In recent months, we have heard directly from North Carolinians who have communicated their concerns about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Qualla Enterprises LLC (the tribe’s cannabis subsidiary) establishing an operation to produce, cultivate, and sell marijuana,” U.S. Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis wrote in a joint letter to eight law enforcement officials.
How are you enforcing current marijuana laws? the senators asked, given that marijuana remains illegal federally and in North Carolina.
The officials include U.S. Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland, Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and Bob Schurmeier, director of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
Concerns about youth and marijuana
In their letter, Tillis and Budd cited America’s “unprecedented drug crisis that is harming our communities.”
So it’s “vital to learn what measures your departments and agencies are taking to uphold current federal and state laws,” the senators wrote.
“This matter raises multiple questions on how North Carolina communities will be kept safe,” Tillis and Budd wrote. ”... In particular, we have the responsibility to ensure our youth are shielded from untested marijuana products being produced and sold by Qualla Enterprises LLC.”
During an exclusive tour of the tribe’s cannabis grow operation by The Charlotte Observer in March 2023, officials with Qualla Enterprises said product will be tested and certified by an outside lab before being sold in their dispensary.
Will the store draw transnational criminal groups?
The tribe plans to open the dispensary on April 20, Lee Griffin, human resources director for Qualla Enterprises LLC, told the tribal council during a council work session on Feb. 28, the Observer previously reported.
April 20 is recognized by marijuana users and producers as the national cannabis holiday.
In a historic vote on Sept. 7, 2023, tribal members overwhelmingly approved adult use of marijuana on tribal land. The tribe on the 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary had already approved the use and controlled sale of medical cannabis.
The dispensary is in the tribe’s massive, refurbished old bingo hall on U.S. 19 near Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, 46 miles west of Asheville in the Great Smoky Mountains.
In their letter, the senators asked federal officials if they’re concerned the Cherokee operation “will attract transnational criminal organizations to the reservation and surrounding towns.”
Will marijuana laws be enforced if the cannabis is driven on a state road from the tribe’s grow operation to the dispensary? the senators asked.
“At what point is the transportation of marijuana considered trafficking?” Budd and Tillis asked. “Are federally recognized tribes immune from state and federal enforcement?”
Flying in marijuana? That option exists, official says
If someone is harmed by marijuana produced by a tribe, what action can the Department of Justice take? the senators further asked.
Would medical doctors be penalized for authorizing medical forms for people to obtain medical marijuana cards from a tribe? Tillis and Budd asked.
Letting doctors sign the forms remains “an unsettled legal issue,” according to a statement to the Observer last year from Dr. Greg McCarty, chief medical officer for UNC Health Pardee, and Dr. Richard Hudspeth, CEO for Blue Ridge Health.
The unsettled legal issue is whether federal enforcement officials or federal courts would consider signing the Cherokee form aiding and abetting the distribution of medical marijuana, the doctors said.
North Carolina residents and others who want to buy products at the dispensary won’t need a cannabis card from the tribe’s Cannabis Control Board, Griffin told the tribal council last week.
That’s because the tribe intends to open the dispensary for adult use, no longer limiting sales to buyers with medical conditions that marijuana can help treat, he said.
Still, Griffin said, the board could continue to issue such cards.
Options, meanwhile, exist to get the marijuana legally from the tribe’s grow operation to the dispensary six miles away, Forrest Parker, Qualla Enterprises general manager, said at the Feb. 28 council work session.
The marijuana could be flown or driven, he said, citing security reasons for declining to elaborate on the routes in public.
The senators included their letter in a news release Tuesday morning titled: “Tillis, Budd demand answers on measures to uphold federal and state laws as Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians plan to produce and sell marijuana.”
The U.S. Department of Justice confirms receiving the letter and declines further comment, a spokesperson told the Observer on Wednesday.
Cochran didn’t return a phone message from the Observer on Tuesday. An SBI spokesperson didn’t return an email requesting comment.
In June 2023, the sheriff told the Smoky Mountain News that marijuana on North Carolina roads remains illegal, although he didn’t say if his deputies would stop trucks hauling marijuana from the grow operation.
This story was originally published March 6, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Planned Cherokee marijuana superstore in NC alarms Senators Tillis and Budd."