Eastern Cherokee Band sends prescriptions for medicinal pots to NC Convention

According to the Citizen Times, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) council met Jan. 12 and successfully voted to introduce the tribe’s medical cannabis regulations in the North Carolina General Assembly. The resolution states that this is done with the intention of “advancing the agenda to effectively and efficiently coordinate the administration of medicinal cannabis laws in the jurisdictions of the state of North Carolina and the Eastern Band of Cherokee.”

EBCI chief Richard Sneed spoke to the 12-member tribal council at the meeting about the need to stay in touch with North Carolina lawmakers. “All of this is when it’s a tribal law issue, before anyone cooperates with the state or federal legislature, we have to have permission from the governing legislature to do so,” Sneed said.

“Any member of the tribal council – chief or vice chief – that gets involved in Raleigh or in DC, we essentially need a marching order. If that next legislative session starts in Raleigh and we lobbied down there, that just grants us permission to talk to them about medical cannabis and subsequent North Carolina law, which will likely be on the floor during the next General Assembly.”

In August 2021, the EBCI Council voted 8-4 to legalize medicinal cannabis. Over a year later, in November 2022, the EBCI announced that they had harvested their first medicinal cannabis crop and also began accepting job applications for the tribe’s medicinal cannabis dispensary, operated by Qualla Enterprises LLC, which will open sometime in 2023 target.

The EBCI Council voted in December 2022 to give Qualla Enterprises $63 million. According to Forrest Parker, general manager of Qualla Enterprises, the tribe will be able to properly regulate its businesses. “It gives us a lot of confidence to be surrounded by people who have done this so many times, who have the experience, who have the understanding,” Parker said. “This tribe, I’m so proud of us for enabling us to learn from other people’s mistakes so that number is accurate if we get it right. It’s not $150 million because we’re trying to cover all these things that we don’t know. We actually feel like we actually know.”

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The EBCI also funds their own Cannabis Control Board to manage the business, including licensing, audits, annual reports and more. A member of the Audit Committee, David Wijewickrama, who is also a lawyer, sheds some light on what to expect in 2023. “There are many moving parts of this project that we learn from every day,” said Wijewickrama. “The tribe has given us many resources to ensure this process is successful.”

As for nearby states with cannabis, only Alabama and Virginia offer medicinal cannabis programs. Once the EBCI dispensary opens, only patients who have a Tribe medicinal cannabis card will be able to purchase cannabis. These patients must also be admitted as patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (such as AIDS, anxiety disorders, cancer or glaucoma), a medical condition causing wasting syndrome, muscle spasms (such as those caused by multiple sclerosis) and chronic pain , and neuropathic conditions or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cardholders may purchase one ounce (or about 2,500 milligrams of THC) or less per day and no more than six ounces (or 10,000 milligrams of THC) per month. This particular restriction will last until at least August 2024. After that time, the Board may review and amend the rules.

The EBCI is just one of many tribes looking to get involved in the medicinal and/or adult cannabis industry. In New York last year, the Oneida Indian Nation announced that it intends to launch a seed-to-sale cannabis business in 2023, while the Saint Regis (Akwesasne) Mohawk tribe partnered with actor Jim Belushi to to open a pharmacy in October 2022. Next comes the Seneca Nation of Indians, which plans to open a dispensary in Niagara Falls in February 2023.

The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel currently operates its own pharmacy called Mountain Source Santa Ysabel. The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe owns a dispensary called the NuWu Cannabis Marketplace.
The Lower Sioux Indian community recently announced that they will build a hemp processing facility with the goal of creating a hempcrete test house. “There are 20,000 uses for the plant. I can think of nothing better for our parishioners than giving them a home that will last forever,” said Earl Pendleton, vice president of the Lower Sioux Tribal Council.