The effort is 'geared around' generational wealth, tribe members and employees say.
Will HofmannAsheville Citizen Times
Show Caption
Editors note: The online version of this story previously said that Forrest Parker graduated from "Western North Carolina University." He graduated from Western Carolina University.
CHEROKEE – On an overcast August morning, Aaron Queen and Avery Wilnoty pick a trellis off the bright green cannabis stems and flowers on the Cooper’s Creek farm owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Once Queen and Wilnoty cut the plants, the cannabis is put on a small truck and taken across the 13-acre farm, where it is processed, trimmed and packaged for sale. Some of the plant is processed into a distillate, tested and then sent to the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. Dispensary about 9 miles away to be converted into products like cannabis infused chocolates, beverages and cereal bars.
It’s the lifecycle of the estimated 165,000 cannabis plants on the farm and is key to the massive marijuana play being made by Qualla Enterprises, an Eastern Band-backed company that has created North Carolina’s first medical and recreational marijuana market despite the drug’s illegal status in the state.
To develop their own marijuana company, the project has required the creation of a vertically integrated “seed to sale” market on the Qualla Boundary, the Eastern Band’s sovereign territory in the far-western counties of WNC, bordering the Great Smokies.
The effort to launch the industry entails a massive grow farm, an independent Eastern Band-based cannabis regulatory system, a production and packing facility, an independent testing company and a 10,000-square-foot dispensary that contains a drive-thru, edible kitchen and a small grow room.
Qualla Enterprises General Manager Forrest Parker called the whole project the result of “a gigantic R&D process” that leveraged the dedicated work of employees, hired industry professionals and extensive funding from the Eastern Band with the hopes that a new marijuana market could launch the tribe into another era of extensive growth.
To Parker, it's clear based on outside research — and from the energy behind the project — that "a lot of people want access to cannabis."
The U.S. cannabis industry has blossomed in recent years, with 24 states fully legalizing recreational sales and even more legalizing limited medical sales. In a 2023 study, Brightfield Group, a top cannabis research firm, estimated the nation's cannabis industry could grow to over $50 billion in sales by 2028.
While the drug remains illegal in North Carolina, Parker pointed to the economic opportunities of a marijuana market in the state. In a 2023 study by HedgeRow Analysis, the firm estimated that the approval of just medical marijuana in the state could bring around $180 million in annual revenue within it's first year. By it's fifth year, the North Carolina medical market could expand to $650 million and is estimated to bring $65 million in annual tax revenues.
Before the vote to legalize for recreational use, Qualla Enterprises made the pitch to enrolled Tribal members to legalize adult-use cannabis in a column published in Cherokee One Feather, the official media outlet for the Eastern Band.
The company wrote that the legalization of adult-use cannabis “represents another opportunity for our people to lead” similar to the legalization of gaming in 1993, which eventually resulted in the construction of the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and Harrah's Cherokee Valley River Casino. Those operations have been reported to make over $500 million some years and are the only legal casinos in the state. Smoky Mountain News reported casino revenues were estimated to be around $423 million in the most recent Eastern Band budget.
Shortly after, the September 2023 recreational marijuana referendum passed with 70% of Eastern Band voters in favor of legalization. It's a higher percentage of voters than any other recreational marijuana ballot referendums that have gone through state governments, Parker noted.
Parker, who is from Cherokee and graduated from Western Carolina University, had previously traveled the country and experienced his own "profound" health impacts from cannabis. Now, he feels the job of guiding Qualla Enterprises offers the opportunity to have a "unique impact" as the fledgling Eastern Band marijuana industry comes into the limelight.
"To be creating this many jobs in a small community like this in rural Western North Carolina — that doesn't happen every day," Parker said. Of the company's 124 employees, 105 are enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee.
"It couldn't get much better than doing something you are passionate about with people that you love to benefit the people and the community you love the most," Parker said.
The Eastern Band looks to generational wealth
The Eastern Band is one of three federally recognized sovereign nations that were once part of the larger Cheroke Tribe before the Trail of Tears forced removal from their land in Western North Carolina,according to the EBCI website.The other two, Cherokee Nation and the United Kituwah Band, are in Oklahoma.
Allusions to the Eastern Band's history and the success of the gaming industry are prevalent throughout the project. Each strain of cannabis has been given an independent translation to Cherokee by Beloved Woman Myrtle Driver. The old Bingo Hall, where gaming first began on the Qualla Boundary, now serves as home for the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. — the tribe's first dispensary.
“We graduated into gaming and now we are repurposing that facility,” Parker said.
Qualla Enterprises Culture and Community Manager Jonee Taylor hopped on the project two years ago, when the farm still wasn't fully functional and renovations on the bingo hall had not begun. Taylor started in the finance department, but she eventually took on her current role, which involves making sure "the community feels like this is theirs."
One of the ways it aims to do that is to give EBCI's enrolled members a share of the profits, Taylor said. The Eastern Band's casinos have a similar system to spread the wealth. Enrolled members received checks worth around $10,000 before tax in 2022 from the Eastern Band as a result of the casino profits, Cherokee One Feather reported last year.
"Everything that we do is seriously geared around giving enrolled members opportunities for employment and setting them up, hopefully, for generational wealth," Taylor said.
And the potential profits could be massive. In 2023, the company submitted estimates to Cherokee One Feather that suggested the industry could contribute nearly $200 million directly to the Eastern Band in coming years.
As more states move toward legalization, Parker sees the farm as an investment. If the company is able to perfect the industry on the Qualla Boundary, it could take their product statewide or nationally if the opportunity arises, he argues.
“Think about downstream when there's more opportunity in the industry. Think about when and if North Carolina goes live. Think about surrounding states,” Parker said.
'Budtending' and bringing dispensary to life
As a result of an extensive back-and-forth with the Eastern Band's Tribal Council over the efforts to launch its marijuana industry, the company has required employees to educate themselves on marijuana and search the nation for solutions related to the drug.
The regulatory processes developed by the Eastern Band Tribal Council — elements of which include childproof locks on products, independent testing and product auditing — have been a "mishmash" of similar bills from Nevada, Connecticut and Oklahoma, Eastern Band Cannabis Control Board Executive Director Neil Denman said. The board is run separately from the company, Denman said.
Some of the raw cannabis flower is processed and trimmed by workers like Trinniti Marmon and Brenda Davis, while other products are independently tested by Kaycha Labs, a company that has set-up a 3,000-square-foot testing facility in an old, historic home on the farm. Qualla Enterprises is currently its only customer in the state. Farm staff are not allowed in the facility, Parker said.
The dispensary has also had to figure out its own production processes.
Qualla Enterprises Director of Production Jeremy Smith traveled the country the past two years learning about and developing a plan to bring a variety of products to the Qualla Boundary and finding the equipment needed to process and produce the product.
The production department produces 80 unique products on site, including cannabis-infused beverages, chocolates and gummies. Smith plans to produce 20 more products after adult-use comes online. No pre-made products are sold at the dispensary, he said.
Education and "budtending" are at the forefront of sales.
Just after opening on Aug. 8, Great Smoky Cannabis Co. Budtender Michelle Tahquette flipped through a spiral notebook she developed after joining the company in April to help educate herself and guide customers through the process. Her goal is to make sure medical customers find products that "will help them live life to their fullest."
Budtender Destiny Crowe said many with medical conditions come to the dispensary looking for the "right product." Being able to find it for them is one of the best parts of the job, she said.
"It's really hard to put into words," Crowe said of the "rewarding" experience of working at the dispensary.
From medical to adult-use
Under the medical program, the Cannabis Control Board has only issued about 2,211 North Carolina Resident Patient cards to purchase at the dispensary, Denman said. The dispensary is cash only and includes non-dose samples, access to ATMs and is expected to open another section in anticipation of adult-use being approved.
Until Sept. 7 — the anniversary of the recreational marijuana referendum passing — purchases at the dispensary are still limited to only those who hold tribal membership cards and those who hold approved medical marijuana cards.
After the opening for adult-use buyers, the medical card will still have use in the form of a 5% discount, Qualla Enterprises spokeswoman Reagan Beck said. (Great Smoky Cannabis Co. accepts cards issued by the Cannabis Control Board and by states where it is legal.)
When visiting the Qualla Boundary to consume the product, Denman pointed to the Tribal Council's Title 17 that indicates where consumption is and isn't allowed. Consuming cannabis is forbidden on dispensary property, for example. Some signs have also been posted across the Qualla Boundary — like at the Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort — indicating that marijuana is not allowed on other business premises.
Once the cannabis leaves the Qualla Boundary, it becomes illegal, making the current process a politically delicate subject for the Eastern Band. Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represents the far-western Congressional 11th District, introduced legislation in 2023 that would have removed federal highway funding from tribes and states that have legalized marijuana.
North Carolina's two Republican U.S. senators have questioned the practice. District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch, who is the chief criminal prosecutor in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, said she would continue to "enforce state law" in the run-up to the dispensary's opening for medical marijuana on April 20.
The Eastern Band's Tribal Council has made an effort to keep an open door with local law enforcement. During a May 7 work session on legalizing adult-use, Tribal Council Chairman Mike Parker said that he had reached out to regional law enforcement from Swain, Jackson, Haywood and Seiver counties, along with Great Smoky Mountains National Park Chief Ranger Lisa Hendy but received no responses.
The priority right now for Qualla Enterprises is to produce "the best product possible," Parker said. For those working on the farm, Sept. 7 can’t come soon enough.
“Been waiting on it too long,” Aaron Queen said of opening for adult-use while rolling the trellis off the plants, preparing for the first stage of processing. “Can’t wait ‘til it gets here.”
If you go
Before the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. opens on Sept. 7, here's a breakdown of hours and some details about the opening:
- The dispensary is located at 91 Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee, Swain County. The dispensary is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Wednesday to Sunday.
- At 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, the dispensary will open to all individuals over the age of 21. The dispensary will require a government-issued photo ID in order to enter.
- Customers do not need to be members of EBCI or residents of NC
- Medical program is still active where NC residents and medical patients will receive a discount. Out-of-state medical card reciprocity applies,
- Store is cash-only.
- Drive-thru passengers must be over the age of 21.
More: Chestnut Hill once rallied around 13 historic homes. Now, the site will become $1M condos
More: 3 dead after pre-trial suspect fled law enforcement: Why released from Buncombe Co. jail?
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with asubscriptionto the Citizen Times.
