Graphic by Casey Griffith
Video by Max Feliu
00:00:01:07 – 00:00:02:11
FORREST PARKER
It’s the first time,U.S. history where a tribe regulated cannabis before the state, that the tribe resided within its boundaries did, and so we hope to set the bar so that when North Carolina does enter into that journey, there’s a lot of learning that can be done from Cherokee, but you can rest assured there are many more milestones already set out past this. People are waiting in line for a while right now, and for the most part, they’re very understanding, like they realize that this is a monumental thing of history.
00:00:33:03 – 00:00:37:05
THOMAS MOODY-JONES
What brings you out here today?
ETHAN
We want to be a part of history.
LOGAN
Smoke some weed
00:00:37:05 – 00:00:38:16
SAVANNAH JACK
see, like, what good it does our community, because I think this region, like, really needs it
00:00:41:13 – 00:00:45:16
KELLY HENDERSON
Only thing I’m hoping for is I can get in there to walk into my first legal pot store in 61 years you know what I’m saying.
00:00:49:14 – 00:00:57:23
LUKE NIFORATOS
I think this poses a really big threat to state autonomy because you have a situation where the tribes are using their sovereignty to sell a substance to citizens across the state, where the state legislature has not legalized that substance. So it’s a total violation of federal law. So it’s they are absolutely abusing their sovereignty in this situation.
00:01:10:14 – 00:01:16:13
BOYD OWLE
We can do what we want to do as long as it’s, you know … we’re sovereign. And they got to understand, you know, you’re kind of untouchable by them.
00:01:20:10 – 00:01:28:16
JOSHUA TEDESCO
Since I, moved to Florida and got, taken off all the prescription medications that I was on for ADHD, anxiety and depression. They gave me prescription marijuana in Florida, and it changed my life.
00:01:33:20 – 00:01:37:16
FORREST PARKER
There’s a lot of cannabis in North Carolina, the second highest in the nation. That’s black market cannabis, and so that means that it’s obviously largely are all untested, unregulated. I mean, our variations are way tighter than the drug industry, and so this is just an effort to really make sure that we’re making that safe for our citizens.
00:01:55:00 – 00:01:57:03
LUKE NIFORATOS
The argument that, well, some people are going to still use it therefore we should eliminate these laws. The same argument could be made about any crime in existence. The idea with prohibiting a drug is to keep its prevalence down. You know, people say, oh, well, you know, let’s just legalize marijuana. But then when you get into the details of what do they mean by that, support really starts to fall fast. Do you want a pot shop in your neighborhood? Do you want gummies? Do you want things that are targeting kids? Vast majority of people don’t want that. Like it’s one thing to say I support this, but then you say, well, what do you mean by that? And so I think what you ultimately find is there’s a much more nuanced view in the public that is favorable to reform, but maybe not favorable to total legalization.
00:02:39:13 – 00:02:41:09
FORREST PARKER
We have a lot of things coming that we hope really change the game. And, we want to set the tone in the entire region, not just here on the boundary, but also the state in North Carolina. As they progress into their regulation of cannabis.
