CHEROKEE, N.C. — Medical Marijuana can now be legally purchased in North Carolina as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opens its long-planned dispensary on tribal lands this weekend.

Hundreds of people, many with approved patient medical cards to purchase items, celebrated the historic opening of the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. on Saturday. in the Eastern Band country known as the Qualla Boundary, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported. Saturday was April 20, also known as “420 Day,” or an annual day for the celebration of marijuana.

The ceremony marks the latest liberalization of marijuana rules by the tribe, which in 2021 decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana on its 231-square-mile land in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The tribe also formed a medical marijuana system that included a company created by the tribe to grow and sell cannabis, reaping financial rewards for tribal members and helping those with medical conditions.

“This project will change the trajectory of their lives forever,” Forrest Parker, general manager of Qualla Enterprises, the tribal company that operates the pharmacy, said at the opening ceremony. “It will be a conduit for generations of social, economic and spiritual growth, the likes of which have never been seen before.”

The Eastern Band, with about 14,000 members, can pass rules allowing cannabis as a sovereign nation and federally recognized tribe. Marijuana use remains illegal in the rest of North Carolina. Still, Republican U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd have raised concerns with federal and state law enforcement about whether drug laws will be enforced in light of the pharmacy. A statewide medical marijuana bill has been debated by the North Carolina General Assembly in recent years.

Adults at least 21 years of age with a tribal medical cannabis patient card or an out-of-state approved medical marijuana card can purchase items from Great Smoky Cannabis Co.

The scope of marijuana sales could become much wider. A majority of Eastern Band voters supported recreational use of marijuana by adults on tribal lands in a referendum last September. The question also asked whether voters supported the tribal council in developing legislation to regulate such a market.

The Charlotte Observer reported that an adult-use ordinance could be finalized in June, citing Councilman Boyd Owle.

“Let’s make it right before we go public. But we are on the right track,” Owle said after a council work session on the ordinance earlier this month.

The pharmacy could generate more than $200 million in gross sales in its first year if it were limited to medical patients, compared to $385 million if the product were available to all adult users, according to Qualla Enterprises figures released before last year’s adult use referendum were released.

During Saturday’s ceremony, tribal translator Myrtle Driver Johnson purchased the first medical marijuana in a transaction in English and Cherokee. She said she named the different cannabis strains and translated them into Cherokee.