Will NC pass medical marijuana this year? This Democrat may not lend his support again

Despite repeated efforts to pass a medical marijuana legalization bill by a powerful Republican lawmaker, North Carolina remains one of just a few states to not permit the drug’s medical or recreational use statewide.

This has largely been due to there not being enough support among GOP lawmakers, who control the legislature. Democrats have overall been in favor of some form of legalization.

With the start of the year’s legislative session on Wednesday, it remained unclear if there would be a renewed legalization effort.

But should there be a new push, one Democratic senator who previously voted in favor of the GOP-backed bill said he would no longer support it without improvements.

Last year’s bill: The ‘NC Compassionate Care Act’

Last year, the Senate passed a medical marijuana legalization bill dubbed the “NC Compassionate Care Act” with bipartisan support by a vote of 36-10. All votes against it were by Republicans.

The bill’s primary sponsor was Republican Sen. Bill Rabon, who last year during a House health committee hearing on the bill, shared his experience using marijuana illegally while undergoing chemotherapy to treat his cancer. Despite this, the bill did not make it out of that committee and failed to pass the House. It also failed to pass the House in 2022.

And while the NC Compassionate Care Act “is a sign of progress, it’s not a great bill,” Sen. Graig Meyer, an Orange County Democrat, told The News & Observer. He said if he were to vote for the bill again, he’d want amendments.

Democrats have “a range of opinions” on the bill, but there are some who “want to see improvements to the bill in order for it to maintain our support,” he said.

“There’s no path for legalization happening with just Republicans,” and “so we need to hold firm on what we think the standards should be and work on a deal,” Meyer said.

The GOP bill would have allowed marijuana use for people who suffer from certain ailments including cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, and others.

An 11-member board would have approved, suspended and revoked licenses for suppliers of marijuana. This board would also have been tasked with supervising revenue generation and would have approved 10 licenses from a list of recommendations.

Each approved license holder would have supplied and sold the marijuana. They would have been able to operate a maximum of eight dispensaries, with at least one in an economically distressed county.

Status of the marijuana bill this year

In mid-March, House Speaker Tim Moore said conversations with other Republicans, in the House and the Senate, were only just beginning and that he did not know if legalization was on the table. Last time House Republicans discussed the legalization bill, there was not enough support for it to move forward, Moore said.

Rep. Robert Reives, the Democratic leader, told The N&O on Tuesday that House Democrats had not “really discussed” marijuana legalization “at this point, because it seems to not be coming.” He said some Democrats were “uncomfortable” with “a market that will be closed before it even opened.”

Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue did not respond to a call and an email from The N&O on Tuesday. Neither did the sponsors of SB 3.

On Saturday, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened up a medical marijuana dispensary in Western North Carolina, as marijuana is legal on this tribal land. Recreational use on tribal land was approved in September. But the tribal council needs to finish crafting and approving an adult use ordinance. This could happen by June, as reported by The Charlotte Observer.

Meyer last week released an ad that featured a split screen of Black motorist and a white motorist, parked while smoking, being stopped by a police officer. The white motorist goes on to enjoy his day, while the Black motorist spends the night in jail.

“We ended up wanting to create this ad because we wanted to do something that opened up and changed the broader public conversation about legalization and wasn’t just stuck inside the political circles of Raleigh,” he said.

The ad is on social media and has had over 4 million views, he said.

Democrats would like to see changes to the GOP bill, he said.

“Democrats are talking mostly about adding decriminalization,” he said, along with reinvestment in communities of color impacted by the war on marijuana.

He also said Democrats were having “conversations about, how do we set up the marketplace and who benefits from it,” as he said SB3 essentially sets up a vertical monopoly favoring corporations.

Meyer and other Democratic senators last year filed a bill to legalize marijuana, including for recreational use. This bill failed to pass and was not heard in committees.

Last year, before the passage of SB 3 in the Senate, a handful of Black farmers traveled from Eastern North Carolina to speak with lawmakers and protest the lack of input from local growers.

They said the bill would shut them out and open the door to corporate monopolization, especially considering the limited number of licenses.

“We don’t feel that we’ll be able to be able to attach to these 10 individuals or 10 corporations if we don’t get it done now,” Moe Matthews told The N&O last year. Moe is the founder and managing partner of Hemp Gen LLC, which sells hemp seeds, flower and processed CBD oils and is located in Williamston.

The bill also would have required applicants for a supplier license to have been a state resident for at least two years and be the majority owner of each medical cannabis center and production facility under their operation.

It required first-year suppliers to pay a $50,000 nonrefundable license fee and $5,000 for each facility. For renewal, suppliers would have had to pay at least $10,000, plus $500 per new production facility and $100 for each existing facility.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein, a Wake County Democrat, during a committee hearing before the passage of the bill by the Senate, said this could open the door to national organizations, and for profits generated — despite the in-state ownership requirement — to go out of state.