NC Senate leader sees compromise for medical marijuana legalization

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A potential compromise to legalize medical marijuana in North Carolina this year could include new regulations for CBD and hemp-derived products, the Senate’s top Republican said this week.

Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said it’s still a priority to get his chamber’s medical marijuana bill, though the House has resisted taking action on it.

The bill, which the Senate passed 36-10 last March, would allow a patient to access medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription as long as they have one of the specified debilitating medical conditions, such as cancer or epilepsy.

Sen. Berger said as part of an agreement with the House, he would be open to taking up one of that chamber’s bills that would put new regulations on hemp-derived consumable products, requiring a license to sell them and banning them from school grounds.

“We’d like to deal with not just CBD but medical marijuana. And, maybe there’s a way we can work something out on that,” said Berger.

During last year’s session, Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) said there wasn’t enough support among House Republicans to bring the medical marijuana bill to the floor. He recently told reporters it’s unclear whether that’s changed.

Legalizing medical marijuana would require Democratic votes. Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange) voted in favor of the bill last year, but now he says it needs changes.

“It has to include some type of decriminalization language. It has to include a way for North Carolinians to be part of the industry. And, it has to be clear that the money that’s made from it can be reinvested into neighborhoods and communities that have been hurt most by drugs,” he said.

Sen. Meyer recently released an ad that went viral citing the 2020 report by the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity that showed while Black and white Americans use marijuana at roughly similar rates, “Black North Carolinians are significantly more likely than whites to be charged and convicted for possession of marijuana.”

“I want to change the dialogue about cannabis legalization,” said Meyer. “I want to make it clear that I think the majority of people understand that it’s time for us to legalize it, regulate it, grow it, tax it and to take the benefits from it and reinvest it in our communities.”

Meyer said Democrats should strongly push to decriminalize marijuana as part of any deal to legalize medical marijuana. The task force, which was chaired by Democrats Atty Gen. Josh Stein and Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, recommended decriminalizing possession of up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana.

“What we need is a good bipartisan negotiation to get to a place that everyone can agree and then put it up for a vote,” he said. “I don’t think it’s very likely. And, I think it’s why Democrats should campaign on this.”

He also wants to see more opportunities for North Carolina growers to be part of the medical marijuana industry. The bill is restricts the state to issuing 10 licenses to suppliers, which critics say would favor larger corporations.

Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), a cancer survivor who has led the effort to pass the bill, has said the tight controls are an important feature of the legislation.

Earlier this month, a House committee studying substance abuse issues recommended the legislature pass the House’s bill regulating hemp-derived consumable products.

A key concern is stores selling products with similar effects to marijuana in packaging that appears marketed toward minors.

“If you shut down the profit stream about half of them will go out of business,” said Rep. Wayne Sasser (R-Stanly). “Don’t mind the legal ones operating, free market. But, all the illegal ones, we’ve got to find a way to stop that.”

Rep. Stephen Ross (R-Alamance), who chaired the committee, said the likelihood of the House considering the medical marijuana bill was unclear.

“That’s really a tough question to answer because that’s an ongoing debate,” he said.

Lawmakers continue to debate the issue as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have opened their own medical marijuana dispensary on tribal land in the western part of the state.

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