The official YouTube page for the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office has a webinar series titled “Cannabis in North Carolina.” Today, the series covered several topics on the pending legislation to legalize and regulate the use, possession, and retail sale of medical marijuana for adults in North Carolina.
Some of the topics covered in the webinar today were as follows:
-The NC Psychiatric Association Position on Cannabis
– Data on overdoses and profit-driven hype from other States that have legalized medical marijuana
-Decriminalization
Listen to the series linked below:
Other than on Cherokee Indian land, medical cannabis remains legally inaccessible to North Carolinians. The inaccessibility to medical marijuana may change if North Carolina’s Compassionate Care Act, SB 711, which has bipartisan support among the state’s senators, passes in May of 2022. The bill already has cleared the Senate’s Judiciary, Finance, and Health Care committees. If it passes in the full Senate, it will move to the House.
Under the revised bill, sponsored by Sen. Bill Rabon (R), patients would be allowed to possess and consume medical cannabis for debilitating medical conditions. The revised bill adds patients with “terminal illnesses” who have six months to live and those with conditions resulting in hospice care among those who would qualify for the state-regulated medical cannabis program.
The revised bill includes several other changes, including amendments to the definition of “cannabis-infused products,” new continuing education requirements for physicians, identification requirements for patients, limitations on areas where patients can smoke or vape, and adding more members to the nine-member Medical Cannabis Production Commission. You can check out an updated summary here.
In 2020, a task force convened by Gov. Roy Cooper (D) to study racial inequities in the criminal justice system recommended the state decriminalize marijuana possession. Under current law, possession remains a class 1 misdemeanor, subject to up to 45 days imprisonment and a $200 fine.
According to Bladen County Sheriff’s Detective Clark, marijuana is still illegal, and suspects continue to be processed by the law if caught with the illicit substance.
However, if passed, Senate Bill 646, House Bill 617, and House Bill 576 would allow adults to possess up to two ounces of marijuana and 15 grams of concentrates and grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use.
The measures would also facilitate the automatic expungement of past convictions for any offenses made legal under this bill. Additionally, it would create an Office of Social Equity to promote participation by those from “communities that have previously been disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition and enforcement in order to positively impact those communities.”
Unlike South Carolina’s Compassionate Care Act, SB 711 would not ban smokable cannabis, and currently contemplates only two types of licenses: medical cannabis suppliers to grow and manufacture the products (10 supplier licenses are contemplated), and medical cannabis centers to sell it to patients. Only medical cannabis suppliers would be granted medical cannabis center licenses, but no supplier would be permitted to hold more than four medical cannabis center licenses. The bill exempts medical cannabis sales from sales and excise taxes, but suppliers would be obligated to pay a monthly fee equal to 10% of their gross revenue. The program would be administered by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services and the new Medical Cannabis Production Commission under the DHHS.
Support for cannabis reform has been building steady momentum throughout 2021. A poll conducted by Elon University in late January 2021 found that 54% of North Carolina residents support legalizing cannabis for use by adults, and 73% support making cannabis legal for medical use.
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