The North Carolina Senate on Thursday approved a bill to legalize medical marijuana, only one day after the language to legalize the medicinal use of cannabis was added to a hemp regulation bill. The Senate Rules Committee approved the bill on Thursday before sending it to the Senate floor, where it was given initial approval by a vote of 33-9, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. The Senate is expected to vote on the measure again on Monday before sending the bill back to the state House of Representatives.
The bill originated in the House as a proposal to regulate hemp products and put restrictions on the psychoactive plant kratom. On Wednesday, however, Republican Sen. Michael Lazzara offered an amendment that would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana for patients with certain debilitating health conditions. The amendment was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee before advancing to the Rules Committee and the Senate floor.
Last year, the North Carolina Senate approved a standalone medical marijuana legalization bill from Republican Sen. Bill Rabon, the chair of the Rules Committee and a cancer survivor who has introduced several proposals to legalize medical marijuana. House Speaker Tim Moore has refused to put the legislation up for a vote, however, citing a lack of support from many of his Republican colleagues.
The North Carolina Senate has approved legislation to legalize medical marijuana as part of a hemp ... [+]
“The people that need and can benefit from medical-grade cannabis are dying. They’re dying every day,” Rabon said during Thursday’s Rules Committee hearing. “They’ve died for six years since I started working on this. I want to know where the compassion in this room is. I want to know because I’m not seeing it.”
“People that need help have the right to try to stay alive—to stay with their loved ones another day, to feel good about life—not to be put on morphine so they don’t know what world they’re in, but to have a meal, to be able to clean themselves, to have a conversation with their loved ones before they die,” he added. “They deserve that right.”
Bill Legalizes Medical Marijuana With Doctor’s Recommendation
Under the medical marijuana provisions of the bill, patients with a doctor’s recommendation would be allowed to use cannabis medicinally to treat debilitating health conditions such as cancer or epilepsy. The bill would also put restrictions on hemp products, including minimum age requirements to purchase hemp products and licensing rules to regulate businesses that manufacture and sell them. At Wednesday’s hearing of the Judiciary Committee, Rabon said the two types of products are closely related.
“It’s just a matter of one coming from the ‘hemp plant’ and the other coming from the bad ‘M’ word, the marijuana plant, both of which have the same genus and the same species being cannabis sativa,” Rabon said, according to a report from Blue Ridge Public Radio. “It doesn’t take really smart people to see that they are the same thing.”
Patients would be permitted to smoke or vape cannabis products with a doctor’s recommendation that specifies the dosage and delivery method. Patients would have to be reevaluated by their doctor annually to continue using medical marijuana.
The bill also authorizes the licensing of up to 10 medical marijuana suppliers, which would be regulated by a newly created Medical Cannabis Production Commission. Rabon noted that under the combined bill it will be more difficult to obtain medical marijuana than it will be to get hemp products.
The bill would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis for patients with debilitating health ... [+]
“Hemp products can be used by anyone 21 years of age upon the passage of this bill,” he said. “Medical marijuana can only be used by people at the recommendation of a physician. It will be a safer product than anything else that you see. It will be specifically used for named and enumerated diseases, most of them terminal.”
Republican Sen. Michael Lazzara said the legislation is urgently needed before possible changes to how hemp and marijuana are regulated at the federal level. Congress is currently considered changes to the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp, while the Biden administration is waiting for the Drug Enforcement Administration to decide on a recommendation to reclassify marijuana to a less strict classification under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
“We have an opportunity now to really put some guardrails around this industry, and I think we don't need to miss this opportunity,” Lazzara said.
Rabon told the Associated Press that he has contacted members of the House of Representatives about the medical marijuana amendment to the hemp bill, but said he has “no idea” if the measure will pass in the House.
“I’m very optimistic, but I’m also very persistent,” he said.
