Last-ditch push on medical marijuana legislation ensnares unrelated bill

One of the state’s most powerful lawmakers pulled a parliamentary maneuver Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to move medical marijuana legalization forward in North Carolina.

Sen. Bill Rabon, a cancer survivor who says smoking illegal marijuana helped save his life, amended a popular House bill so that it can only become law if his medical marijuana bill also becomes law.

That House bill, which would boost physician assistant’s authority to practice without a doctor’s supervision, passed the House unanimously. It’s sponsored by key House leaders on health care issues.

The amendment sends a message that’s not uncommon in the waning days of a legislative session: Move on my priorities, or we won’t move on yours. Rabon, R-Brunswick, chairs the Senate Rules Committee, which decides which bills the state Senate votes on and when.

This legislative session is likely to wrap up in July, and House lawmakers had varying opinions Wednesday on whether Rabon’s medical marijuana bill, Senate Bill 3, is dead for the session. But it's clearly struggling to find enough support among the House's Republican majority to move forward.

Speaker of the House Tim Moore said as much last week, and he re-iterated it Wednesday.

"I wouldn't say there's no appetite [for the bill]," he said. "There's not sufficient appetite."

The measure may have enough votes to pass the House if it comes to the floor, allowing Republican and Democratic members to vote on it. But Moore said it doesn't have support from at least half of the chamber's Republicans, which is the threshold it must clear under an unwritten rule of procedure that the House Republican majority operates under.

Rabon declined to say Wednesday whether he’d amend other House bills the same way, tying the fate of more House legislation to medical marijuana legalization. His maneuver Wednesday drew bipartisan support in the Senate.

"My favorite amendment of the whole session," said Sen. Mike Woodard, D-Durham.

Asked about the maneuver, several House Republicans chuckled Wednesday. Moore, R-Cleveland, called it "creative bill-drafting."