NC Senate votes, again, to legalize medical marijuana. Why it could still face opposition

With the end of the state’s 2024 legislative session looming, Senate Republicans hit the gas Thursday on efforts to legalize medical marijuana in North Carolina.

The 33-9 vote Thursday marks the third time in three years that the Senate has voted, by a broad bipartisan margin, to legalize medical marijuana. But GOP leaders in the state House have never allowed it to come up for a vote; House Speaker Tim Moore has said that while he personally supports the idea, most of his fellow Republican lawmakers in the House don’t.

Thursday’s vote showed the Senate getting creative in efforts to win more support from House Republicans. Senator Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, added his legalization bill to a proposal to regulate sales of hemp-derived CBD products — a top priority of House GOP leadership.

Public polling shows marijuana legalization — whether only for medical use, or for full recreational use — is supported by a majority of North Carolinians. But it faces strong opposition from conservative Christian groups, who wield significant influence in Republican primary elections.

Rabon said his fellow Republicans who oppose medical legalization "haven't walked in my shoes."

"You can preach to me, folks, all you want about loving your fellow man," he said. "If you love your fellow man, you'll try to make every day of their life better."

Rabon went through a bout of life-threatening colon cancer many years ago. He credits illicit marijuana use, on the advice of his oncologist, with his survival: “I would have died had I not broken the law,” he said Thursday. “You can sit there and say, ‘Oh, no,’ but I lived it. If you haven’t lived it, don't tell me what it is.”

Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, was the only voice against the measure on the Senate floor. He said he worried that legalizing medical marijuana could open the door to future legalization of marijuana for recreational use, too.

“I've been praying about this bill for days,” Burgin said. “I think we have to do what protects everyone, especially our young people.”

Burgin said no major medical group has endorsed the medical use of marijuana.

“Marijuana is not a medicine. It’s not FDA approved,” Burgin said.

But in a Senate Rules Committee debate Thursday, Rabon argued that Delta-9 hemp products — which are currently legal in North Carolina — contain the same active ingredient as in marijuana. He said the only difference is potency.

“The people that need and can benefit from medical-grade cannabis are dying every day. They've died for six years since I started working on this,” Rabon said. “I want to know where the compassion in this room is. I want to know because I'm not seeing it. It's ridiculous, people.”

Attorney General Josh Stein, who successfully sued e-cigarette company Juul for marketing to children, said that while he supports medical marijuana, he's skeptical the CBD portion of the bill doesn't go far enough to stop children from buying hemp products.

"It does not protect kids by requiring an ID check, placing drugs behind the counter and away from kids (or keep kids out of stores altogether), keeping sales away from schools, adequately addressing advertising or packaging, protecting against child poisonings, or holding violators accountable," Stein wrote in a statement to WRAL. "We can and must do more to keep our kids safe."

A Democrat who's running for governor this year, Stein said medical marijuana with the proper safeguards should only be a first step. His written statement also called for decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana — a system in which people would receive a ticket rather than criminal charges — and said North Carolina should expunge the criminal records of the thousands of people with state-level marijuana convictions.

Democratic President Joe Biden in 2023 made thousands of people with federal convictions for marijuana eligible to request pardons, and he has called on governors to do the same for state-level convictions. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has not done so in North Carolina, saying it's unclear whether the legislature would need to change any laws to allow for mass pardons.

The medical marijuana bill isn't the only smoking-related proposal moving forward in the legislature.

Also on Thursday, the Senate voted unanimously to crack down on the sale of vapes and other nicotine products that lack approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration. Like with medical marijuana, the bill now goes to the state House for potential final approval.

WRAL reported that the push is primarily being led by tobacco company Reynolds American. The Winston-Salem based maker of Camel, Newport and other cigarette brands also owns a subsidiary that makes a vapor line called Vuse, the first FDA-approved vape. It's currently one of three companies with FDA approval.