A top North Carolina GOP senator says there’s “an opportunity” to advance medical marijuana legalization this session, and he feels it should be coupled with legislation to impose restrictions on unregulated intoxicating hemp products.
As the 2025 session heats up, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R) said “it seems to me that there’s an opportunity there to address the medical marijuana issue,” as well as hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that are being sold on the market, “at some point during the session.”
Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch (D) also told Queen City News that medical cannabis reform is one of two “very specific, non-partisan issues” that the legislature is positioned to move on in 2025.
Last summer, the state Senate did approve a bill that would legalize medical marijuana—but it stalled out in the House once again.
The legislation was similar to a bill from Sen. Bill Rabon (R), a cancer survivor who has sponsored multiple medical marijuana proposals. The senator previously described his interest in using the hemp legislation as a potential vehicle after his most recent standalone died in the House.
The senator has emphasized that he’s speaking from personal experience when he discusses his support for the legislation. As he’s previously disclosed, Rabon said his doctor advised him to use marijuana before he went through serious chemotherapy, and he visited his local law enforcement to tell them that he intended to break the law to use the plant for therapy.
Former House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said last year that while he personally supports legalizing medical marijuana, there is an informal rule in the chamber that at least 37 GOP members must back any given bill in order to bring it to the floor.
The current House speaker, Rep. Destin Hall (R), has voiced opposition to medical cannabis reform.
Berger, meanwhile, said last April that he had bicameral discussions about the prospect of moving the medical marijuana proposal from Rabon forward as part of the hemp measure. But it remains to be seen if that pathway is viable this session.
Rabon’s standalone legislation moved through the Senate and was taken up by a House committee last year, but it did not advance further in that chamber.
Former House Majority Leader John Bell (R) said in 2023 that while there were “still discussions going on” about medical marijuana legislation, he was “very sure you won’t see that bill move” due to insufficient support among Republicans. He said that was “unfortunately” the case.
A previous version of the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act from Rabon passed the Senate but did not get a vote in the House of Representatives in 2022.
The Senate president previously acknowledged that opinions are shifting when it comes to marijuana in the state, and he said that Rabon specifically “for a long time has looked at the issue.”
Rabon also took another step, including medical marijuana regulatory appointments for the yet-to-be-enacted program in a separate measure that passed the Senate last March.
An Indian tribe in North Carolina launched the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary last April—despite the protests of certain Republican congressional lawmakers. More than a week after legal marijuana sales kicked off to all adults at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co. in Cherokee last year, thousands from across the region made purchases.
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The post Top North Carolina GOP Senator Says There’s ‘An Opportunity’ To Advance Medical Marijuana Legalization, With Hemp Product Restrictions, This Session appeared first on Marijuana Moment.
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