RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina is one step closer to joining most of the rest of the country by legalizing medical marijuana, as the state Senate approved it Thursday with bipartisan support.
There was also some bipartisan opposition to the bill. But in the end, Senate Bill 711 passed 35-10.
Once the medical marijuana bill heads to the House of Representatives, it will likely face more opposition than it did in the Senate. But Sen. Michael Lee, a Wilmington Republican who was one of the bill’s main sponsors, urged quick passage “so that folks in our state can get the relief that they need when they’re suffering from these very serious and in some cases life-threatening diseases.”
The vote came just minutes after the Senate also voted to expand Medicaid, in a wide-ranging bill that also includes many other health policy changes.
Asked after the session what changed to make Republicans embrace ideas like Medicaid expansion and drug law reform — which they have previously and strenuously opposed — Senate leader Phil Berger said some of the facts on the ground have changed. And people should expect their representatives to vote based on facts, not emotion, he said.
“If the circumstances have changed, if the information we have is more up-to-date and that causes your analysis to be that now is the time to do something, that maybe in the past you were opposed to — what that tells me is the members of this body are doing what the people elected them to do,” Berger said.
Both the House and Senate are Republican-led, but they are not in lockstep on either issue. Both bills could face stiffer opposition in the House, which must also pass them in order for them to be sent to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk for final approval.
Tight restrictions on medical marijuana
The main sponsor of the medical marijuana bill, Republican Sen. Bill Rabon, has assuaged some fellow conservatives’ concerns about marijuana by repeatedly saying the bill would be the strictest of its kind in the nation if it does become law.
“We have looked at other states, the good and the bad,” he said Thursday before the vote. “And we have, if not perfected, we have done a better job than anyone so far.”
Democrats have asked for even broader legalization, putting forward a number of suggestions ranging from adding additional ailments to the list of covered medical conditions, to passing more sweeping laws, like decriminalization or even full recreational legalization of cannabis. Republicans shot those proposals down, however, in keeping with Rabon’s mandate that the bill be kept highly strict.
In addition to Lee and Rabon, the bill’s third lead sponsor was a Democrat, Sen. Paul Lowe of Winston-Salem. In a speech Thursday, he commended Republicans for acknowledging that medical marijuana can help people, and he also told his fellow Democrats that this bill passing doesn’t mean the fight for drug law reform is finished.
“This is a medical cannabis bill,” Lowe said. “It’s not recreational. It does not do all of the things a recreational bill would do, and that’s for another day. But right now I believe this bill will help some North Carolinians.”
Bipartisan opposition, too
While the bill passed with votes from politicians ranging from the far left to the far right, it wasn’t unanimous, and the 10 votes against it came from senators on both sides of the aisle.
Eight of them were Republicans, including Harnett County Sen. Jim Burgin. He invoked some of the previous fights against tobacco — which remains one of North Carolina’s biggest crops, including in Burgin’s district — and implied that the bill was hypocritical because of that.
“We’ve spent billions of dollars and passed numerous laws to stop people from smoking,” Burgin said. “We’re now voting on a new version of Big Tobacco.”
The two Democrats who voted against it were Sen. Don Davis of Greenville and Sen. Julie Mayfield of Asheville. Davis, who is running for a seat in Congress this year, did not explain his vote. Mayfield said she was concerned that the bill’s proposed regulations on growing operations would freeze out small farmers all around North Carolina, even those with experience growing hemp, in favor of large corporations from out of state.
Mayfield said North Carolina grows 25% of all the hemp in the United States and that she wondered why an urban Democrat like herself was having to ask Republicans to do more to help those farmers or others who might want to get into the marijuana business if it is eventually legalized here. She proposed an amendment that she said would do just that.
“I ask for your support for this amendment as a way to protect the thousands of farmers and small business owners who have staked their livelihood in the hemp industry, with the expectation that they would be able to move into the marijuana industry when that became legal in North Carolina,” she said.
Republicans shot down her amendment with no debate or explanation.
However, at a previous committee meeting this week when similar concerns were raised, Lee said the bill favors larger agriculture companies because they have the resources to ensure that the marijuana grown is of a consistent and medically acceptable quality.
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