A proposal to legalize medical marijuana passed the North Carolina Senate on Thursday, the third time in six years an effort to allow terminally ill patients to use cannabis has been before the legislature.
Bundled into legislation to reign in consumable hemp products, the renewed effort to green light medical marijuana in North Carolina passed on its second reading in the Senate 33-9.
House Bill 563 was initially written to regulate substances derived from the agricultural hemp plant as well as herbal kratom products. It also added tianeptine to the list of controlled substances banned in the state.
This week, Republican Sen. Bill Rabon tacked on the entirety of Senate Bill 3, also called the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act to the House legislation. The bill would regulate the production, prescription and dispensing of medical-use cannabis for patients with terminal diseases including cancer, heart disease and other ailments.
During debate on the Senate floor and during an earlier meeting of the Senate Rules Committee, Rabon delivered a passionate defense of medical marijuana, saying patients facing debilitating pain and other symptoms of potentially fatal disease deserve the right to try cannabis.
“I have personally, in my life, seen the benefits of medical cannabis,” Rabon said. “I have lived it. I hope none of you have to experience what I have experienced. But I’m sure most if not all of you have had loved ones who probably could have benefited.”
Rabon also said the move to legalize medical marijuana is designed to anticipate the federal government’s reclassification of the drug from a Schedule I substance to Schedule III, which the Drug Enforcement Administration defines as having “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Where the state is playing catch-up in regulating now widely available hemp-derived products, the legislation would allow the state to get ahead of federal down-scheduling of marijuana, he said.
“What our cancer patients, what our terminal patients, what many of our veterans deserve and what we owe them is what I started out with six years ago, and that is compassionate care,” Rabon said. “We need a tightly regulated, tightly controlled, traceable, trackable product that its availability is made to law abiding citizens of North Carolina and made available to health care professionals that know what they’re doing. It’s a no brainer folks.”
Republican Sen. Jim Burgin said he was in favor of the bill until the medical marijuana provision was added.
“Marijuana is not a medicine,” Burgin said. “It’s not FDA approved. It can’t be prescribed by a doctor. It can’t be filled by pharmacists. It is not medicine.”
Burgin cautioned that if the bill passes as-is, it will lead to talks about opening cannabis for recreational use.
“I’ve talked to doctors I’ve talked to my sheriffs. I’ve talked to district attorneys and all of those that I’ve talked to in my district and outside say they’re against this,” he added.
Burgin didn’t have to wait for passage of the bill for the notion of full legalization to emerge. Democratic Sen. Graig Meyer moments earlier offered an amendment to take the bill one step farther and make recreational cannabis legal in North Carolina. Meyer asked his colleagues to “puff, puff pass this amendment, but I know that Sen. Heiss is likely to lay this joint on the table.”
Republican Sen. Ralph Hise immediately moved to table the amendment, where it remained. House Speaker Tim Moore has said publicly that the chamber does not have the votes to legalize medical cannabis this Session.
At an earlier meeting of the Senate Rules Committee, Rabon urged his fellow lawmakers to set aside concerns about cannabis abuse and instead focus on the potential comfort medicinal cannabis could provide dying patients. Bills to grant terminally ill patients the “right to try” experimental medications and treatments are also up for consideration during the current General Assembly Session. Patients should also have the right to try cannabis if it could alleviate their pain and he would not leave the General Assembly until medical cannabis is legal in North Carolina, he said.
“If you’re scared of the boogeyman, so what?” Rabon told the committee. “Sleep with the lights on.”
