Medical marijuana passes NC Senate with bipartisan support — at 4:20 p.m.
The North Carolina Senate agreed Wednesday to legalize marijuana for medical use with tight restrictions.
Senate Bill 3, the “Compassionate Care Act,” would allow medical marijuana use statewide for people who have cancer, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments. Those do not include chronic pain, and the drug would not be allowed for recreational use.
The Senate held a vote at exactly 4:20 p.m. for the second day in a row, choosing a time with plenty of significance in marijuana culture. Senators twice backed the bill with broad, bipartisan support by a margin of 36 to 10.
It now moves to the House, where it died last year after not being allowed a vote, and could face resistance again.
Sen. Jim Burgin of Harnett County, was one of 10 Republicans who voted against the bill in the Senate on Tuesday, during a preliminary vote. In brief remarks before the vote, Burgin said that marijuana isn’t medicine, and hasn’t undergone the “rigorous testing” medicine goes through. He also said he felt the bill could lead to full legalization of marijuana.
This year, prospects in the House may be better. Last week, House Speaker Tim Moore said that the Senate’s medical marijuana bill had “decent prospects of passage” and that there had been a shift in opinion in the House.
“Last year when we didn’t take it up, it was overwhelmingly opposed by most of the caucus,” Moore said. This year, he said, with many new House members, “attitudes have changed, and I think some folks have had an opportunity, once they were back home and met with folks, to see that there’s some potentially legitimate uses for this,” such as the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Moore said for a bill to pass there would need to be “reasonable controls.” and a balance to have enough distributors to prescribe and avoid a monopoly — but at the same time, “not just throwing the door wide open where you have these things literally on every street corner.”
Republican Sens. Bill Rabon and Michael Lee, as well as Democratic Sen. Paul Lowe, sponsored the bill, which they say will help North Carolinians while also protecting public safety through regulations.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Medical marijuana passes NC Senate with bipartisan support — at 4:20 p.m.."
