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N.C. hemp farmers struggle to meet state’s stringent standards for THC

Justin Hamilton’s company farm last year lost an entire greenhouse of hemp ⁠— somewhere between $25,000 and $35,000 ⁠— because his crop violated the state’s THC threshold by 0.1%. The crops of at least 38 other North Carolina hemp farmers were destroyed over the past two years after farmers inadvertently overstepped the 0.3% THC standard,...

Brooke Conrad
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Senate passes farm bill with delayed hemp ban, House action awaits

The General Assembly is one step closer to settling the smokable hemp dispute after months of deliberation.  In a 40-10 vote Monday, Oct. 28, the Senate passed the farm bill, which includes a provision to ban smokable hemp in June 2020. Law enforcement officials have been pushing to ban the smokable hemp flower because it’s...

Brooke Conrad
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Farm Bill compromise delays hemp ban until June 2020

Lawmakers have reached a compromise on smokable hemp, but their agreement may not make everyone in the hemp community happy. For now. Sen. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, and Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, have agreed to a June 1, 2020, smokable hemp ban, an Oct. 24 conference committee report shows. Legislators since March have debated about how...

Kari Travis
News

Timing, extent of hemp ban keep farm bill in limbo

Smokable hemp continues to stall lawmakers trying to pass the farm bill.  The Senate unanimously voted Tuesday, Oct. 1, to reject the House’s version of the 2019 Farm Act, which would ban smokable hemp by May 2020. Now, it’s up to the House and Senate on whether they will appoint conferees to sort out the...

Brooke Conrad
News

Indiana injunction could affect hemp legalization in North Carolina

You can’t criminalize smokable hemp, a federal judge has told Indiana lawmakers. The decision could affect North Carolina.  Judge Sarah Evans Barker, from Indiana’s Southern District, wrote Sept. 13 in a preliminary injunction that a Hoosier law preventing the manufacture, finance, delivery, and possession of smokable hemp is overridden by the federal farm act of...

Kari Travis

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Dispute over smokable hemp puts farm bill in limbo

North Carolina’s farm bill has passed the House, but it now may be frozen in the Senate.  Senate Bill 315, “North Carolina Farm Act of 2019,” was approved Wednesday, Aug. 21, by a 63-48 vote, but only after House members revised the omnibus legislation to outlaw the sale and use of dried, smokable hemp flowers...

Kari Travis
News

Smokable hemp rules likely to be settled in court, Dixon says

If passed, North Carolina’s hotly contested hemp law will probably end up in court, says the state legislator leading efforts to ban the plant’s smokable flower.  Meanwhile, a new statewide poll shows voters wish the government would stay out of the weeds. A new version of Senate Bill 315, North Carolina Farm Act of 2019,...

Kari Travis
News

Legislation clarifying definition of smokable hemp causes more confusion

The future of smokable hemp in North Carolina remains unsettled, nearly a month after lawmakers last took it up. Two Senate bills dealing with hemp are stuck in the House Rules Committee. One, Senate Bill 352, would effectively ban smokable hemp in December. Senate Bill 315 — the farm bill — could either transfer language...

Brooke Conrad