Hemp growers and retailers in North Carolina may be helped by a provision in a Senate bill that was discussed in a Senate committee meeting Tuesday.
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,...
N.C. policymakers recently learned that state government ended its last budget year in June with a revenue surplus of nearly $900 million. Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper wants the state to borrow more money as it increases spending in the new budget year and beyond. Joseph Coletti, John Locke Foundation senior fellow, places those facts in...
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...
Workers meander through green rows of plants, glancing sideways as they go and dipping their brimmed caps against the setting sun. A white Chevy pickup stops at the top of the slope, and farmer Shane Whitaker jumps out and walks among the crops. The hemp plants surrounding Whitaker could be easily mistaken for marijuana, their...
Todd Smith was out of town one Saturday when he got an unnerving phone call. It was from a few friends who were running his CBD store, Top Hat Tobacco and Cigars, in Anderson County, South Carolina. Local law enforcement officials had entered the store, saying they needed to test his products for tetrahydrocannabinol, or...
Fiery arguments over hemp regulation smoldered out Wednesday, July 24, when House members reversed feverish efforts to criminalize the plant’s smokable flower. In discussion that left some members scratching their heads, Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, backed away from arguments that smokable hemp should be instantly banned. Last week, Dixon carved up parts of Senate Bill...
If North Carolina bans smokable hemp, hundreds of farmers will lose money on their crops — and faith in their legislators, says Blake Butler, executive director of the N.C. Industrial Hemp Association. Hemp and marijuana are different plants, but some House lawmakers want to throw both into the same pot. A House committee on July...
North Carolina lawmakers want farmers to grow more hemp. Senate Bill 315, the North Carolina Farm Bill of 2019, passed the Senate June 17 by a 31-14 vote. S.B. 315 officially authorizes and regulates statewide hemp farming, among other things. That’s a big deal for agriculture across the U.S., experts say. The federal government in...
Andrew Ross, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan, in January was working private security for a cross-country delivery of hemp. Ross’s task was simple: Guard a truckload of state-approved industrial hemp, grown in Kentucky, and bound for Colorado. Ross was pulled over by police in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, after the delivery truck he was...
RALEIGH — If Gov. Pat McCrory signs House Bill 766, the extract known as CBD oil could be used by certain neurologists to treat intractable epilepsy without participating in a pilot study. The bill eliminates references to medical studies needed for legal use of the extract. Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, sponsor of the bill, said that patients using the extract would receive a letter from their authorized doctor allowing legal use of the product.
