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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
Just days after warning of the need to regulate solar panel disposal, Sen. Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, scrapped his bill for a relaxed version. Facing opposition from solar-friendly senators and the renewable energy lobby, Newton gave regulators…
Benefit or boondoggle? That’s the billion-dollar question. North Carolina surpassed the $1 billion mark in renewable energy investment tax credits issued in 2018 — three years after the lucrative subsidy program to stimulate solar development expired. Taxpayers have picked up the bill, and could be on…
