Support for regulating psychoactive hemp gains momentum in NC
Why it matters: The new legislation, backed by the state's most powerful Republican, is one of several bills proposed in recent months that would crack down on psychoactive hemp products in North Carolina.
Though marijuana remains illegal in any form, the state is among the most lenient in the country in its regulation of hemp-derived consumables, but a bipartisan movement to change that has been building.
What they're saying: "Stores selling these hemp products are popping up in towns across North Carolina, and children are getting ahold of these products," Senate Leader Phil Berger said in a press release about the bill Monday night.
"Without these regulations, the availability of these dangerous products is only going to get worse."
Driving the news: On Tuesday morning, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina's state Senate rolled out the most restrictive yet viable proposal yet to regulate hemp while moving to ban products made with any hemp-derived cannabinoids other than delta-9, the psychoactive component of marijuana.
The bill would also set age and dosage limits and licensing and testing standards for sellers and manufacturers.
Yes, but: It would not legalize marijuana, however — a proposal that has been floated in previous sessions but has yet to surface this year.
Flashback: "It's really ironic that in some ways, the most liberal, pro-marijuana adult-use state in the country is North Carolina," Democratic Gov. Josh Stein told WRAL in an exclusive interview earlier this month, in which he also announced he was launching a task force to explore regulations on THC products and marijuana legalization
"It's not Colorado, it's not Massachusetts, it's not these states that legalized it and then created a regulatory structure to sell it. It's North Carolina, where we have no rules whatsoever."
State of play: As of now, the state has no limits — or age restrictions — on any cannabinoids with psychoactive effects much like those of THC, including delta-9.
The new bill unveiled Tuesday, however, would outright ban "synthetic" high-inducing hemp products that can be found on shelves just a few blocks from the state legislature, including delta-8, THC-A, delta-7 and delta-10.
The bill also appears to ban CBD, another hemp-derived cannabinoid. The cannabis plant has more than 100 cannabinoids. Some of them produce a weed-like high, while others, like CBD, are not.
The other side: House Rules Chairman Rep. John Bell, who is the president of CBD and hemp manufacturer Asterra Labs, is "disappointed in the bill," he told Axios in a text message Tuesday.
"This bill will destroy the hemp industry and move it out of state. Not one stakeholder was involved."
He had not expressed the same opposition to another bill proposed earlier this session that would regulate his industry, though he told Axios at the time that the legislation wouldn't necessarily be a slam dunk for his company because it would implement new licensing fees and require changes to how it packages its products, for example.
Democrats and Republicans alike expressed support for the new legislation, however, when it was unveiled in a committee hearing Tuesday morning. North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson also attended the committee meeting.
"This is long overdue," Jackson, a Democrat, told lawmakers.
"One of the major themes in terms of feedback that I've gotten from law enforcement and from families over the last six months has been about this issue — and usually happens when a family learns that it is truly the Wild West, at least with respect to what children are allowed to buy in these places."
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