RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A newly-released poll conducted by Meredith found more than 7 in 10 North Carolinians back medical marijuana legalization.
The findings, released this week, showed 71% of North Carolinians “strongly” or “somewhat” support marijuana legalization, while 23% “strongly” or “somewhat” oppose. Breaking down the report further, medical marijuana legalization received a majority of support from Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated voters, all education levels, and all age groups, with the exception of those 80 and older.
“We hear about it all the time. There’s broad support across political parties. People want it taxed. They want the money and they want it regulated. They want to know we’re doing it in a safe way, especially that protects kids,” said Sen. Graig Meyer, a Democrat who represents District 23.
Meyer voted in favor of The North Carolina Compassionate Care Act in 2023, a Senate bill which received bipartisan support and ultimately passed out of the chamber. However, the legislation stalled in the Senate.
“Everyone knows if you put a marijuana bill on the floor of either chamber, you’ve got enough votes to pass it. The question is, can you get over the objections of a few powerful people that are standing in the way and that dynamic still exists in the House,” said Meyer.
ABC11 reached out to House Speaker Destin Hall’s Office for comment on the prospect of medical marijuana legalization but did not receive a response.
The North Carolina Compassionate Care Act covered cancer, epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, ALS, Crohn’s Disease, Sickle cell anemia, Parkinson’s disease, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Multiple sclerosis, Cachexia or wasting syndrome, Severe or persistent nausea in a person who is not pregnant that is related to end-of-life or hospice care, or who is bedridden or homebound because of a condition, a terminal illness when the patient’s life expectancy is less than six months, a condition resulting in hospice care, and any other serious medical condition or treatment added by the Compassionate Use Advisory Board.
“A lot of it’s about freedom of giving patients the freedom to choose how they want to deal with a debilitating condition and I think that is often lost in the debate. We’ve seen particularly over the last few years, patients want to have more of a say in their conversations with their doctors. If their doctors think that they could benefit from the use of medical cannabis, then I don’t think that that is necessarily the role of the government to stymie that,” said Kevin Caldwell, the Southeast Legislative Manager for the Marijuana Policy Project.
Corey Stahl has experienced the effects.
“After years of trying many, many different pharmaceuticals and still being sick and still having almost no quality of life and being homebound for quite a while and a couple of years. I was desperate to try anything,” said Stahl, who has Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease.
She used medical marijuana while living in Colorado, and gained relief from her symptoms. After moving to North Carolina, she, along with her husband Eric, opened up Modern Apotheca, a hemp dispensary in Raleigh.
“What we try to help folks understand is that while medical marijuana is hopefully on the horizon, (and) it can really help with people with next-level diagnosis like Crohn’s and colitis, the everyday aches and pains and sleep issues that so many of us have, CBD and THC are helpful for that,” said Eric Stahl.
He said the majority of their customers are women between 45 and 65 years old, who use the products for anxiety, stress, and pain management. It’s why he said he believes there’s a large enough market for both products to exist, should medical marijuana ultimately become legal.
They are closely tracking the prospects of a hemp regulation bill. Last year, HB 563 ultimately did not become law.
“The next thing that we obviously have to make sure is that with the medical marijuana law comes a lot of checks and balances and testing requirements. We want those same things for hemp products in North Carolina, too, so that clients and customers across North Carolina can feel just as comfortable in the medical marijuana products they’re purchasing as they do the product they purchase from the local stores,” said Eric Stahl.
While the focus of many lawmakers is on medical marijuana, Meyer plans on filing a bill this session to legalize recreational marijuana.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to take the half step to medical. Medical actually costs us a ton of money to administer the program and might actually lose money. And people are ready for full legalization as long as we get good regulation,” said Meyer. His legislation would include strict language prohibiting any advertising toward children, as well as taxation based on potency levels.
Opponents of marijuana legalization have often cited safety concerns, a point brought up by Jordan Davidson, who serves as the Government Affairs Manager for Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
“We want people to have safe and effective medicine that’s able to be prescribed by doctors that go through (rigorous scientific) review. Unfortunately, that is not how medical marijuana has panned out across the United States, and it’s not how it’s playing out in North Carolina,” said Davidson.
Davidson entered addiction recovery treatment as a teenager for cannabis use disorder and expressed concern about the prevalent use of the drug.
“Marijuana today is really kind of everywhere. And the biggest difference is we have a lot of young people who are my age who aren’t just smoking marijuana, in higher numbers, but more often every single day, (with) higher rates of cannabis use disorder,” said Davidson.
According to the CDC, cannabis is the most commonly used illegal federal drug in the United States, with at least 19% of Americans using it in 2021. Further, the agency cited research that the risk of developing cannabis use disorder was higher in individuals who started using marijuana before turning 18 years old, as Davidson himself did.
He, and Smart Approaches to Marijuana, support criminal justice reform surrounding marijuana, including the Presidential Pardon issued by President Joe Biden in 2022 for federal and Washington, D.C. offenses for simple marijuana possession. However, he described the push for medical marijuana as a “Trojan Horse” to usher in recreational legalization.
“Most Americans also don’t want addiction-for-profit industries funded by big tobacco that are selling their products as it’s just medicinal. We saw this with tobacco doctors recommending cigarettes. We saw this with opioids. Purdue Pharma saying that they’re less than 1% addictive. We saw it with marijuana,” said Davidson.
Caldwell said legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes would allow patients seeking a way to address their symptoms a legal way to do so.
“There are many conservative states that have moved on ending cannabis prohibition. We as an organization do not believe that prohibition works. It does not get rid of the problems, it simply makes them more dangerous,” said Caldwell.
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