The speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives says state Republicans could be willing to consider medical marijuana legalization this session, according to a local report.
In a wide-ranging interview with the The News & Observer that was published this week, House Speaker Destin Hall (R) said that when it comes to medical marijuana, GOP representatives might be more willing to consider the proposal this session.
Medical marijuana legalization has been a key issue in years past for Sen. Bill Rabon (R), who chairs the Senate Rules Committee. Rabon’s legislation has passed the Senate several times but continually stalled in the House.
The local news outlet reported that Hall, who became speaker this year, “said House Republicans could be more open to what the Senate sends over to them” than they have in past sessions.
Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) cheered the development, calling it “refreshing to see the speaker recognizing that many new Republican House members have heard the call of their constituents and may be open to a medical cannabis bill.”
“This is a monumental change from previous sessions, where there was not enough support within the Republican caucus to have hearings for Sen. Rabon’s very conservative medical cannabis bill,” Caldwell told Marijuana Moment in an email on Wednesday. “Hopefully, we are at a spot where legislators finally agree that the potentially tens of thousands of North Carolinians patients should have legal access for their medicine through a regulated, laboratory tested product rather than the under regulated hemp industry or the illicit market. ”
As Caldwell has noted in the past, some Republicans may be taking their cues from President Donald Trump, who’s said he generally supports medical marijuana and last year endorsed a Florida adult-use cannabis ballot measure, Amendment 3. “Over the course of the presidential campaign, President Trump voiced support for medical cannabis and I believe that is filtering down to state legislators,” he said.
“We look forward to Sen. Rabon submitting his bill and we will work tirelessly motivating citizens to communicate their support to their legislators,” Caldwell continued, pointing out that “polling has consistently shown overwhelming support in North Carolina for medical cannabis.”
Last month, a poll found that 71 percent of likely voters in North Carolina support legalizing medical marijuana in the state, with majorities across party lines and in every surveyed demographic—aside from people over the age of 80—in favor of the reform.
“North Carolina is one of a handful of states without some form of legal medical marijuana,” David McLennan, poll director for the Meredith Poll, noted at the time. “With the public strongly behind such a law and most within the medical community supporting this legislation, it seems like this might be a good time to pass such a bill.”
Despite repeated efforts in recent sessions, lawmakers have failed to move medical marijuana legalization forward. At the beginning of this year, however, a top GOP state senator said there’s “an opportunity” to advance medical marijuana legalization this session, adding felt it should be coupled with legislation to impose restrictions on unregulated intoxicating hemp products.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R) said “it seems to me that there’s an opportunity there to address the medical marijuana issue,” as well as hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC that are being sold on the market, “at some point during the session.”
Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch (D) also told Queen City News that medical cannabis reform is one of two “very specific, non-partisan issues” that the legislature is positioned to move on in 2025.
Last summer, the state Senate did approve a bill that would legalize medical marijuana—but it stalled out in the House once again.
The legislation was similar to a bill from Rabon, a cancer survivor who has sponsored multiple medical marijuana proposals. The senator previously described his interest in using the hemp legislation as a potential vehicle after his most recent standalone died in the House.
The senator has emphasized that he’s speaking from personal experience when he discusses his support for the legislation. As he’s previously disclosed, Rabon said his doctor advised him to use marijuana before he went through serious chemotherapy, and he visited his local law enforcement to tell them that he intended to break the law to use the plant for therapy.
Former House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said last year that while he personally supports legalizing medical marijuana, there is an informal rule in the chamber that at least 37 GOP members must back any given bill in order to bring it to the floor.
Current House Speaker Hall, for his part, has in the past voiced opposition to medical cannabis reform.
Rabon’s standalone legislation moved through the Senate and was taken up by a House committee last year, but it did not advance further in that chamber.
Former House Majority Leader John Bell (R) said in 2023 that while there were “still discussions going on” about medical marijuana legislation, he was “very sure you won’t see that bill move” due to insufficient support among Republicans. He said that was “unfortunately” the case.
A previous version of the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act from Rabon passed the Senate but did not get a vote in the House of Representatives in 2022.
The Senate president previously acknowledged that opinions are shifting when it comes to marijuana in the state, and he said that Rabon specifically “for a long time has looked at the issue.”
Rabon also took another step, including medical marijuana regulatory appointments for the yet-to-be-enacted program in a separate measure that passed the Senate last year.
An Indian tribe in North Carolina launched the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary last April—despite the protests of certain Republican congressional lawmakers. More than a week after legal marijuana sales kicked off to all adults at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co. in Cherokee last year, thousands from across the region made purchases.
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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
The speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives says state Republicans could be willing to consider medical marijuana legalization this session, according to a local report. In a wide-ranging interview with the The News & Observer that was published this week, House Speaker Destin Hall (R) said that when it comes to medical marijuana, Read More
