Will NC beat SC to legalization?
Will it lead to people sitting behind dumpsters shooting up the reefer? Remains to be seen...
NC medical marijuana legalization gets hearing in Senate
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C. —
A bipartisan effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in North Carolina got a legislative committee hearing on Wednesday. But it’s unclear whether enough legislators are ready now to alter their views on pot to make it law.
With nearly three-quarters of states already allowing medical marijuana, senators who unveiled their framework told colleagues the measure takes health and safety seriously while offering palliative care for those with painful or life-threatening illnesses such as cancer.
Similar bills have failed to get traction over the past decade, unable to garner enough support. But views on marijuana have been changing quickly.
“To some people, it is a contentious issue and to some people it is not,” said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Bill Rabon of Brunswick County, a bill sponsor and cancer survivor. “I think there’s nothing less compassionate on this Earth than to watch a person you love suffer when there’s something that can ameliorate at least that suffering ... I think it is time to bring this forward.”
The legislation would create a new regulatory system in which patients are declared in writing by a physician to have one of several “debilitating medical conditions” to obtain an ID card to purchase or possess marijuana and cannabis-infused products. The patients’ caregivers also could be registered.
The health conditions would include cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and multiple sclerosis, including for those suffering nausea related to hospice care. Doctors would declare in writing that the potential health benefits of cannabis use for a patient outweigh the risks. Recreational use of pot would remain illegal.
Qualifying patients could obtain medical cannabis products for smoking or other uses through 10 suppliers licensed by a new state commission. Each supplier would control production from seedlings to sale, with up to eight “medical cannabis centers” from which to sell to the public. Suppliers would have to pay 10% of gross revenues monthly to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
The measure contains safeguards, such as an online system for cannabis centers and police to check patient registrations. And suppliers would still be subject to cannabis prosecution if found to be driving while high or delivering cannabis to people who aren’t registered.
Thirty-six states currently permit cannabis products for medical use, while 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation regulate adult use of cannabis, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Come July 1 in Virginia, adult residents can legally possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for use.
https://www.wyff4.com/article/nc-med...enate/36826698
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Originally Posted by w33kender
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