When the 2021 regular session came to a close in North Carolina, the medical cannabis bill remained up in the air. Called the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act, or SB 711, this bipartisan bill looked to legalize medical cannabis for those with debilitating medical conditions. SB 711 passed three Senate committees before lawmakers tabled the discussion for 2022. They still had redistricting and the state’s budget to handle for the rest of 2021.
The North Carolina regular session will be short in 2022, consisting of two months, May and June. There, lawmakers plan to tackle medical cannabis as one of their main topics because of the overwhelming support from voters and other lawmakers.
“We’re planning on picking up the rest and getting it through during the short session,” said SB 711’s primary sponsor, Senator Paul Lowe, D.
Bill Details
SB 711 has been described as one of the tightest and most conservative medical cannabis bills currently circulating. “Anybody can’t just go out and get medical marijuana. It’s not legalization in a more profound sense at all. But it’s targeted to various medical conditions,” Senator Lowe said in a recent interview with local reporters.
Only debilitating conditions would qualify for medical cannabis. Some conditions include:
- Cancer
- HIV/AIDS
- Severe PTSD
- Epilepsy
- Sickle cell anemia
- Crohn’s Disease
Additionally, any patient currently receiving hospice care, regardless of original diagnosis, would have access to medical cannabis at their end of life care.
SB 711 also looks to establish a framework for legally prescribing and selling medical cannabis. A new advisory committee under the Department of Health and Human Services would oversee the production, distribution, and purchasing of medical cannabis across the state.
10 medical cannabis business licenses would be issued, and each of those could have four dispensaries across the state. One of those dispensaries must be in a Tier 1, or poorest, county in the state to allow equal access. Dispensaries can be anywhere except near a church or a school. Additionally, medical cannabis dispensaries in North Carolina can only operate between 7 am and 7:30 pm.
Each patient will need a registration card, and a real time database will show who has active prescriptions and track “seed to sale” progress for the Department of Health and lawmakers.
Next Steps
No new information will come from North Carolina until the shortened regular session begins in May. However, lawmakers appear to want medical cannabis to pass. If SB 711 makes it out of the Senate, it moves to the House, where House Majority Leader John Hardister, R, says he is in favor of the bill.
“I’m in favor of the bill. I’m in favor of medical marijuana,” Representative Hardister explained. “I think that doctors ought to have the ability to prescribe it. I think that in many ways, based on the research that I’ve done, medical marijuana is less addictive and harmful than some of the opioids that are currently legal.”
Should any new information surrounding the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act arise, we will update you with the latest.
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