House Republicans on Tuesday pulled a vote on hemp regulation legislation that would have banned most hemp and THC products. The decision left the issue in the NC House and sent it to House Speaker Destin Hall’s planned committee review in the coming months.
Starting in November, the bill would have made any product with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container a Schedule VI controlled substance. That would have put those products under the same drug laws that govern marijuana.
Raleigh lobbying on Tuesday
Hundreds of hemp industry workers and supporters came to Raleigh and pressed for age-based regulation instead of an outright ban. Some retailers closed their shops on Tuesday and sent employees to the Legislative Building in Raleigh.
Dozens of law enforcement officers and prosecutors also showed up to support the bill. Reece Pyrtle, a former police chief, told reporters, “I don't want 22-year-olds taking gas station heroin.” He also said, “I don't want that harmful substance available in the community, and I think it says volumes that law enforcement that took time to come to Raleigh today.”
Hall cites broad bill
Destin Hall said there was “a lot of disagreement about what to do, and concerns about maybe the bill as written is too broad, and so there's just not the time to deal with that while we're in session right now.” He said most legislators see a need for hemp regulations and said he plans to appoint a committee to look at the issue more closely in the coming months.
Toby Harrison, spokesman for the N.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said, “Anyone whose business depends on selling these products should not be in business.” He added, “They're actually peddling poison for profit, and we need to call it exactly what it is. This is not about debating whether responsible businesses should exist.”
John Bell and Josh Stein
John Bell recently worked as the CEO of Asterra Labs, a hemp product manufacturer in Nashville, and said he has recused himself from deliberations on the hemp bill. Gov. Josh Stein said in a social media post this week that the bill would “legalize” kratom and wrote, “For some reason, the bill also legalizes kratom, an opioid-like substance sometimes called gas station heroin, and fails to include any meaningful age restrictions.”
The latest version of the bill would ban most hemp products, ban only synthetic kratom, leave other forms available, and make it illegal to sell kratom to people under age 21. For buyers and businesses, the immediate change is that the proposed November cutoff did not move forward on Tuesday, so the rules stay where they are until House Republicans take the issue back up.
