North Carolina Senate President Says Medical Marijuana Still Up For Discussion, But Will ‘Wait And See’ What House Passes

North Carolina’s Senate president said this week that there’s little chance lawmakers will legalize recreational marijuana this session, but he left open the possibility for progress on medical cannabis.

For now, though, Senate President Phil Berger (R) said his chamber, which has passed medical marijuana bills in past sessions, will be deferring to colleagues in the House of Representatives.

“I don’t know that the Senate will be passing anything initially in this session,” he said in a recent interview with local TV news outlet WXII 12, in Raleigh. “I think we’re going to wait and see what comes out of the House.”

Two measures introduced so far this session would legalize cannabis in North Carolina. In the Senate, S350 would create medical and adult-use marijuana systems, while H413 in the House would legalize only recreational marijuana.

Burger said in the recent interview with WXII-TV that full legalization is a nonstarter, but he noted that there’s likely majority support in the Senate for a medical-only bill.

“I don’t see that there is any chance of full legalization of recreational marijuana,” he said. “I do think there continues to be discussion about medical marijuana. The Senate has, on a couple of occasions, passed medical marijuana legislation, and I think there remain majorities within the Senate for legislation of that sort.”

Advocates, for their part, say the path ahead is likely to become clearer as the session progresses in coming weeks.

Kevin Caldwell, Southeast legislative manager for the group Marijuana Policy Project, said he was “surprised that no strictly medical cannabis bill has arisen this session.”

“I think there was a hope that a bill would come out of the House,” he said, “as that has been the main stumbling block over the past few years.”

Caldwell nevertheless pointed out that there’s “still a long way to go in the North Carolina [legislative] session this year,” adding that he’s keeping an eye on lawmakers, such as Sen. Bill Rabon (R), who he described as “very dedicated to getting access to patients in his state.”

Medical marijuana legalization has been a key issue in years past for Rabon, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee. His bills have passed the Senate several times but have consistently stalled in the House.

House Speaker Destin Hall (R) said roughly a month ago that Republicans in his chamber could be willing to consider medical marijuana legalization this session. But he didn’t indicate any forthcoming House bills, instead suggesting legislation would come from the Senate.

In a wide-ranging interview with the The News & Observer, the publication reported that Hall “said House Republicans could be more open to what the Senate sends over to them” than they have in past sessions.

Voters, for their part, seem to be on board with cannabis reform. A poll published in February 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.

Lawmakers have also shown an appetite to take up hemp regulation, with Berger saying earlier this year that “it seems to me that there’s an opportunity there to address the medical marijuana issue,” as well as hemp-derived cannabinoids “at some point during the session.”

Last summer, the state Senate approved 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 Philip Steffan.