North Carolina House Bans Smokable Hemp
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]he North Carolina House passed a new bill revising the definition of hemp to exclude smokable hemp. The bill also lays down regulatory groundwork to expand the state’s industrial and medical hemp industry. The new bill builds on previous efforts by the state to ban smokable hemp.
The North Carolina House voted 63-48 in favor of the General Assembly’s annual farm bill. The bill next goes to the State Senate, where a similar version of the bill already passed, but the top backer wants the measure delayed until next June. Lawmakers hope that improved testing will satisfy both sides of the issue and the ban will be lifted before it can start.
The ban was widely supported by law enforcement, which wants smokable hemp banned because it looks and smells like cannabis, which makes it difficult to tell the two apart during police stops. Lawmakers disagreed on whether banning smokeable hemp would make it a controlled substance like cannabis.
“As long as smokable hemp is legal in North Carolina, marijuana enforcement is crippled, effectively legalizing marijuana,” Roxboro Police Chief David Hess said.
Farmers have been vocal against the reclassification of smokable hemp, calling it offensive because unlike cannabis, hemp doesn’t have the same levels of THC cannabis does. Advocates for smokable hemp say the CBD in the hemp is beneficial in states with no legal cannabis program.
The Farm Act also allows farmers to use their land for shooting sports in counties with populations of less than 110,000 people as a form of agritourism.
Georgia, a neighbor state to North Carolina, is taking steps to avoid any confusion of hemp and cannabis. House Speaker David Ralston said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is developing a new testing system to differentiate hemp from cannabis. South Carolina police also have been ordered to remove smokable hemp products from stores shelves because state law won’t allow the sale.
