Raleigh, North Carolina North Carolina’s bill that would legalize marijuana if the federal government did it first, goes to Governor Roy Cooper.
Senate Bill 448, which passed both houses of Parliament with strong bipartisan support, received final legislative approval in the House on Wednesday. If enacted, the measure would automatically make it legal in prescription drugs that contain marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical compound in the marijuana plant that yields a high percentage of the drug. But such legalization will come with a number of caveats.
First, prescription use must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The DEA must then make the appropriate change to the schedules for federal controlled substances. Finally, a government committee should not object to the change.
Supporters of the bill say THC has medical benefits, including treating seizures. They also noted that the measure would simply be consistent with state and federal standards.
Critics argue that the action could set a harmful precedent.
Representative Larry Pittman, a Caparros County Republican, was one of only nine lawmakers who objected to the measure. He described the proposal as “a starting point for the legalization of marijuana.”
He proposed an amendment to say “marijuana may not be legalized” in North Carolina regardless of federal action, but Bateman’s proposed change was not taken into account because Republican House Speaker Tim Moore ruled it out of the system.
“It seems to me that it’s leaving it wide open,” Pittman said of the bill’s language on medical marijuana. “If we just want to say, ‘Whatever the FDA does or whatever the federal government does, we’ll go along with it,’ I’m sorry. I have issues with that.
“I’m a states rights person, and I think the states are the primary state, not the federal government. We just don’t do what you do.”
State Republican State Delegate Pat McKillcraft of[كارتريت]County State Committee for Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse can still object to[فدا]- Real Estate agrees.
“We all have the right to veto her if we don’t want her to come here,” McElraft said. “I must remind you that these are FDA-approved drugs. This is not the legalization of marijuana.”
The bill was approved in the House of Representatives 92-9 on Wednesday after a unanimous vote of 49-0 in the state Senate last month. Cooper is expected to sign off on the procedure. Only one Democrat opposed the legislation.
The action comes as a separate bill to legalize marijuana has stalled in the House of Representatives afterwards Progress in the Senate last week.
WRAL News Online Poll found that Democratic, Republican, and unaffiliated voters in North Carolina overwhelmingly support the legalization of marijuana for medical use. Recreational use also has strong support, including from a large number of Republicans. Nearly three out of four respondents said that marijuana should be legalized for medical use, while 57% supported the legalization of marijuana.
The survey, conducted April 6-10, showed a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points when respondents were asked about legalization for medical purposes and 2.7 percentage points when asked about legalization for recreational purposes.
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