On Thursday, June 4, 2020, the North Carolina General Assembly passed S.B. 315, referred to as the State Farm Bill, which was subsequently signed into law by the Governor. The bill was pending all last session and stalled, allegedly over a dispute about how to treat smokable hemp. As I understand it, the bill originally intended to clarify that hemp in all forms (including smokable hemp) was legal (here is an earlier version of the bill taking that approach). After hearing objections from law enforcement and prosecutors (as detailed in the SBI memo on the subject), the proposed bill was changed to ban smokable hemp and regulate the rest of the hemp industry in a variety of ways. When the bill was last being discussed in the news, the dispute at the General Assembly had apparently narrowed to when the smokable hemp ban was to kick in. But, the bill never passed last session, and we were without a Farm Bill until this month. So, what big changes does the bill have in store for hemp in North Carolina? The Big Change? In short, the bill changes nothing about hemp. Therefore, at least for the time being, smokable hemp and all other forms of hemp remain legal and largely unregulated after it leaves the farm. The State Farm Bill, as enacted, cut all references to hemp from earlier versions and simply left the issue alone. As I’ve written before, the existence of smokable hemp (and other hemp products) raises thorny issues [...]
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