Read the full investigation:
Part 1 | Part 2 (coming next week) | Part 3 (coming early July)
North Carolina is one of only seven states that completely prohibit marijuana. But it’s never been easier to get high.
Gas stations sell vapes with names like “Maui Wowie.” Bars offer cannabis-infused seltzers. Online retailers ship tinctures and gummies that claim to enhance creativity or improve sex. Storefront dispensaries sell bud as pungent as anything you smoked in high school.
All of this is legal—for now.
“The joke in the industry is that North Carolina is actually the best recreational cannabis state in the country,” said Rod Kight, an Asheville attorney who focuses on cannabis law.
In 2018, Congress legalized hemp, a variety of Cannabis sativa L. that contains little of the psychoactive compound delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), but lots of cannabidiol (CBD), which studies suggest can help with anxiety, insomnia, and other health issues.
“The industry is on the clock.”
April Byrd, lobbyist
But the law contained loopholes large enough to fit a Cheech & Chong spliff, and within five years, the market for intoxicating hemp products had grown to $28 billion, rivaling craft beer. Hemp especially prospered in states with marijuana bans, like North Carolina.
The boom isn’t merely a function of supply and demand. In 2022, the General Assembly declassified hemp as a controlled substance. But by not setting any regulations on its production or sale, lawmakers accidentally created an unfettered business environment. Lawmakers have long agreed that hemp products should be regulated. But they couldn’t agree on how, so they’ve done nothing.
The state doesn’t prohibit hemp sales to children or require child-resistant packaging. It doesn’t mandate lab testing or transparent labeling. It doesn’t monitor products for contaminants or set THC limits. It doesn’t charge licensing fees or tax hemp-derived products like it does alcohol and tobacco.
Health officials say this has led to a surge in cannabis-related emergency department visits. Cops complain that enforcing the law is virtually impossible. Hemp industry advocates say it’s enabled bad actors to peddle modern-day bathtub gin and left even reputable retailers to worry about police raids and crippling fines.
A looming federal ban on most hemp products has only complicated matters. Scheduled to take effect in November, the ban won’t change state law, but it will make it more difficult for hemp companies to stay afloat.
“The industry is on the clock,” lobbyist April Byrd said.
With the support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, The Assembly has spent the better part of a year investigating the state’s failure to regulate hemp. Our three-part series draws on more than 50 interviews with policymakers, law enforcement officials, public health experts, scientists, attorneys, and people working in the hemp industry, as well as thousands of pages of court records and other documents.
As part of the investigation, we purchased a wide variety of hemp products from North Carolina retailers and had them tested at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Laboratory for Forensic Toxicology Research. Part 1 of this series reveals what those tests found.
Part 2, coming next week, examines the complex web of legal and public safety issues that our broken regulatory system has created. And part 3, publishing in early July, explores what viable regulation might look like.
The Basics
The Alphabet Soup of Cannabinoids
Cannabinoids are chemical compounds that interact with the body’s systems that regulate sleep, mood, appetite, and memory, among other functions. Cannabis sativa L. plants contain more than 100 cannabinoids, but the most important are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
Hemp and marijuana are varieties of Cannabis sativa L. that have been bred for different functions. Simply put, marijuana is cannabis whose dry weight consists of more than 0.3% delta-9 THC. Hemp is cannabis with less delta-9.
Delta-9 THC: The most common form of THC, delta-9 is cannabis’ primary psychoactive compound. Under current state and federal law, cannabis products with a delta-9 concentration of more than 0.3% are illegal. But that small percentage can be misleading. You can bake 100 milligrams of delta-9 into a brownie—more than enough to floor most adults—without approaching that limit.
Delta-8 THC: Though the cannabis plant produces delta-8 in small quantities, manufacturers usually convert, or synthesize, CBD into this form of THC by adding an acid. Delta-8 has milder psychoactive effects than delta-9.
Delta-6 THC: Another cannabinoid found only in trace amounts in cannabis plants but usually synthesized from CBD, delta-6 hasn’t been as well-researched as its counterparts. Its psychoactive effects are said to be milder than delta-9 but stronger than delta-8.
Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid (THCA): Found in the flowers of cannabis plants, THCA is not psychoactive on its own, but it converts to delta-9 when heated.
Cannabidiol (CBD): Cannabis’ second most abundant compound, CBD doesn’t have psychoactive effects—unlike THC, it does not bind to the body’s cannabinoid receptors—and there’s no evidence that it leads to abuse or dependency. People use CBD to treat everything from insomnia to anxiety to chronic pain. Scientists don’t fully understand how it works, but it affects a wide spectrum of bodily systems.
Semisynthetic Cannabinoids: Dozens of psychoactive compounds can be derived from CBD to mimic delta-9’s effects by adding acids, a process that can pose health risks. These cannabinoids include: hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), which is similar to THC; tetrahydrocannabinol-O-acetate (THCO), which is stronger; and tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP), which is more potent and longer lasting. None has been well-studied.
Other cannabinoids include cannabichromene (CBC), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinol (CBN), cannabidivarin (CBDV), cannabicyclol (CBL), and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA).
Certificate of Authenticity (COA): The results of lab tests that assess whether a cannabis product is legal and contains contaminants. COAs are often made available to the public through QR codes on product packages. In unregulated markets, however, the reliability of COAs—or the labs behind them—is sometimes disputed.
Is This Stuff Legal? A Timeline
1937: Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which effectively criminalized the cultivation and possession of cannabis. The law did not distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
1970: President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act, which declared cannabis a Schedule I drug like heroin and meth, prohibiting use for any purpose.
1977: North Carolina made low-level cannabis possession a class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine but not jail.
2014: As a deluge of states legalized medical marijuana—and a handful embraced recreational cannabis—Congress authorized states to grow industrial hemp for research and pilot programs.
2015: Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed bills allowing individuals with seizure disorders to use CBD oil and establishing an industrial hemp pilot program.
2017: Despite DEA roadblocks, North Carolina’s pilot hemp program launched with 75 farmers.
2018: Congress passed the Farm Bill, which legalized hemp, defined as “the plant species Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not,” with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC.
2021: A U.S. Department of Agriculture final rule specified that hemp crops must be tested for total THC—a formula that combines delta-9 and THCA—within 30 days of their anticipated harvest. The DEA and other law enforcement agencies have argued that the total THC formula should be applied to all hemp-derived products.
2022: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that delta-8 and other hemp-derived cannabinoids were legal under the 2018 Farm Bill.
2022: North Carolina aligned state law with federal statutes, legalizing “any part” of and “all products” made from the cannabis plant, as long as they contained less than 0.3% delta-9.
2024: In a case originating in North Carolina, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Farm Bill covered THCO because it’s synthesized from hemp. The decision also held that delta-9 is the only metric that counts toward legal status, undercutting the DEA’s position on total THC.
2026: The DEA declared the semisynthetic cannabinoid HHC illegal. Though the rule appears to be at odds with recent court decisions, HHC’s status remains murky.
November 12, 2026: A new federal law goes into effect that makes most hemp products illegal, including delta-8 and synthetic cannabinoids. It also limits hemp products to 0.3% or 0.4 milligrams of total THC—a definition that includes not just delta-9 and THCA, but also “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects.” While state law won’t change, the ban will create tax, banking, distribution, and supply chain problems for hemp businesses.
Hemp: By the Numbers
40: The number of states (plus Washington, D.C.) with recreational or medical cannabis markets. Another three allow access to low-THC medicinal products.
7: The remaining marijuana prohibition states: Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
24: Number of states, including N.C., that permit the sale of intoxicating hemp, according to the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. Fourteen of those states—not including N.C.—require buyers to be at least 21 years old.
9: Number of states, including N.C., with no potency limits on hemp products beyond the federal delta-9 threshold.
$3.2 billion: The amount of revenue North Carolina’s hemp industry generated in 2025, according to a report from Whitney Economics. Hemp businesses employ more than 16,000 people.
Straight From the Source
Q&A: Q. Nicole Vanderhorst, WH Farms
The business, which cultivates industrial hemp and makes CBD beauty and wellness products, seeks to “amplify access to this plant medicine.”
Q&A: Adrian Larrea, The HAZE Company
For Raleigh-based HAZE, declining alcohol sales created an opportunity in THC drinks. Now that business may be in jeopardy.
Q&A: Alexander Pelliccia, Sherlocks Glass & Dispensary
Sherlocks Glass & Dispensary started as a sort of cannabis art gallery and became a registered hemp processor after the state launched a pilot program.
Read the Full Series
What’s in My Weed?
Our investigation found many hemp products for sale don’t have the THC levels they claim—but do contain bacteria and other contaminants.
More From This Project
A Scientist’s War
Shortly after Congress legalized hemp, toxicologist Michelle Peace started a private drug-testing lab. Then she bit the hand that feeds.
Hemp Investigation: Our Methodology
Our reporters purchased hemp products from N.C. convenience stores and dispensaries, and had them tested at the Laboratory for Forensic Toxicology Research.
Downstream Testing
Not satisfied with our official lab testing of hemp products, our reporter conducted a urine test on himself after drinking a THC beverage.
What Else Is In My Weed?
Our tests found dozens of chemical compounds in hemp products that were not cannabinoids—including some that might surprise you.
