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House Republicans declined Tuesday to advance the hemp ban the state Senate approved in early July. Their decision, made in a closed-door caucus meeting, likely kills the legislation. House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters that he would put together a study group to “figure out the right path forward.”
“Every member of the caucus wants to do something on the issue,” Hall said. “Folks recognize that the current state of our law is not tenable.”
As The Assembly’s recent investigation detailed, North Carolina currently allows hemp products to be sold without regulations or age limits. While lawmakers have long agreed that rules are needed, they haven’t figured out what they should look like.
Last month, the state Senate passed a bill that would ban most hemp products, the latest volley in a years-long standoff between the two chambers. But the House GOP punted, wary of what some Republicans viewed as a rushed process. On Tuesday, amid competing lobbying campaigns from law enforcement and the hemp industry, they again decided not to act.
If there’s any more hemp legislation this year, it will likely be a narrow attempt during the lame-duck session to restrict sales to people 21 and up, though it’s unclear whether Senate Republicans will go along. The House already passed a bill to do just that, and it’s been stalled in a Senate committee.
The more interesting question now is what Congress will do. The White House is pressuring Congress to repeal a federal hemp ban that’s slated to take effect on November 12. Its efforts have reportedly followed an influence campaign by hemp executive Bret Worley, the son-in-law of Trump’s chief of staff, Susan Wiles. Coincidentally, Worley is embroiled in a contentious lawsuit against Asterra Labs, the Nash County-based hemp company previously run by state Rep. John Bell. Worley’s attorney in that case is Jonah Garson, a Democratic state senator.
The stopgap spending measure the U.S. Senate passed on Monday to avert a government shutdown would delay the hemp ban until December. Leading the charge to make the ban permanent, however, is Sen. Ted Budd.
“I am appalled by the well-oiled, slick lobbying machine—which is very well connected in this town—that has chosen to wage this surreptitious war against our efforts to protect American children,” Budd said on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
