Legal marijuana in North Carolina? Task force recommends state look to legalizing the drug, follow others leads
Staff Report
editor@mountaintimes.com
Dec 16, 2020
HIGH COUNTRY â While much of the focus was on the U.S. presidential race in the 2020 General Election, voters in five states also approved the legalization of marijuana, bringing the total to 36 states that have legalized it for medical use, if not recreational.
Many states have gone through a step-by-step process toward legalization, starting with medicinal use and going up to regulated legalization. However, South Dakota went from illegal to totally legal in only one election.
North Carolinaâs legalization efforts have stopped at allowing CBD hemp, a low-to-no-THC form of the plant. In the past 10 years, the stateâs stance on the still federally illegal drug has gone from the norm to an outlier, with neighboring Virginia even moving for legalization. With an already more tolerating legal stance, Virg
HIGH COUNTRY â While much of the focus was on the U.S. presidential race in the 2020 General Elections, voters in five states also approved the legalization of marijuana, bringing the total to 36 states that have legalized it for medical use, if not recreational.
However, the discussion of legalization is not stopping at the state level. On Dec. 4, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the MORE Act with a 228-158 vote. A large part of the MORE Act is the focus on how non-white Americans have been disproportionally affected by marijuana laws.
The North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, which was convened by N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper via Executive Order 145 on June 9, focuses on such issues. The task force made preliminary recommendations on Nov. 18 to help deal with oversights, discriminations and other problems minorities face when it comes to the stateâs law enforcement and judicial systems.
Dec 16, 2020
HIGH COUNTRY â While much of the focus was on the U.S. presidential race in the 2020 General Election, voters in five states also approved the legalization of marijuana, bringing the total to 36 states that have legalized it for medical use, if not recreational.
Many states have gone through a step-by-step process toward legalization, starting with medicinal use and going up to regulated legalization. However, South Dakota went from illegal to totally legal in only one election.
North Carolinaâs legalization efforts have stopped at allowing CBD hemp, a low-to-to-no-THC form of the plant. In the past 10 years, the stateâs stance on the still federally illegal drug has gone from the norm to an outlier, with neighboring Virginia even moving for legalization. With an already more tolerating legal stance, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced in November a plan to legalize marijuana in the state by the end of 2021.