North Carolina Legislators Face November Deadline For Hemp Regulation

Legislators Return To Session

North Carolina House and Senate members will reconvene in November to address the regulation of intoxicating hemp products. The two chambers were at odds in July over House Bill 328, which proposed banning hemp with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC. The bill also sought to prohibit the sale of any hemp consumables, including CBD, to anyone under 21.

House members opted to wait until after November’s midterm elections to make a final decision. They did not want to upset a $4 billion industry that employs 16,000 people in North Carolina. This delay leaves the state without a clear regulatory framework for these products as the new session begins.

The national context adds urgency to the state’s decision-making process. In Washington, the hemp industry received a one-month reprieve from a national ban on intoxicating hemp products. This reprieve was granted as part of a short-term funding bill passed by the U.S. House.

National Policy Shifts

The U.S. House voted to delay the national ban from taking effect until December 11. This federal action provides a temporary window for state lawmakers to act without immediate federal interference.

Simultaneously, the Trump administration has called on the U.S. Department of Justice to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug. This would place it in the same class as Tylenol with codeine.

North Carolina remains in a unique minority of states where marijuana is fully illegal for both recreational and medicinal purposes. State lawmakers are trying to navigate how to best protect minors from hemp-derived cannabinoids. They are also preparing for a future that could include some form of legal cannabis.

Advisory Council Work

The North Carolina Advisory Council on Cannabis was appointed in June 2025 by Gov. Josh Stein (D). The group has been meeting for months to develop a comprehensive approach to regulate cannabis sales.

Yasha Kahn, co-founder of MCR Labs, was invited to offer his expertise to the advisory council last week. Kahn has been involved in cannabis testing for more than a decade. He noted that nearly 40 states have already enacted cannabis regulations, but no two are the same.

Kahn stated, “Instead of looking at this as a huge mess, it really is 39 individual experiments on policy with much of the data available that we can analyze,” he said. He emphasized that policymakers can see which policies have worked and which ones have not. This data will help the council determine testing and oversight requirements for the state.

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