Medical marijuana struggles to reach the finish line at NC legislature
A partial legalization of medical marijuana, which has passed the North Carolina state Senate two years running, has stalled again in the state House, where supporters are struggling to put together enough backing in the Republican majority to get the bill across the finish line.
The bill's sponsor, a powerful state senator, said Thursday that he's not worried, and it's not unusual for major legislation to be stuck, and quickly get unstuck, in the waning days of a legislative session.
But there are indications that the measure may prove a bridge too far for social conservatives who've already been pressed to legalize online sports gambling, expand Medicaid coverage and pass an abortion bill that didn't go as far as some Republicans wanted.
In other words: There's already been a lot of arm twisting.
"I'd say that's reasonable [analysis]," said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican in his seventh term.
House Republicans discussed the bill Tuesday as part of a marathon closed-door caucus meeting to go over a number of bills still outstanding as lawmakers look to wrap up this legislative session. General Assembly leaders once hoped to finish most business by the end of this month, but this week made plans to continue meeting into July, primarily because the House and Senate have yet to agree on key state budget provisions, including a tax cut Senate leaders are pushing.
Speaker of the House Tim Moore wouldn't exactly say how the medical marijuana bill fared in Tuesday's caucus meeting, but he made it clear the bill doesn’t have enough support to move forward, at least for now.
“I don't think it has been determined at this point whether that bill will come up for a vote,” he said. “But I continue to have the position that any bill that's going to come up for a vote must have a majority of Republicans who are going to vote for that bill on the House floor. So until I see that that's where a majority of our caucus is, it will not come up for a vote."
Sen. Bill Rabon, a cancer survivor who has pushed medical marijuana legalization for the past two years, said Thursday not to worry about the measure’s fate.
“We have plenty of time,” said Rabon, R-Brunswick. “I’m not worried about it.”
Rabon chairs the Senate Rules Committee, making him one of the more powerful state lawmakers in Raleigh. That committee decides what bills go to the Senate floor for final votes, giving Rabon sway over House priorities, much as top House leaders hold sway over his.
It’s common, at this point of a legislative session, for leadership to keep bills from moving as leverage. But the medical marijuana bill failed to even get a hearing last year in the House. House members gave it a hearing late last month, but not a committee vote, leaving the bill in limbo while the chamber’s Republican majority wrestles over whether to bring it to the House floor.
"Speaking as a conservative,” Torbett said this week, “we have some difficult choices in front of us."
