Ahead of its first meeting on Tuesday, a governor-created cannabis advisory council in North Carolina is seeking comments from the public about the marijuana policy issues they care about most.
Created in June through an executive order from Gov. Josh Stein (D), who supports marijuana legalization, the North Carolina Cannabis Advisory Council includes legislators, law enforcement officials, agriculture industry stakeholders, health experts, tribal representatives, advocates and others. Its aim is to explore possible regulatory models for adult-use cannabis and hemp.
“If you are an adult and that’s the choice you want to make, you should be able to make that choice,” Stein said when he signed the executive order—but he added that he didn’t have all the policy answers himself.
“I have some philosophical views on matters,” he said, “but there are real, complicated, practical implications of every decision you make.”
Now, with the council members’ first meeting on Tuesday, the body is asking for input from North Carolinians.
“The North Carolina Advisory Council on Cannabis, created by Governor Josh Stein in Executive Order No. 16, seeks comments from the public on the cannabis policy issues that are important to you and your community,” seeks an open-ended comment form posted on the council’s website this week.
The order that created the body says there’s a need for reform because the “current lack of regulation, including age, potency, and purity limitations, poses a threat to all North Carolinians, particularly our youth.” And “rather than allowing this unsafe and unregulated market to continue,” it adds, “smart and balanced regulation presents an opportunity not only to protect the health and well-being of our people, but also to generate revenue that can benefit our state.”
Last month, Stein reiterated his support for legalizing marijuana, stressing the need to create a regulated cannabis program to mitigate the risks associated with products in the intoxicating hemp market.
“Today, all across North Carolina, there are unregulated THC products that are intoxicating available for purchase,” he said in a video posted on social media, referencing consumable hemp products sold at retailers with little oversight or quality control standards.
“All you have to do is just walk into any vape shop and you’ll see there is no legal minimum age to purchase these products, which means that kids are able to and are buying them without any enforceable labeling requirements,” he said. “Adults are using them recreationally without having any idea what’s in them or how much THC there is.”
After its first meeting on Tuesday, the council is set to convene at least every other month through December 2026. Members will be tasked with developing and submitting initial recommendations on a “comprehensive cannabis policy, including any proposed legislation” to the governor by May 15, 2026.
Final recommendations will be due by December 31, 2026.
Rather than sticking to the status quo, the governor has emphasized that the state should move to legalize marijuana for adults 21 and older. That would represent a significant policy change for North Carolina, which is one of the rare remaining examples of a state without a comprehensive medical cannabis program.
During his time as the state’s attorney general, Stein led a separate task force under then-Gov. Roy Cooper (D) that examined racial injustice issues and ultimately recommended decriminalizing marijuana and studying broader legalization in response to racially disparate enforcement trends.
In recent sessions, multiple limited medical marijuana legalization bills advanced through the Senate, only to stall out in the House.
But Stein is making the case that moving forward on comprehensive recreational reform would help avoid issues that other states have experienced transitioning from medical to adult-use marijuana markets.
That position might put one of the advisory council’s appointed members, Sen. Bill Rabon (R), in an awkward place, as the senator has long championed bipartisan medical marijuana legalization legislation and insisted it should not be viewed as a step toward adult-use legalization.
Meanwhile, in the House, Rep. Aisha Dew (D) filed a bill in April that would legalize medical marijuana for patients with a variety of specified conditions, including cancer, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, end-of-life care and other serious ailments.
The North Carolina Compassionate Care Act is considerably more detailed than a separate Democrat-led medical cannabis bill introduced earlier that month that would allow access only for patients enrolled in a “registered research study.”
Advocates had been awaiting House introduction of a comprehensive bill, especially since Senate President Phil Berger (R) said his chamber is deferring to the House to move first on medical marijuana reform this session.
Two other measures introduced so far this session would legalize cannabis in North Carolina. In the Senate, S350 would create medical and adult-use marijuana systems, while H413 in the House would legalize only recreational marijuana.
House Speaker Destin Hall (R) said in early March that Republicans in his chamber could be willing to consider medical marijuana legalization this session. But he didn’t indicate any forthcoming House bills, instead suggesting legislation would come from the Senate.
Voters, for their part, seem to be on board with cannabis reform. A poll published in February found that 71 percent of likely voters in North Carolina support legalizing medical marijuana in the state, with majorities across party lines and in every surveyed demographic—aside from people over the age of 80—in favor.
Former House Speaker Tim Moore (R) said last year that while he personally supports legalizing medical marijuana, there is an informal rule in the chamber that at least 37 GOP members must back any given bill in order to bring it to the floor.
The current House speaker, Hall, has in the past voiced opposition to medical cannabis reform.
Former House Majority Leader John Bell (R) said in 2023 that while there were “still discussions going on” about medical marijuana legislation, he was “very sure you won’t see that bill move” due to insufficient support among Republicans. He said that was “unfortunately” the case.
An Indian tribe in North Carolina launched the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary last April—despite the protests of certain Republican congressional lawmakers. More than a week after legal marijuana sales kicked off to all adults at The Great Smoky Cannabis Co. in Cherokee last year, thousands from across the region made purchases.
