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Bill To Put Marijuana On The Ballot In North Carolina Unlikely To Advance, GOP Senate Leader Says

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“I’m not sure we’re at a place where we’re going to take legalization of marijuana.”

By Brandon Kingdollar, NC Newsline

A new bill proposed by North Carolina Senate Democrats would vote on constitutional amendments to legalize recreational and medical cannabis. But the chances of getting a vote in the Senate are not high, says the Republican leadership.

Senate Bill 1072 would put two separate amendments on the ballot in November, asking voters to legalize the possession of “limited quantities of cannabis” by patients who qualify for recreational and medical use, respectively.

“The people of North Carolina deserve a voice in determining the future of cannabis policy in our state,” said Sen. Kandie Smith (D-Edgecombe), one of the bill’s lead sponsors. “What it does is it gives North Carolinians a way to vote on whether or not limited personal property and medical use should be allowed under our state constitution.”

Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) had a candid response: “I’m not sure we’re in a place where we’re going to take legalization of marijuana,” he said Wednesday afternoon.

“I think there is some interest in looking at the state of hemp and the sale of hemp ingredients and some derivatives,” Berger said. “It’s really unclear whether we’re talking about an outright ban, or a regulatory scheme, or whether we’re talking about including these and not including those. It’s just a matter of discussion about what we get a consensus on.”

It would be a proposal that is currently moving through the Chamber prohibit anyone under the age of 21 from purchasing hemp-derived consumables.

Berger has supported medical marijuana in the past. In 2024, the Senate passed a bill that legalized medical marijuana while restricting hemp-based consumables. The bill, which passed 36-10, was championed by Senate Rules Chairman Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), a cancer survivor who said cannabis helped him endure intensive chemotherapy for colon cancer.

However, the House refused to take up Rabon’s bill because of insufficient GOP support in that chamber. North Carolina remains one of 10 states that have yet to legalize medical marijuana.

With no medical cannabis program in North Carolina, many have turned to the state’s booming hemp industry to meet what they describe as medical needs, such as relieving pain, insomnia and anxiety among other conditions. However, many of these products will disappear after much stricter federal restrictions on hemp-based consumables take effect in November.

A February 2025 Meredith College Poll found that 71 percent of North Carolina residents supported passing a bill allowing medical marijuana, while 17 percent of respondents opposed it. Polls conducted by Elon University and the progressive think tank Carolina Forward have also shown majorities in favor of recreational marijuana in recent years.

Sen. Caleb Theodros (D-Mecklenburg), another key sponsor of S1072, said invoice State legislation would allow for the capture of public opinion on the use of cannabis.

“If the Legislature can’t fix this problem after years of debate, who should? I think the answer is simple, and it’s the people of North Carolina,” Theodros said. “Senate Bill 1072 gives voters an opportunity to have a direct voice on an issue that has been unresolved for too long.”

He said Berger has supported a push for cannabis legislation over the past year, an apparent reference to the Senate leader’s comments about medical cannabis. That makes him “cautiously optimistic” about the bill’s fate.

“We are aware of the political climate in this building. But again, we were not made to sit on our hands and say we are in the minority and therefore we can’t do anything,” Theodros said. “We’re trying to move with our colleagues here and join the rest of America and the rest of the planet to suggest that we need to have some kind of policy on this.”

This story was first published by NC Newsline.

user photo Philip Steffan.

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Ayotte vetoes bill allowing New Hampshire medical cannabis dispensary greenhouses

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June 22, 2026

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New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed Senate Bill 468 on Friday, blocking a bipartisan measure that would have allowed the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries to increase their supply of cannabis and lower prices for patients.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Howard Pearl, R-Loudon, would limit each dispensary to a single greenhouse for growing its own cannabis. Ayott rejected it outright. In his veto statement, he writes: “I do not support the expansion of marijuana cultivation in our state. That is why I have vetoed SB 468.”

New Hampshire legalized medical marijuana in 2013 under then-governor Maggie Hassan. The state limits possession to two ounces and limits sales to a small network of nonprofit “alternative treatment centers.” The state’s seven dispensaries, located in Chichester, Conway, Dover, Keene, Lebanon, Merrimack and Plymouth, are operated by four such organizations. Patients need a medical marijuana card issued by their doctor to purchase at any of them.

New Hampshire remains the only New England state without legal recreational marijuana. Across the country, 24 states have legalized recreational use and 39 have legalized medical use. Ayotte has previously cited concerns about law enforcement’s inability to measure marijuana-impaired drivers using current technology, as well as the mental health and “quality of life” of young people to oppose broader legalization.

A two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate would be needed to override the veto. Parliament plans to vote on a repeal this year.

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Australia funds major hemp processing projects in NSW’s Murray-Darling Basin

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June 21, 2026

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Two regional New South Wales hemp industries have secured AU$10 million in government grants to build processing facilities, as part of a wider $69 million funding round supporting 14 projects in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Ausuntech Pty Ltd, the company behind Carrathool agglomeration Gundaline — a 14,916-hectare property owned by Chinese company Zhejiang Sunrise Garment Group — will use its funding to build what is being described as Australia’s first large-scale hemp processing plant. The facility is still awaiting NSW planning approval following a public consultation period that closed in March. According to planning documents prepared by SKM Planning, the plant would annually process 20,000 tonnes of raw hemp into 4,000 tonnes of fibre, all from hemp grown on the Gundaline property. The processed fiber would be carded and exported to China, where it would be spun and woven into clothing materials.

Meanwhile, Murray Industrial Hemp (MIH), based in Barham, received match funding to set up a facility producing low-carbon hemp concrete blocks for sustainable housing. The project will renovate a former redgum sawmill site with the installation of de-corking equipment to convert hemp bales into nuts, fiber and fines, along with a hemp brick manufacturing line. MIH Executive Director Leigh Fletcher said the funding is a major boost to the region’s emerging industrial hemp sector, citing hemp’s water efficiency as a crop and its thermal and fire-retardant properties as a building material.

The Sustainable Communities Program, jointly funded by the federal and NSW governments, aims to help communities in the Murray-Darling Basin economically diversify as water recovery efforts progress. NSW Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty and federal Water Minister Murray Watt framed the investments as support for regional jobs and resilience amid ongoing water policy adjustments in the Basin.

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Vermont Governor Signs Bill To Double Legal Marijuana Possession Limit And Allow Interstate Commerce

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June 21, 2026

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The governor of Vermont has signed the legislation allow adults over 21 to legally possess twice as much marijuana as they did before, enable interstate commerce in cannabis and make other changes to the rules for licensed businesses.

Gov. Phil Scott (R) announced Friday that he approved the large-scale cannabis reform bill, S. 278, which passed both houses of the legislature last month.

One of the major effects of the new law on consumers is that it doubles the prior possession limit to two ounces of marijuana or 10 grams of hashish.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale (D), also allows the governor to enter into treaties with other states for the cross-border trade of cannabis.

The legislative text states that there is a “changing federal position on regulated cannabis markets” and that it is “the intent of the General Assembly” to provide for the possibility of regional or interstate cannabis markets.

A provision states that such agreements can only go forward if federal law is changed to allow the transfer of cannabis between states, if a federal law is enacted blocking the use of agency funds to prevent such transfers, if the U.S. Department of Justice publishes a notice endorsing or approving such activity, or if the state’s attorney general certifies that administrative risk based on interstate marijuana court agreements will not result in administrative risk based on judicial decisions based on administrative review.

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The invoice signed The governor also creates a pilot program for cannabis events, in which businesses can sell products but the consumption of cannabis would not be allowed.

The legislation also states that residential leases cannot prohibit tenants from “possessing cannabis or cannabis products on the rental premises or using cannabis or cannabis products in a housing unit, except that a rental agreement may prohibit the use of light cannabis for inhalation or the use of cannabis products on the rental premises.”

It also eliminates the vertically integrated type of license and lowers licensing fees for cannabis cultivation companies, among other technical changes to the current statute.

Earlier versions of the bill would have changed potency restrictions on cannabis products, reduced taxes and allowed local consumption licenses and delivery services, but those provisions were removed during the legislative process before final passage.

In 2018, Scott they signed a bill to legalize marijuana possession and home cultivation and then after permission legislation to legalize the commercial sale of cannabis enter into force without his signature in 2020.

Photo by Mike Latimer.

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