Clearing the Air About Hemp

Policy matters weekly radio show and podcast reduced by the North Carolina family policy Council hi this is John Ralston, presidency, family, and were grateful to have you with us for this week's program is our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged and inspired by what you hear on family policy matters and that you will feel better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state and nation, and now here's our house to family policy matters. Tracy event brings thanks for joining us this week for family policy matters and marijuana are sure to be up for discussion in North Carolina again this year, especially in relation to North Carolina's format the differences and similarities in the laws surrounding hemp and marijuana can be rather confusing.

We hope to clear up some of that confusion for you today one pleased to welcome to guests that you know well, John Rustin, president of NC family and Jerry roil our director of community impact in counsel and both John and Jerry serve his lobbyists down at the North Carolina Gen. assembly and speak out on behalf of North Carolina families on a daily basis. John and Jerry, it's great to have you both on the show this week. Let's start with terminology people use the term cannabis synonymously with marijuana. Sometimes the cannabis should actually be used to describe marijuana and hemp that we throw in terms like CBD and THC and we can get really confused. So what you start by clearing that up for us were sure Tracy for this can be very confusing because there is a lot of misconception about the differences between marijuana and help CBD and THC. Another terminology that we deal with in this whole arena all one thing I do want to mention about this program is that the restaurant family policy Council recently had a feature article in a recent edition of her magazine family restaurant magazine that really helps to unpack a lot of these issues. Of course, will be talking about that a good bit in this program today but our listeners can reference that magazine on the website@ncfamily.org cannot encourage them to do that because in addition to our discussion today.

There's a lot of great information in there that will help them understand these issues much better and without Jerry roil was our our rest expert on this issue. He's been studying it a lot and is been talking with legislators and others about it quite a bit so Jerry wants to help our listeners understand more specifically the differences between marijuana and help and THC and CBD and all these terms. Thank you John for the encouragement.

The distinctions are important to make and really understanding the issue you hurt to look at each of these separately help and marijuana are in the same plant family cannabis. They look and smell the same.

And they both contain the ingredients THC and CBD. The THC level is important distinguishing characteristic between the two. THC use the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that causes people to become legal help has 3/10 of 1% level of THC or less.

The THC level and marijuana and contrast has gone from about 2%. Little over 50 years ago, up to 30% or even 65% today.

The other significant ingredient in these plants is CBD which exist in the lower levels and marijuana, and high levels in him.

Jerry talk little bit about what the federal law says related to hemp and marijuana.

The federal government classifies marijuana as a schedule one controlled substance under the controlled substances exact and that's based on three factors, one is high potential for abuse to it has no currently acceptable medical use in treatment in the United States and three there's a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

The AMA and the FDA both do not support legalization of marijuana not even medical marijuana but they do support continuing research on possible medical benefits of the FDA has approved one CBD product for epilepsy and that's under a doctor's prescription okay will John North Carolina lawmakers in recent years have addressed the topic of growing hemp in North Carolina. What did they do Tracy. This is a great question. I think something that's of important for listeners to understand back in 2015 the legislature passed a bill that authorized and initiated the industrial hemp industry in our state and basically it was understood at the time that this industrial help would be growing plants that were consistent with the their restrictions in the federal law, the jury just described about the permissible level of THC in these plants, but that the industry that was growing these plants would utilize them to derive hemp fibers that would be used in rope and other fabrics and things of that nature and that was really what was contemplated that hey this might be a new possibility for a crop in the state that would not be particularly problematic. But there was discussion at the time that I recall in sitting in these committee meetings and hearing the debate that the hemp plant and the marijuana plants or being in the same family as Jerry mentioned look almost identical and smell and appear almost identical to each other in one of the questions that I recall that was asked in a committee discussion about this was what is if they're so similar what is going to keep people from smoking.

The hemp plant and the response that was put forth at the time was that if you attempted to smoke help that it would actually make you physically ill and so that was sort of the perception that folks were left with was that there were very different and important distinctions between these two plants and it help this industrial hemp industry. I would be authorized to grow fibrous plants that would be useful for a lot of different things, but never contemplated that smokable help or some of these other products that were saying come on the market now would even be a possibility, but also at the same time Jerry. There were some other proposals that were moving through the legislature dealing with what was referred to at the time is hemp extract or CBD so wanted to talk little bit about that, too, because that was happening around the same time as the approval of this industrial hemp industry in North Carolina. Thank you Jon, I think back in 2014, the legislature passed a bill allowing for a powerless study for the use of hemp extract and cases of epilepsy with children at that point in time there. One of the members of the house represent Folger was a neurologist who was supportive of this very narrow pilot study for the use of hemp extract. He was not in favor of legalization of medical marijuana said that this hemp extract was a possible treatment that may be helpful in the next year in 2015 the legislature came back and did away with the pallet study requirement and allowed for the use of this epilepsy treatment of hemp extract under the care of a doctor so that was kind of the medical picture that we had about him up and then, in addition to that, is John described we had the description of industrial help which again everybody was talking about thinking about in terms of rote fabric. There was absolutely no mention of CBD oil or smokable him up and now this year. The legislation is not passed, but it is a tarmac for 2019 was following up on federal legislation which really opened the door for legal him to be growing again going back to the 3/10 of 1% or less. THC it would be legal in the United States to grow produce, but it all of a sudden included a new part of the picture that even the bill sponsors this past year mentioned they had not been aware of.

But what we found out is the discussion and debate continued was that smokable him up itself made up anywhere from 25 to 40% of the market in North Carolina for hemp. This all of a sudden now is creating problems for us is in it because there is some difficulty in distinguishing between the smokable hemp and marijuana as we have seen this product rise in popularity and growth for farmers but then all of a sudden when smokable hemp became a vital part of the financial life of many farmers. We all of a sudden discovered that law enforcement was faced with very significant problem of being able to distinguish between smokable him and marijuana and they look the same and smell the same. And that's what really is the big issue now, the legislators how to resolve the issue of law enforcement not being able to distinguish between smokable hemp and marijuana right and John of course the law enforcement officials in North Carolina have been very vocal about this issue. What are they saying well-wishers Association the Chiefs of police. The district attorneys, and others will come together and urge the Gen. assembly to ban smokable hemp in North Carolina as soon as possible and the real issue there is that they essentially lose probable cause if they come up on a sale car and they smell what they believed to be marijuana and illegal drug in North Carolina and they make an arrest and in the midst of that arrest. They may find other illegal drugs.

A cash of money or weapons or what not.

But if the individual using the drug claims that it was hemp smokable hemp and not marijuana then that can cause problems for law enforcement and so the initial arrest in any other legal matters that they may bring forth. Based on that initial arrest could all be thrown out by the judge if that individual claims and somehow proves to the court that they were in possession of smokable hemp instead of marijuana we seen in states like Colorado that have legalized recreational marijuana use that they're having a significant increase in the number of traffic accidents from people driving while impaired, and just lots of different kinds of problems and these are the these are the types of things that have calls law enforcement agencies in North Carolina to come forward and expressed significant concerns about the continued legalization of smokable hemp and the implications that that has for it again as they have said the de facto legalization of marijuana. It's just not because they oppose marijuana just oppose marijuana, but there are lots of good reasons for that opposition to Jerry. Do you want to just finish up by telling us what the current status is of the North Carolina Farm act of 2019. This bill was debated literally for hours for weeks and even months because people wanted to try to find a good resolution to this, but it basically came down to the fact is, John mentioned that from the law enforcement perspective. You have the district attorneys assures that police chiefs the state Bureau of investigation, all saying that the unintended consequence upon passage of this bill is that marijuana will be legalized in North Carolina because law enforcement cannot distinguish between him and marijuana and prosecutors could not prove the difference in court, so the main issue that was being debated was when to make smokable hemp illegal.

They apparently have worked that out and what some of us are thinking and hoping will happen when the legislature comes back in mid January is that they would pass this legislation that would clarify that as of June 2020 that smokable hemp would be illegal.

Thank you Jerry where about out of time for this week before we go.

John and Jerry yard. He mentioned John at the beginning of the show where people can go to learn more about this topic that you want to reiterate where can they find out more church ratio. Thank you again.

We are recently published feature article in family North Carolina magazine, that magazine is available for download for free on our website it NC family.org again that since he family.org and I really would encourage folks to go and make use of that as a resource to help them understand these issues, but also to share with others, and further, if this is a topic that you're interested in how we would also encourage you to sign up for email updates from NC family. If you are not already receiving those because there aren't too many people that know more about this issue than John and Jerry and so if you really want to hear what's going on, want to follow this go ahead and sign up for those email updates@ncfamily.org, John Weston and Jerry Ryle. Thank you so much for being with us on family policy matters listing the family house matter. We hope you enjoyed the program and plenitude in again next week to listen to the show online and to learn more about NC families work to encourage and inspire families across Carolina go to our website it NC family.org that's NC family.org.

Thanks again for listening and may God bless you and your family