Senate-backed hemp bill targets NC THC market

A Senate-approved conference report that would largely ban intoxicating hemp products in North Carolina has stalled in the House, where Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the scope of the agreement.

House Bill 328, titled “Regulate Hemp-Derived Consumables,” would impose a 0.4 milligram total THC limit per container on finished hemp-derived consumable products. The restriction would remove most THC beverages, gummies, vapes, delta-8 products, and THCA flower from the legal market in North Carolina.

The Senate adopted the conference report on July 2 in a 37-6 vote, but the House did not take up the measure before lawmakers adjourned. The bill is next eligible for House action on July 27.

“Dangerous and intoxicating hemp products are flooding our state,” Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a statement after the vote. “These products are advertised and marketed to children and are often deceptively labeled to trick consumers into thinking they’re safe. The result is that North Carolina has a de facto recreational marijuana marketplace. Once it becomes law, this bill will end that market.”

The delay comes after House Republicans raised concerns about the current agreement. House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, and House leaders are understood to be more interested in the bill’s age-verification component than in the broader hemp-product restrictions included in the Senate-approved conference report.

Supporters of stronger restrictions have argued that North Carolina’s current hemp laws allow intoxicating products to be sold widely with little oversight. Critics, including hemp businesses, have warned that a strict THC cap could wipe out products currently sold in breweries, bottle shops, smoke shops, convenience stores, and hemp retailers across North Carolina.

The conference report would define a “prohibited finished hemp-derived consumable product” as a final-form hemp product intended for ingestion or inhalation that contains more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container or contains synthetic or chemically converted cannabinoids.

The conference report would also make it unlawful to knowingly sell or deliver hemp-derived consumable products to anyone under 21. It would prohibit people under 21 from possessing those products and create penalties for underage sales and possession.

Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover, who explained the conference report on the Senate floor, said the bill is aimed at closing a loophole that has allowed intoxicating hemp products to spread across North Carolina.

“What we have found for states that haven’t taken action like ours at this point yet is that you’ve essentially legalized recreational marijuana,” Lee said.

Lee told senators that products sold in North Carolina stores often do not clearly disclose their contents. He said he recently went into a dispensary and saw products with warnings that they “may contain unidentified substances that are harmful or toxic.”

He also argued that the bill is needed to protect children from products that resemble candy and are sold in gas stations and other retail locations.

“These products are being sold to kids,” Lee said. “It’s changing their brains through neuroscience, and they’re becoming addicted to a variety of different substances and don’t even know it.”

Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, said lawmakers have tried for years to regulate the products without success.

“Are we going to affect businesses? Yes, we’re going to affect 12,000 drug dealers’ businesses,” Rabon said on the Senate floor. “They’re selling it to low-income, to people who are down on their luck, the normal people who buy drugs. But they’re also selling it to teenagers and sub-teenagers, and anyone that they can prey upon.”

“I’ve had the epiphany that the big players and the people who want to make the money can’t make the money they want to make,” Rabon added. “They can’t prey upon the people whom they want to prey upon, in a regulated marketplace. So if that is the case, we have to do away with all of it.”

Berger also urged senators to support the conference report, saying they should not reject it because it is imperfect.

“I don’t know that there’s ever been any perfect legislation,” Berger said. “If your goal is to have a perfect bill, you will never get a bill. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This bill is good.”

But opponents and skeptics raised concerns about the process, the potential for pushing products into the black market, and the lack of a broader regulatory framework for testing, labeling, and packaging.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein, D-Wake, said she was concerned that a ban-focused approach could create new problems.

“My concern about the structure of what’s being proposed here is that we are assuming that if we ban these intoxicating substances, they will not exist anymore,” Grafstein said. “And what we know is that, of course, they will. My concern is that this simply opens up a black market that will expose our kids to even worse things.”

The conference report comes as similar federal hemp restrictions are scheduled to take effect next year, though their future remains uncertain.

Congress approved hemp restrictions scheduled to take effect Nov. 12, 2026, aimed at closing the loophole created by the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp based primarily on delta-9 THC content. The new federal language targets intoxicating hemp-derived products, including products with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC.

Industry groups and members of Congress are pushing to delay or rewrite the federal language before it becomes enforceable. In June 2026, the White House asked Congress to replace the pending federal hemp restrictions with a regulatory framework, or at a minimum, extend the moratorium to give lawmakers more time to act, according to the US Hemp Roundtable. 

But HB 328 would go further than simply tracking federal law. If enacted, the bill would place a 0.4 milligram total THC cap directly into North Carolina statute, meaning the state restriction could remain in force regardless of whether Congress later changes course.

For now, the Senate-approved conference report remains stalled short of final passage. Because conference reports cannot be amended on the floor, any major House objection would likely require lawmakers to renegotiate the bill before bringing it back for a vote.

That leaves the future of HB 328 unresolved as lawmakers prepare to return later this month. The bill could still emerge as a sweeping hemp crackdown, but House resistance has opened the door to a narrower version focused more directly on age verification and youth access.

“Senate-backed hemp bill targets NC THC market” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.