North Carolina Lawmakers Propose Legalizing Medical Cannabis Through Research Program

North Carolina House Democrats filed legislation on April 14 that would legalize up to 1.5 ounces of medical cannabis for patients participating in a registered cannabis research study.

The Cannabis Treatment Research Act, sponsored by Rep. Julia Greenfield, D-Mecklenburg, and nine of her colleagues in the lower chamber, would allow hospitals, universities, laboratories, pharmaceutical manufacturers or private medical research corporations that register with the state’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) to conduct cannabis research.

Under the legislation, House Bill 984, the DHSS would be required to establish a cannabis treatment research database for patients, caregivers, physicians, institutions and their researchers to register for medical cannabis studies and to be protected from criminal penalties, arrests and prosecutions.

“The scientific research conducted under this article may involve the development of quality control, purity and labeling standards for cannabis; sound advice and recommendations on the best practices for the safe and efficient medical use of cannabis; and analysis of genetic and healing properties of the many varied strains of cannabis to determine which strains may be best suited for a particular medical condition or treatment,” according to the legislation.

The legislation comes at a time when North Carolina remains one of the nation’s last holdouts on legalizing a commercial marketplace for cultivating and dispensing medical cannabis to qualifying patients. The state’s lack of policy reform is despite medical cannabis representing a nonpartisan issue among its electorate: 71% of North Carolina voters support medical cannabis legalization, according to a February 2025 survey conducted by Meredith College pollsters. 

Although the North Carolina Senate passed medical cannabis legalization bills in 2022 and 2023, with the most recent effort drawing a 36-10 vote in the upper chamber, former House Speaker Tim Moore refused to entertain the reform movements. Recently elected House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said in 2020 that he opposed legalizing medical cannabis.

Under H.B. 984, a patient who participates in a medical cannabis research study would be required to have written certification from a physician with whom he or she has a bona fide relationship. The certification would need to include a statement that, in the physician’s professional opinion, “the patient has a medical condition, and the potential health benefits of the medical use of cannabis would likely outweigh the health risks for the patient,” according to the bill.

The legislation would also provide immunity for research institutions, on a case-by-case basis, to dispense cannabis to registered caregivers who are at least 18 years old, a state resident, and a parent, legal guardian or custodian of a registered patient.

Although H.B. 984 would legalize medical cannabis for patients participating in a research study only—they’d have to dispose of any unused cannabis from the study at a secured collection box managed by a law enforcement agency—another bill introduced last month by state Rep. Jordan Lopez, D-Mecklenburg, would more broadly legalize cannabis for all North Carolinians 21 and older. That legislation also intends to establish a licensed marketplace to regulate cultivation and retail.

RELATED: North Carolina Representative Files Cannabis Legalization Bill for Adults 21+

However, no state to date has legalized adult-use cannabis before medical cannabis. Still, those 21 and older have legal access to cannabis on the roughly 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina, where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians launched sales in September 2024.

Still, possessing any amount of cannabis outside the native reservation remains a misdemeanor, including the possibility of jail time for those caught with more than half an ounce on their person. Possessing more than 1.5 ounces is a felony.

If H.B. 984 passes, the Cannabis Treatment Research Act would become effective July 1, 2025, and apply to offenses committed on or after that date.