“We want the public to understand exactly what this means. We don’t want to have to have law enforcement try to guess at businesses, are they public or are they private?”
By Clayton Henkel, NC Newsline
North Carolina’s Advisory Council on Cannabis faces a December 31 deadline to issue final recommendations for a comprehensive cannabis policy to Gov. Josh Stein (D). While the legislature would have to agree to enact any changes in existing law, the council gave the public its first glimpse this week of how a public consumption policy might be crafted.
Anne Doyle and Kaycee Deen with the state Division of Public Health told council members that cannabis consumption needs its own framework of policies, because it doesn’t fit neatly within state laws governing alcohol or tobacco use.
To establish a cannabis-specific policy, Doyle said her team has examined how other states have opted to regulate public consumption.
In Virginia, retail sales of recreational cannabis begin July 1, 2027, but it will be illegal to smoke it in public. Lawmakers there are already considering increasing the civil penalty for public use from $25 to $250.
In California, smoking or ingesting cannabis in public is prohibited, but they
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