As a North Carolina Senate-passed medical marijuana legalization bill hangs in the balance in the House, the GOP Senate sponsor is taking a novel approach to pressure the opposite chamber to act by holding an unrelated piece of legislation hostage.
House Speaker Tim Moore (R) confirmed recently that there’s a lack of consensus around the medical cannabis measure, SB 3, in his caucus and said “it will not come up for a vote” unless a majority of Republican members in his chamber indicate they support it.
But Sen. Bill Rabon (R), who has consistently fought for the reform over recent sessions, isn’t giving up on his legislation. And to drive that point home, he attached an amendment to a mostly technical House bill on Wednesday to make it so it would become effective “only if, and on the date that, Senate Bill 3, 2023 Regular Session, becomes law.”
The Senate overwhelmingly approved the amendment in a 36-8 vote before advancing the underlying measure back to the House.
It’s not yet clear how the other body will respond to the Senate move to attach the medical cannabis language to the unrelated bill that deals with allowing physician assistants to practice without
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