CBD Oil in North Carolina

In other states in the United States, you can buy CBD off the shelf or online for use as a nutritional supplement or as recommended by a doctor for the management of a condition.

The US congress legalized the growth of industrial hemp with a THC content that is below 0.3% in The Farm Bill – 2018. These laws at the federal level and in other states do not necessarily work in North Carolina, which has remained a black sheep in as far as the legal status of marijuana is concerned.

The first time marijuana-related legislation was passed in the state was in 2014 when the Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act, also known as the House Bill 1220, was passed. This bill made it legal for children with various forms of drug-resistant epilepsy to use hemp extracts to manage the condition.

For a child to be eligible to use marijuana extract, they need to have been diagnosed with a qualifying type of epilepsy by a state-recognized neurosurgeon. The oil law allows them to use less than 0.9% THC content and at least 5% CBD content.

Initial legislation required sick children to participate in pilot studies to qualify to use the CBD extracts, but it was amended to remove this requirement. This means that all they need now is a diagnosis for a qualifying condition.

As the law stands, possession of more than half an ounce of marijuana in North Carolina, without having followed the legal steps can get you incarcerated.

Less than 0.5 an ounce, on the other hand, can get you charged with a misdemeanor that would carry a lesser criminal penalty in the state.

NC CBD laws are among the most unclear laws in the country. Where there are regulations that appear to ease restrictions, there is always another that seems to counter it.  Passing of the United States Farm Bill 2018 legalized industrial hemp in all of the United States. This has allowed some manufacturers of CBD to ship the CBD even to adult users who don’t qualify under North Carolina’s Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act. This legal conundrum, notwithstanding, there are some vape shops all over the state that sell CBD products to the public for the management of anxiety, insomnia, or other health issues. The sale is open, and state authorities usually overlook it, but it is technically illegal.   These sales and purchases, while still illegal, have some legitimacy owing to public demand and legal trends elsewhere in the country, and you may get away with possession and sale. It is, however, important to mention that state authorities have legal backing for any arrests they might want to make concerning sale and possession of CBD. A case in point was when owners of a vape shop in Concord were arrested for having CBD products in stock.

One of the consequences of the current legal status of CBD in North Carolina is that CBD products such as gummies, capsules, oils, vapes, and the entire range of products are often marketed like a black market product. People are not free to buy and to probe the quality of the products they buy because ultimately if the products are not up to par, you’d have nowhere to report.

Owing to this black market-like business environment, a lot of the CBD products sold in North Carolina are usually way below par in terms of safety and potency. They could contain toxins due to sub-standard extraction methods, and they could also have lower strength than what is indicated on the label.

To avoid these pitfalls, you can search for good quality, well-vetted CBD oil products online from out of state manufacturers. Many of these manufacturers, because they do business in an open, free, and competitive environment, they work hard to improve their quality through innovation.

Reputable manufacturers also get their products tested by ISO certified third-party labs to show the consumer exactly what the products contain.

Once the products have been tested, the manufacturer makes the test results available for users. Some manufacturers avail test results for every batch of products so that any nuances in quality between batches can be captured. One prime example of such brands is FAB CBD. They have public laboratory tests, plus high-quality CBD products with a wide range of flavors and strengths which, we believe, can satisfy even toughest CBD fans.

Is hemp oil legal in NC? This will continue being the question in 2020. Unfortunately, North Carolina policymakers seem determined to keep swimming against the current where CBD and marijuana are concerned.

The State Senate has moved to ban smokable hemp, arguing that it will be difficult for law enforcers to distinguish between hemp and marijuana. This measure, while intended to keep people from using the psychoactive THC, will make the federally legal industrial hemp illegal as well.

The ban has been suspended until December 2020 when the House Judiciary Committee is expected to have developed guidelines to distinguish between smokable hemp and marijuana. If the guidelines are clear enough for the NC policymakers, then the ban may stay, if they don’t satisfy the state, then the ban may be effected.

The debate on CBD and marijuana use and its legalization is likely to continue unabated in 2020. If the current trend continues, more and more jurisdictions in the United States and the world will continue legalizing marijuana.

North Carolina, too can be expected to put their laws on marijuana in order and relax the restrictions. It may be that we shall receive news of movement towards that direction next year.