North Carolina lawmakers are debating a cannabis bill again.
Lawmakers are once again deliberating whether to legalize marijuana for medical use, an issue that has plenty of supporters in the state Senate but has failed to become law the past two legislative cycles.
Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Southport), a primary sponsor of the bill and a colon cancer survivor, has been pushing for several years for North Carolina to join the 38 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and territories that allow the use of marijuana — also referred to as cannabis — for medical purposes. Reasons given for opposition to the proposal in years past have varied. This year, many of the bill’s detractors have argued that legalization would make North Carolina’s roadways more treacherous.
The bill passed the state Senate with bipartisan support, but House members had pointed questions for Rabon on May 30, when he took the floor at a House Health Committee meeting to make his case for the Compassionate Care Act.
Rabon, a veterinarian and state senator since 2011 who is head of the powerful rules committee, takes anybody willing to listen along his journey to becoming an advocate for medical marijuana.
It’s personal for him.
At age 48, Rabon was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer and began chemotherapy. To battle the nausea associated with the treatment, he was prescribed dronabinol pills, a man-made form of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the component of cannabis that produces the…
