NC Department of Justice Supports Interstate Hemp Commerce

I am pleased to report that the Justice Department of my home State, North Carolina (“NC”), recently issued an advisory opinion on industrial hemp that, for lack of a better phrase, “gets it.” The opinion was written by Anne Brown, Special Deputy Attorney General, to the NC Industrial Hemp Commission (“the Commission”) on May 11, 2017 in response to inquiries from the Commission for an interpretation of section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (“the Farm Bill”), codified as 7 U.S. Code § 5940 – Legitimacy of industrial hemp research. In addition to a clear and detailed discussion of NC’s hemp laws, the letter is worth reading for anyone involved in the hemp space for the points it makes about interstate hemp commerce, the DEA’s intrusion and interference with industrial hemp programs in NC and other State (which spurred the Commission to make the inquiry in the first place), and the role of non-governmental licensee hemp cultivators. Special thanks to the NC Industrial Hemp Association for its hard work.

You can read the advisory opinion by clicking here.

Rod Kight is a lawyer based in Asheville, NC. He is licensed in North Carolina and Oregon and represents legal cannabis businesses. You can contact him directly here.

Posted on May 17, 2017.