Sen Brent Jackson

shows a man at a podium holding up a face mask used as a COVID preventive as he speaks from behind a podium.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed budget could get things hopping in the legislature

March 25, 2021 by Editor

Gov. Roy Cooper’s proposed budget could get things hopping in the legislature - North Carolina Health News

The legislature started out slowly this year, but will negotiations between the GOP and Democrats about Medicaid expansion kickstart other priorities?

By Anne Blythe, Thomas Goldsmith, Rose Hoban, Taylor Knopf

Two weeks have passed since Gov. Roy Cooper stood with Democratic and Republican lawmakers outside the North Carolina Museum of History to announce that, in a new spirit of bipartisan negotiating, both sides of the aisle had come to consensus on how and when to reopen the state’s public schools.

On Wednesday, Cooper presented his proposed biennial state budget that called for spending $27.4 billion in the next fiscal year that begins July 1, and $28.5 billion for the fiscal year after that.

The governor’s proposal calls for expanding Medicaid and giving teachers higher raises than other state employees, hot-button political issues that created an impasse between the Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers and left the state without an orthodox two-year budget in 2019.

Since the 2020 election in which North Carolina voters again elected a Democratic governor while filling both General Assembly chambers with Republican majorities, lawmakers and the governor have made noises about trying to work together more.

The months ahead will tell whether the historic moment displayed outside the history museum two weeks ago is a harbinger of a more bipartisan future, or if the budget process once again will break down along party lines.

“Unlike the last budget cycle that we had, I have had numerous conversations with both Republican and Democratic leadership,” Cooper said during a briefing with reporters Wednesday. “One thing we agreed on is, first, the people of North Carolina elected us again so we’re back in the same situation that we were, and we owe to them to do the best that we can to find a path forward. We’ve all agreed that everything is on the table.”

Trying to persuade Sen. Phil Berger, the Rockingham County Republican leading the state Senate, to change his mind could prove difficult.

In an interview with the Associated Press a week ago, Berger dampened the enthusiasm among Democrats and some Republicans for the substantial incentives contained in the American Rescue Plan for states that have yet to expand Medicaid as allowed under the Affordable Care Act. The federal COVID-19 relief package would direct some $1.7 billion to North Carolina over the next two years if the state enacts the policy.

While acknowledging some gaps in health care coverage during the Associated Press interview, Berger described the federal assistance as temporary aid that might create a new level of dependence on government for able-bodied adults.

Charlie Perusse, the state budget director, added context for how the carrot being offered by the federal government could be used.

In North Carolina, that would mean some 600,000 people who are low-income workers without health insurance, people with disabilities and others who don’t now qualify for Medicaid, would have access to health care under the expanded federal program. The state would owe between $350 million to $400 million per year, Perusse estimated, for its share of the expanded coverage.

If North Carolina, one of 12 states to resist Medicaid expansion, received the $1.7 billion from the federal government, Perusse added, the state could cover its share of the expansion costs for four to five years without having to consider looking for a new revenue source or assessing health care providers.

“This is a very good incentive that the feds are providing us,” Perusse said. “There’s no better time than the present to expand Medicaid.”

GOP responds

After many school children did remote learning for nearly a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cooper’s plan directs some $80 million to help the state’s 115 school districts hire more nurses, psychologists, social workers and counselors. Democrats in the legislature filed a bill to fund nurses this week and another one to fund school mental health professionals in February.

Cooper recommends putting a $4.7 billion general obligation bond on the November 2021 ballot to help public schools meet infrastructure needs, to do health and safety projects and more at UNC System campuses and more.

Cooper’s plan does not call for a tax increase.

Nonetheless, Republicans, who are weighing the possibility of income and corporate tax cuts, quickly responded to the Cooper proposal with concerns, raising questions about how much room there is for negotiations in the months ahead.

“We have concerns about the very high spending growth and billions in borrowing in Gov. Cooper’s proposed budget,” Sen. Brent Jackson, a Sampson County Republican and Senate budget writer, said in a prepared statement posted to Senator Berger Press Shop. “We don’t want to return to an era of rollercoaster-style budgets with huge spikes in the boom years followed by huge cuts in the lean years.

“Thanks to a decade of predictable, responsible budgeting, North Carolina weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and recession without cutting state services or freezing teacher pay.”

The lawmaker concluded his statement with an olive branch, of sorts.

“We look forward to working together to achieve an enacted budget,” Jackson said.

Starting to perk

Just a short hike from the governor’s Capitol offices, the General Assembly building on Jones Street typically bustles with lobbyists and lawmakers, but this year the scene has been unusually quiet. Most office doors were closed this week, only a handful of people hung around in areas usually humming with activity.

“Lobbying is about being down at the building, being in the committee rooms and meeting with legislators in the elevator or hallway,” said Valerie Arendt, a registered lobbyist for the NC Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. “A lot of us are not prepared to do that because of COVID. Some legislators are willing to meet with us virtually and some are asking us to come into the office.”

She said that’s made her job harder.

But now that lawmakers, lobbyists, staff, and even members of the media are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, people are beginning to drift back into the building.

“People seem to be coming back. A bit more each week,” texted Cone Health lobbyist Ryan Blackledge.

Nonetheless, lobbyists and advocates have been making their priorities known, albeit less efficiently.

“There’s texts, there are phone calls, there are the painful Zoom meetings,” said Blackledge in a later call. He talked about the things he couldn’t do, “like after a committee meeting, grabbing three other people, getting the bill sponsor and having a three-minute conversation where you fix something that would take hours texting back and forth between people.”

Mental health funding priorities

When the pandemic hit and the need for mental health and substance use treatment services surged, North Carolina’s provider organizations were already at a disadvantage, according to advocates.

Because state legislators were unable to pass a new budget in 2019 or 2020, some programs were left hanging.

“New programming couldn’t come to fruition, and it was harder for programs to pivot and meet the new needs when the pandemic hit,” Arendt said.

Due to pandemic-related hardships and job losses, North Carolina saw an increase in Medicaid enrollment last year, Arendt said.

“There’s going to be a tsunami of behavioral health needs because of the pandemic, even if everyone does get vaccinated and things go ‘back to normal,’” Arendt said. “Folks are going to need mental health and substance use services for a long time.”

This increase in demand comes on the heels of five years of cuts — totaling $500 million — to mental health single-stream funding, the money set aside for people with critical behavioral health needs and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Cuts and use of this funding received a good deal of scrutiny from the state auditor in 2019.

In a letter to lawmakers, Arendt listed the state’s mental health budget needs and priorities on behalf of more than 30 organizations that make up The Coalition on Mental Health, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Disorders.

“As a collective voice, we are louder,” she said of the coalition, which has jointly advocated for the mental health needs of North Carolinians for several decades.

Headlining their list of 14 budget priorities is the need for lawmakers to restore the single stream funding.

The coalition also requests that the 5 percent Medicaid provider rate increase allowed by federal and state lawmakers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic be extended to providers working in mental health, IDD and substance use.

“[Our] providers are experiencing the same financial stress as hospitals, nursing homes, and primary care physician practices,” Arendt wrote to lawmakers.

“Clinics are competing for expensive PPE resources, implementing special COVID infection prevention measures for clients living in congregate settings, and struggling to keep their direct care workers employed and their patient or client populations out of hospital emergency rooms,” she said. “More support is needed so that current services do not have to end.”

Helping older North Carolinians

A raft of significant legislation for older North Carolinians also fell along the wayside in 2020. Their advocates are hoping to make up some of that lost ground in the wake of the pandemic, which proved so devastating to so many older people.

Heather Burkhardt, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition on Aging, said the pandemic “shed light on existing lack of funding, certainly for home- and community-based services for older adults to be able to get adequate care in their homes, and the support needed for family caregivers.”

A product of the Older Americans Act and state funding, Home and Community Care Block Grants are parceled out to counties for needs including senior centers, congregate meals, transportation, respite care, and adult protective services. A “waitlist” for the services has stood at 10,000 people for years, but the demand likely exceeds that level.

Among other services that will seek funding are Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults (CAP/DA) and Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).

Also missing the cut was a bill pushed by Rep. Donna White (R-Clayton) that would have created a task force to look at the growing number of caregivers in the state.

NC Adult Protective Services is required to work in each North Carolina county to make sure vulnerable people remain safe from physical, mental or financial abuse. Despite mandating the work, the state picks up only a small portion of the cost, with major support flowing from already strapped counties and the federal government.

“By 2025, 89 counties in North Carolina are projected to have more people aged 60 years of age than 17 years and under,” the independent North Carolina Senior Tar Heel Legislature said in its list of upcoming priorities. “Many of these adults may be at risk of becoming victims of abuse, neglect or exploitation.”

A provision that’s been ripe for change for many years almost crossed the finish line in 2019 that would have increased the Personal Needs Allowance, money which residents of skilled nursing and assisted living homes use to buy cigarettes, toiletries, transportation and many other needs not covered by long-term care funding.

Advocates hope the Personal Needs Allowance provision isn’t the only priority left over from the past two years that receives some long overdue attention during this legislative session.

Cannabis confusion pushes states to ban smokable hemp

January 15, 2020 by Pew Trusts

Cannabis confusion pushes states to ban smokable hemp - North Carolina Health News

Lawmakers came and left Raleigh this week to return in April, leaving many issues unresolved. One of the big questions is what to do about smokable hemp, which some law enforcement worry looks too much like marijuana.

By Sophie Quinton

Stateline

Hemp plants can be made into anything from rope and insulation to granola. But today, most U.S. hemp farmers are growing hemp to produce cannabinoids, such as CBD — which means they’re growing plants that look like marijuana, smell like marijuana and, increasingly, are rolled into joints and smoked like marijuana.

People smoke marijuana to feel high, but they smoke hemp — a non-psychoactive form of cannabis — to ingest cannabinoids users say ease aches, pains and stress.

Now some state lawmakers, alarmed by how difficult it is for law enforcement officers to tell the difference between hemp bud or joints and illegal pot products, are cracking down on smokable hemp.

display showing soap made with what is likely smokable hemp — Hand-made soap for sale at a Raleigh flea market. Hemp is now found in multiple products, from candies to body care products to foods. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

Louisiana and Indiana banned smokable hemp sales in 2019, and Texas banned smokable hemp manufacturing. Kentucky banned sales of hemp cigarettes, cigars, whole hemp buds and ground flowers in 2018. And a battle over whether to allow sales of dried hemp flower, pre-rolled hemp joints, hemp cigarettes and other smokable products has stalled a North Carolina bill that would regulate hemp production and sales in the state.

“My philosophy right now is, we are actually legalizing recreational marijuana if we don’t listen to our law enforcement and do something about this,” said North Carolina state Rep. Pat McElraft, a Republican and deputy House majority whip.

The rise of hemp products so similar to marijuana has caught some lawmakers by surprise. Nobody talked about smoking hemp or said police couldn’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana when North Carolina created a hemp pilot program in 2015, McElraft said.

Farmers and hemp businesses are fighting the bans, arguing that they violate federal law and hurt a nascent industry. The 2018 farm bill legalized hemp sales and defined hemp as any part of Cannabis sativa L. with a tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, concentration of 0.3% or lower.

“If the North Carolina legislature wants to waste its time attempting to ban a smokable hemp — OK,” said Bob Crumley, founder and CEO of North Carolina-based hemp company Founder’s Hemp and a lawyer who has advised policymakers on hemp issues. “It’s not going to survive a court challenge.”

Besides, the market for smokable flower — the most pristine, cannabinoid-rich plants — is the most lucrative many hemp farmers, retailers and distributors can access.

That includes Indiana businesses, said Justin Swanson, president of the Midwest Hemp Council, an Indianapolis-based industry group that supports smokable hemp.

“The bill Indiana ended up passing was like essentially telling a cattle farmer, ‘Hey, you can sell beef, but you can’t sell steak,’” he said.

Hemp, or marijuana?

Nationally, people spend more money on hemp CBD oil than on smokable flower. The biggest CBD product category — tinctures — hit about $1 billion in sales in 2019, said Virginia Lee, CBD research manager at the Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research firm based in Chicago.

By contrast, an estimated $70.6 million of hemp CBD pre-roll and raw flower were sold in the United States in 2019, Lee said. But, she said, those sales are growing.

People buying smokable products aren’t the stoner set associated with weed, Crumley said. “This product, smokable hemp, in my stores is being used by everyone from soccer moms, who want to have anxiety or stress release but not get high, to cancer patients,” he said.

a display of hemp-based pain relief and other health aids in a pharmacy — A display of hemp-based products in a pharmacy. Even as lawmakers debate whether to allow the cultivation and sale of hemp in North Carolina, the market is moving forward with selling thousands of products containing hemp. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

Some consumers prefer to smoke hemp flower rather than ingest hemp oil because smoking delivers cannabinoids straight to the bloodstream, Swanson of the Midwest Hemp Council said. Others smoke because they don’t have to worry about toxic additives or mislabeling with dried buds.

“I’ve had a lot of people tell me they’re a lot more comfortable using this way,” he said.

For hemp farmers, plants high-quality enough to sell with minimal processing can be a big moneymaker. CBD smokable flower last month was selling for between $150 and $350 a pound, said Ian Laird, CFO and general counsel of New Leaf Data Services, a Stamford, Connecticut-based market research firm that tracks cannabis prices. That’s more than hemp biomass for making CBD oil.

“You’re talking about a huge, huge opportunity for farmers,” Swanson said.

Yet smokable products make some policymakers wary. Concerns about the health dangers of smoking and vaping CBD, along with fears that hemp could, in fact, be psychoactive, play a role in lawmakers’ decisions to ban smokable products, said Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a Lexington, Kentucky-based industry group.

“There’s some concern that hemp pre-rolls are Woodstock-era marijuana — what marijuana used to be 30, 40 years ago,” he said. A level of about 1% THC is considered the threshold for cannabis to have a psychotropic effect, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

But pushback against the sale of smokable hemp products from police departments, state law enforcement agencies and district attorneys has dominated the debate in states such as North Carolina.

“It’s a flowering product that looks like marijuana, smells like marijuana, and unless you go to a specific lab for testing, you can’t tell the difference,” said Peg Dorer, director of the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys.

The North Carolina state crime lab doesn’t have testing equipment sensitive enough to gauge the amount of THC in a cannabis sample, Dorer said. “In order to test it, they would need to send it to a private lab, and that is expensive, and we don’t have the budget for that kind of thing.”

Law enforcement officers in the state worry that the proliferation of smokable hemp will make it impossible for them to search a person or property for marijuana based on the smell of weed, said Roxboro Police Department Chief David Hess, first vice president of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police.

older man and a younger man, they have their arms around each other's shoulders and look at the camera — Marc Simon and his son, came to the legislature in May to advocate for continued hemp cultivation. They have a farm and hemp store in Winston-Salem. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

The current version of the North Carolina Farm Act, to be taken up by lawmakers again this year, defines smokable hemp as “harvested raw or dried hemp plant material, including hemp buds or hemp flowers, hemp cigars, and hemp cigarettes” and classifies it as a form of marijuana.

The legislation does allow licensed hemp producers to grow and process smokable hemp, as long as they don’t sell it within state borders. “You could still sell it outside of North Carolina,” Dorer said. “That was our compromise.”

Republican state Sen. Brent Jackson, a farmer, said in an email to Stateline that he remains hopeful lawmakers will sign off on his bill that would allow smokable hemp sales. “The Federal Farm Bill of 2018 made it very clear that all hemp shall be legal,” he said, “and it is my intention to support the hemp growers, processors, and retailers as they move this new industry forward.”

Farmers fight back

Hemp industry groups, meanwhile, are fighting the smokable hemp bans.

“We don’t want to start our state program with a ban in place on any part of the plant that’s compliant,” said Blake Butler, executive director of the North Carolina Industrial Hemp Association. “Even though it’s being smoked, it’s still an agricultural commodity.”

Butler’s looking to Indiana, where last fall the Midwest Hemp Council and seven hemp businesses won a preliminary injunction against a 2019 Indiana law that defined “smokable hemp” as hemp products that allow THC “to be introduced into the human body by inhalation of smoke” and made manufacturing, delivering or selling smokable products a misdemeanor.

In their suit against the state, the hemp businesses argued that the law’s smokable hemp provisions violate the 2018 farm bill and would seriously harm them and their businesses. The state Attorney General’s office argued that Indiana’s law complies with the farm bill and protects the public.

“Permitting smokable hemp to be produced or possessed in Indiana would present significant obstacles to the ability of law enforcement to enforce Indiana’s laws against marijuana,” it argued.

U.S. District Senior Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the Southern District of Indiana sided with the hemp industry. “The fact that local law enforcement may need to adjust tactics and training in response to changes in federal law is not a sufficient basis for enacting unconstitutional legislation,” she ruled in September.

The Indiana Attorney General’s office is appealing the decision.

Although the court fight is far from over, the Barker ruling should give lawmakers pause, said Rod Kight, a cannabis attorney based in Asheville, North Carolina. “I think it’s a very strong signal to state legislatures that they can’t get in the way of hemp that’s now federally legal,” he said. “They can’t stop a whole piece of the hemp industry from going into effect and thriving.”

test kit to differentiate between hemp and marijuana — The NC Department of Agriculture is vetting a test that would determine the amount of THC in a substance. Screenshot courtesy of CBD QuickTest

If North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, does sign a law banning smokable hemp sales, Butler said his group will take legal action.

But he’s hopeful that hemp businesses and law enforcement groups can team up to solve the problem of policing smokable products. “We respect law enforcement,” Butler said, “and we need to work together.”

A proposed bill in Tennessee could be one way to neutralize police opposition, he said. It would extend the 6.6% excise tax on smokeless tobacco products to hemp products people either smoke or consume like snuff and chewing tobacco.

Money raised by the tax could help law enforcement groups buy roadside THC testing equipment and fund other hemp industry priorities such as research and development, said Joe Kirkpatrick, president and chief lobbyist of the Tennessee Growers Coalition, a hemp advocacy group based in Nashville.

A 2019 Tennessee law prohibits the sale of smokable hemp products to minors. Kirkpatrick said lawmakers’ approach to regulating such products has been influenced by their desire to help farmers, particularly tobacco farmers grappling with falling sales.

“Farmers really need an alternative specialty crop,” Kirkpatrick said. Smokable hemp, he said, isn’t known to be carcinogenic or addictive and might just be the next tobacco. “It would be much better than the vape poisons that [tobacco companies are] pushing on the youth,” he said of hemp.

Some NC lawmakers want hemp classified as marijuana, farmers push back — UPDATED

July 24, 2019 by Taylor Knopf

Some NC lawmakers want hemp classified as marijuana, farmers push back — UPDATED - North Carolina Health News

Law enforcement officers say they can’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana, so they want it banned. Farmers are finally profiting from the legal crop and don’t want the ban. State lawmakers will take up the now-contentious Farm Act on Wednesday.

By Taylor Knopf

Update 7/24/19: Despite objections from law enforcement representatives on Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee passed the NC Senate’s version of the Farm Act, which does not classify hemp as marijuana. Instead, the bill includes a ban on raw hemp flower or “smokable” hemp which would go into effect at the end of 2020.

Bill sponsor Sen. Brent Jackson said this will give farmers the ability to reap the profits of this year’s crop. During that same time, the Department of Agriculture and law enforcement will work together on the marijuana law enforcement issues.

Representatives from the NC Sheriffs’ Association, NC Association of Chiefs of Police and the NC Conference of District Attorneys objected to these changes during the committee’s public comment period and asked for a ban on smokable hemp by the end of this year. The House Rules Committee will hear the Farm Act next.

Some N.C. lawmakers want to classify hemp — a newly legalized crop — as marijuana because law enforcement officers say they can’t tell the difference between the two.

Meanwhile, farmers who are suffering from plummeting commodity prices and hurricane losses say they are finally reaping some real profits from growing hemp.

The two forces are butting heads at the state legislature as law enforcement seeks to ban raw hemp flower or “smokable hemp.” Farmers claim that no insurance company or lending institution will touch a farmer who’s growing a crop considered a controlled substance in North Carolina.

Farmers across the state have been growing hemp through a state pilot program since 2015. Last December, all forms of hemp became legal when President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill.

Hemp versus marijuana:

The major difference between hemp and marijuana is the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the hallucinogenic compound that leaves users with a high. Unlike its cousin marijuana, legal hemp plants must contain no more than 0.3 percent of THC. The demand for hemp products is driven by the plant’s cannabidiol (CBD) content, which consumers use for a myriad of medicinal purposes, from insomnia to reducing inflammation.

This legislative session, North Carolina lawmakers introduced some regulations for the newly legalized industry in the NC Farm Act of 2019. That’s when law enforcement officers, district attorneys and State Bureau of Investigation representatives appeared, voicing their concerns.

Hemp plants look and smell the same as marijuana plants, despite chemical differences that make the two substances different. With legalized hemp, the law enforcement community claims they can no longer enforce marijuana laws.

Lawmakers have been looking for ways to appease both farmers and law enforcement. But agricultural leaders in the House and Senate have differing opinions on how to move forward, which has resulted in long, contentious committee debates.

The Farm Act will be debated during the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Autryville), a farmer, sponsored the bill in the Senate. Under his direction, senators amended the Farm Act to ban hemp flower starting December 2020.

Meanwhile, he is working with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to find a field testing mechanism for law enforcement that would allow officers to quickly detect the amount of THC in a substance to determine whether it’s hemp or marijuana.

In the House, Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Warsaw) urged his colleagues to move up the ban to the end of this year at the recommendation of law enforcement. He also led his colleagues to alter the Amend NC Controlled Substances Act to classify raw hemp as marijuana.

Jackson’s legislative assistant said that right now, the senator cannot support the changes made in the House to either bill.

Roadside testing for THC

The Department of Agriculture is actively vetting different field tests which law enforcement officers could carry in their vehicles to determine whether a substance is within legal levels of THC.

At the moment, they are vetting the CBD QuickTest, which is manufactured by Elixir Health Products Limited in the UK. It was developed by the Swiss in 2017 after their police force had a similar issue differentiating between hemp and marijuana, the latter of which is illegal in Switzerland.

The test is comprised of a small plastic pouch and some chemicals that turn red if the sample has less than 1 percent THC. It turns blue if the sample is over that amount. The manufacturer claims it’s a low-cost, easy to use test that’s being used by police in Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria.

Other states have been looking into this same test.

Knowing that the Department of Agriculture is working on a solution hasn’t stopped the NC Sheriff’s Association and others from insisting on a ban of the hemp flower.

Eddie Caldwell, general counsel of the NC Sheriffs’ Association told the House Agriculture Committee last month that sheriffs support farmers, but that “this bill creates major public safety concerns.”

There are no validated field tests, he argued. Caldwell acknowledged that the NCDACS staff were looking for a test, but said it seems “speculative at this point.”

He noted that drug detection dogs also cannot tell the difference between hemp and marijuana and that 800 dogs — which are expensive to buy and train — would be put out of work.

“The state crime lab does not have the testing equipment to test a green leafy substance to tell if it’s smokable hemp or to tell if it’s marijuana,” Caldwell said. “Nor do they have the personnel to operate the equipment if you decided to fund the equipment, so there would be a significant investment needed there.

“And without the ability to get a test from the state crime lab, it puts the district attorneys in an impossible situation trying to try the case in court,” he concluded.

Several other law enforcement representatives told the committee that it’s a “slippery slope” from hemp to marijuana to harder drugs.

Jackson has pushed back on claims made by law enforcement.

“Based off what you’re telling me that you cannot tell the difference between hemp and marijuana, you can’t do that today. You could not do that last week. And if we do nothing here today or with this bill, you will not be able to do it tomorrow,” he said during the House Agriculture Committee.

Jackson said the legislature unknowingly legalized marijuana from an enforcement standpoint when they established the hemp pilot program in 2015.

“So my question to you is, how are you enforcing it today?” he asked the law enforcement representatives in the room. “Where have y’all been the last four years? Why have you not come to see us?”

He reiterated his intention to find a test that would determine the level of THC in a substance. In the meantime, Jackson wants farmers to be able to reap the profits from this year’s crops. That’s why he insisted that the ban must be pushed to the end of 2020 instead of this year.

“What you’re actually saying to the world is, ‘We’re going to allow all forms of hemp to be grown and processed and sent all over the world. But our North Carolina citizens are not going to be able to buy it,” he said. “‘It’s illegal in North Carolina. But it’s OK to ship it out of the state.’”

Farmers push back

The N.C. Industrial Hemp Commission called an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon ahead of Wednesday’s hearing of the Farm Act. The commission passed a resolution asking lawmakers to remove the classification of hemp as a controlled substance. The two law enforcement representatives on the commission voted against the resolution.

Fen Rascoe, a hemp commission member and hemp grower from Windsor, told NC Health News that for years lending and insurance agencies have told farmers growing hemp that they can’t help them until it’s legalized.

“They will run back into their holes if it’s classified as marijuana,” he said.

If lawmakers ban hemp flower, he said it would give hemp growers in other states a competitive edge over North Carolina farmers. Rascoe said this is the most “anti-farming piece of legislation.”

“I understand that law enforcement has a problem, but they are going to have to adapt,” he said. “There are technologies out there to test hemp.”

“They are worried about 800 dogs’ jobs. What about the 15,000 farmers’ jobs?” he said referring to the number of hemp licensees in the state.

“It feels like law enforcement is the fourth branch of government in this state,” he said. “Their role is to enforce the law, not make it.”

Guy Carpenter, a commissioner and businessman from Wilmington, spoke up during the emergency meeting to say that placing hemp in the same bucket as marijuana is like calling nonalcoholic beer alcohol.

He objected to the claim by some law enforcement officers that hemp is a “gateway drug.”

“I don’t believe drinking root beer leads someone to drinking beer then to liquor,” Carpenter said.

shows the inside of a crowded poultry house

Senate approves proposed Farm Act of 2019

June 7, 2019 by Greg Barnes

Senate approves proposed Farm Act of 2019 - North Carolina Health News

The Farm Act would benefit the biogas industry and restrict the hemp industry, but it will not include a proposed amendment to study dry-litter poultry farms.

By Greg Barnes and Emily Davis

A Senate committee approved the proposed Farm Act of 2019 on Wednesday, paving the way for turning hog waste into energy and adding regulations to the state’s growing hemp industry.

The proposed bill, which was unanimously approved, now moves from the Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee to the Senate Finance Committee for additional scrutiny.

It does so without a proposed amendment from Sen. Harper Peterson, a Democrat from New Hanover County. Peterson wanted the Environmental Review Commission to study the environmental and human health impacts of the state’s dry-litter poultry farms and determine whether more regulations are needed.

Fight over regulations

The poultry industry uses or sells much of its dry litter as fertilizer. Peterson and others are worried about what remains behind.

“There is no regulation, oversight, permitting addressing the dry-litter poultry production,” Peterson said. “I think this is odd, an anomaly to me because it is such an important industry in that it essentially self-regulates itself.”

By comparison, he said, the state’s swine industry is heavily regulated.

Flooded poultry farm in Eastern NC post Matthew. Image courtesy NC Waterkeeper Alliance

“God forbid something happen that we have some catastrophe within the poultry industry because of a lack of regulation, oversight, permitting, documentation of how dry-litter waste is handled in our state,” Peterson said. “We have documented scientific evidence to demonstrate that this is a health issue.

“Litter, whether it is swine, poultry, is an issue and I think it’s long overdue for this study to take place and this industry to come out into the light.”

No support

Sen. Brent Jackson, a Republican representing, Duplin, Sampson and Johnston counties, asked the committee not to support the amendment for two reasons.

“To my knowledge, we have not had any issues within the poultry industry in this state,” said Jackson, who is a farmer. “They have done an outstanding job of regulating and maintaining good practices throughout, that I’m aware of.”

Jackson also said the Senate this year has made a strong effort to limit the use of study committees. If a committee wants to study the issue later, he said, they are welcome to do so.

Sen. Tom McInnis (R-Ellerbe) said he asked the North Carolina Poultry Federation for rules and regulations regarding poultry litter and was handed a document that measured about three-quarters-of-an-inch thick.

Sponsor video

“We don’t need this,” McInnis said about Peterson’s proposed amendment. “We have enough laws, enough rules and enough restrictions on the books. Our poultry farms are doing a great job … I like fried chicken and I had some on Sunday.”

Exact numbers unknown

After the hearing, Jackson downplayed concerns about poultry houses flooding, as they did during Hurricane Florence, killing more than 4 million turkeys and chickens. The state has been buying out hog farms in designated flood plains, but not poultry farms.

Jackson acknowledged that millions of taxpayers’ dollars were spent to help farmers clean up their dead birds after hurricanes Matthew and Florence, but he said no one could have predicted two 500-year storms in two years.

“We can’t predict when we’ll get the next flood, but I mean these folks have done the best they can, and when you have natural disasters like this everything’s off the table,” Jackson said. “It’s a whole new ballgame.”

Related story: Fight, then flight, from poultry stench

Part of the concern over dry-litter poultry farms, environmentalists say, is that state regulators don’t know that many of them even exist.

“Multiple facilities were flooded during Hurricane Florence that were not there during Hurricane Matthew. We don’t know an exact number because DEQ does not know where these facilities are located,” said Matthew Star, riverkeeper for the Upper Neuse River.

Earlier this year, the national Waterkeeper Alliance and the Environmental Working Group released a report that mapped all of the state’s poultry operations. The report said the poultry industry had grown from 147 million birds in 1997 to 515 million in 2018.

map shows different levels of poultry estimates for each river basin — The highest numbers of poultry since the 1990’s have been in the Yadkin-Pee Dee and Cape Fear basins. The Yadkin-Pee Dee Basin had the highest poultry population with bird inventories over 15 million in Union County and over 11 million in Wilkes County in 2014. Map, data courtesy: NC DEQ

Audience speaks

About a dozen people in the audience spoke before the Senate committee approved the Farm Act. Most expressed concerns about the proposed regulations for the hemp industry.

Some opposed or asked for clarification of measures in the bill that pave the way for Smithfield Foods to begin covering hog lagoons and adding anaerobic digesters to start producing natural gas from hog waste.

Smithfield announced in October that it plans to cover lagoons and add digesters at 90 percent of the farms where its hogs are raised. The plans are to capture methane under the covers, convert the methane to natural gas and sell the gas to power companies.

Environmentalists oppose the plans, saying they would further entrench the industry’s use of lagoons and spray fields. They also oppose sections of the Farm Act, including one that would keep some documents generated by soil and water conservation districts confidential.

Jackson said Wednesday that the proposal would do no more than federal privacy laws already require.

Last week, environmentalists complained about sections of the bill pertaining to odors. In an email, Angie Maier of the N.C. Pork Council said those regulations pertain to energy generated from poultry waste, not hogs. She also said licensed engineers would be required to design and develop biogas systems on hog farms.

shows open doors leading into a corridor with heavy windows. An overhead sign reads "Inpatient hospital, 4 South"

Lawmakers Move to Reign in Inmate Drug Costs

December 6, 2018 by Rose Hoban

Lawmakers Move to Reign in Inmate Drug Costs - North Carolina Health News

Changes to how the state’s prison system buys and administers medications for expensive conditions such as Hepatitis C could save the state money, but prison officials pushed back on some parts of the plan.

By Rose Hoban

Even though members of the General Assembly have said they’ve come to Raleigh for a short, special session to pass bills related to Hurricane Florence relief funding and create rules around voter identification, lawmakers are also pushing the state’s prison system to change the way it purchases some expensive drugs given to inmates.

A bill that has moved quickly through both the Senate and the House of Representatives would also compel health care providers in the state’s prisons to watch as inmates take pricey medications, a practice known as directly observed therapy, or DOT.

Some of the most expensive drugs given by prison officials are those to treat Hepatitis C, a virus which many people acquire while injecting drugs. For years, treatments for the disease were inadequate, even as they gave patients many side effects during the course of treatment. But in 2013, drugmakers introduced the first new anti-viral medications that effectively cure Hepatitis C.

When first on the market, a Hepatitis C treatment could cost as much as $60,000 for a course of treatment, staff from the Department of Public Safety told lawmakers at a meeting of the Senate Health Care Committee on Tuesday. In recent years, the cost has come down to as little as $24,000 to cure the disease.

And soon, DPS could end up treating many more inmates for the disease.

sign lists many medical specialties, such as oncology, dialysis and dental — A directory to specialty departments in the hospital facility at Central Regional Prison in Raleigh. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

In a recent court opinion written for a federal case brought by several North Carolina inmates, a magistrate recommended North Carolina revise its current policy, which often denies Hepatitis C treatment to inmates, despite it being a medically necessary, and frequently lifesaving, treatment.

If the state is compelled to offer Hepatitis C treatment to more inmates, efforts to reign in the costs could become more important.

Buyers club

One mechanism for saving money on medications could come in the form of DPS participation in a federal program that allows hospitals, clinics and others providing medical care to low-income patients to buy medications at a discount.

The hospital facility run at Central Prison in Raleigh is not eligible for participation in the program, known as 340B. But a study performed by the legislative Program Evaluation Division found that correctional systems in at least 16 states are able to purchase some medications for inmates through the 340B program.

“Several of these states partner with a university hospital system to qualify and gain access to the program,” Brent Lucas, an evaluator with PED told lawmakers during a presentation in September.

“Last year, Hepatitis C and HIV medications accounted for 51 percent of total medication spending,” Lucas told lawmakers. In 2016-17, treating inmates with Hepatitis C cost DPS $18.1 million, and HIV drugs cost $13.5 million, out of the total prison pharmacy expenditure of $72.6 million.

“Based on consumption and prices paid last year, we estimate the state could have saved $13.3 million if these medications were purchased through a 340B program,” he said.

Lucas pointed out that UNC Health Care manages the hospital facility at Central Prison and could facilitate the purchase of the medications as UNC participates in 340B. His report recommended that the General Assembly order UNC Health Care to “modify and expand it’s 340B program to provide for the purchasing of certain inmate medications.”

This order became the first section of House Bill 1108, which completed passage through the Senate on Tuesday. The legislation would also require DPS to take money out of its budget to pay a one-time cost of $25,000 for legal costs of complying with 340B rules, plus annual costs of about $7,000 per year.

“It’s all about saving that million dollars that’s there, and that’s what this bill would do,” said Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Autryville) when asked whether the timing of the bill was related to the hepatitis-treatment lawsuit.

Directly observed therapy

A change to the bill would require that prison staff watch inmates take any medications valued at more than $1,000 per month, something that DPS officials said could require more staffing and perhaps reduce the effectiveness of some of the medications.

“There are different parts of this that we would need to work on to work out the specifics before we could truly implement,” said Janna Thomas, the pharmacy services director for DPS.

The total cost of these high-value medications was about $282,747, but PED evaluators argued that the state “has no guarantee of the effectiveness of these expenditures.”

But DPS staff members pointed out that sometimes these medications need to be taken with food, or first thing in the morning, and compelling inmates to come to the medical station to take their medications could be disruptive to the prison schedule.

The requirement for “directly observed therapy” drew pushback from state director of prisons Kenneth Lassiter, who said he can’t afford the extra staff.

shows several people wearing scrubs sitting at desks, one leans into a file drawer another with her back to the camera stands at a computer console. — Staff work on patient files at the main nurses’ station in the hospital facility located at Central Regional Prison in Raleigh. Prison officials say they’ve had persistent problems finding and retaining medical staff and have up to a 16 percent vacancy rate for doctors and nurses. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

“Because health care is not truly funded, lapsed salaries already pays for the majority of the health care for offenders,” Lassiter said. He told lawmakers that his department has a 16.8 percent vacancy rate for custodial staff and 16 percent medical staff vacancy rate.

“If we can ever get that vacancy rate down and this would go away, we would be at a deficit,” he said. “Last year, prisons and DPS reverted four dollars from its budget. So we spent every single dime, with the exception of four dollars, including lapsed salaries.”

Despite the pushback from DPS, the bill passed committee and moved quickly to the Senate floor, where some Democrats objected, saying legislators should work with staff rather than ignore their input.

“I don’t understand why there’s not an interest in working through these issues with the department,” said Sen. Don Davis (D-Greenville). “We should take the time to make sure we engage meaningfully with those we’ve charged with the task of running… state agencies.”

Because members of the Senate made changes to the House version of the bill, it now goes to a conference committee where any differences will be hammered out.

UPDATE Dec. 6: Both chambers agreed to the Senate version of the bill, which was approved and subsequently sent to Gov. Roy Cooper for his signature.

two photos, with two sets of signs telling different stories

Contrasting Narratives in Hog Farm Bill Fight

June 26, 2018 by Catherine Clabby

Contrasting Narratives in Hog Farm Bill Fight - North Carolina Health News

Supporters and opponents of a bill that would limit agricultural nuisance lawsuits made their case to legislators and to Gov. Roy Cooper Monday.

By Catherine Clabby and Rose Hoban

People on opposing sides of the increasingly hostile dispute over hog farm lawsuits urged Gov. Roy Cooper to choose sides in Raleigh on Monday.

Supporters and opponents each came to the state capital to sound off on the recently passed 2018 state farm bill, a measure that would further curtail neighbors’ ability to sue over farm nuisances such as odors and other environmental stressors that some say taint the places where they live.

Despite opposition that included members of their own party, Republican legislators introduced and won passage of the nuisance language in the farm bill earlier this month. They said it was required to fend off more lawsuits such as the 26 cases filed against Murphy-Brown LLC, the hog-farming division of Smithfield Foods. The company lost the first of the suits in federal court in April.

Opponents of the bill on both sides of the aisle argued that it is possible to support agriculture without eroding property rights, one of the oldest and most fundamental rights protected by law.

It was a day of contrasts.

“Smelled like ammonia”

The action started with a noontime press conference in the legislature building, sparsely attended because most of the capitol press corps was sitting in a vital House committee meeting in the next room. A handful of Eastern North Carolina residents, with several dozen supporters listening, described how difficult it is to live near large hog operations.

woman stands at a podium, people behind her hold signs reading keep your waste away form my yard — Pamela McMillon said that some mornings she gets up and “that smell is so bad you don’t know what to do about it.” Photo credit: Rose Hoban

“When I get up in the morning time, the smell is so bad that you don’t know what to do about it. There’s nothing I can do about it,” said Pamela McMillon, who lives a quarter mile from hog houses in the Duplin County town of Wallace on land she inherited from her parents.

“Last Friday, the temperature and humidity was so high and the people who had the hog house, they was spraying,” McMillon said. “With the temperature, and him spraying, the air smelled like ammonia that burned your eyes.”

The recently passed farm bill says only people living within half a mile of a farm can file such lawsuits. And they must act within a year of a farming operation starting or undergoing a “fundamental” change. Plaintiffs would be prohibited from obtaining punitive damages in court unless a farm was implicated in criminal convictions or government enforcement actions.

“Pristinely manicured farm”

Just a few hours later Monday, Candice Morgan stood on Bicentennial Mall near the state Agriculture Building to address hundreds of farmers and their families who came to town to voice their support for the farm bill.

woman sits in a chair, holds a sigh reading: I'm a fan of NC Farm Families — A woman sits an listens to the speakers and performers at Monday afternoon’s rally across from the legislative building in Raleigh. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

Morgan said she and other young farmers and ranchers who were touring the eastern part of the state made an impromptu visit to Joey Carter’s hog farm in Duplin County earlier this month. The second nuisance court case against Smithfield alleges Carter’s farm poses problems as well.

“As we stood on his pristinely manicured farm, I breathed in the injustice that is attacking him in the courtroom,” Morgan told the crowd standing across the street from the legislative building. “I saw green grassy pasture, impeccably clean hog houses with very little odor and a comparable number of flies to what you might find at any one of your houses.”

The hundreds of people in the gathered crowd cheered, many waving printed signs reading, “I’m a fan of NC Farm Families.”

As Morgan spoke, state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sat behind her on a temporary stage that also included a band and a smattering of lawmakers that included House sponsor Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Warsaw) and Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Autryville), who Dixon called the “architect of the farm acts.”

african american man stands at a podium in shirtsleeves, giving a spech to a predominantly white audience — Sen. Don Davis (D-Greenville) gave a rousing speech at the rally, talking about his eastern North Carolina childhood and his love for farmers. Photo credit: Rose Hoban

“North Carolina’s agriculture and agribusiness industry has an over $87 billion economic impact to the economy and employs a fifth of the workforce or 730,000 people. Agriculture is the economic driver of rural North Carolina,” said a press release that the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services issued about the rally late last week.

Part of the complaint farmers brought to Raleigh about the lawsuits playing out across town has to do with what evidence is being allowed into the courtroom in these cases. Morgan and her husband Jacob made the same complaint during an interview after her speech.

As reported in NC Health News, Smithfield’s attorneys are critical of evidence from a paid plaintiff’s expert that finds particles of hog feces escape from Joey Carter’s farm and could explain the odors neighbors complain about. The pork company lawyers want Senior District Court Judge Earl Britt to let jurors hear results from an odor study Smithfield paid for that detected no nuisance odors on Carter’s farm.

Cooper makes his choice

In the end, Cooper vetoed the bill, sending it back to the General Assembly at 9:13 pm Monday, writing in a statement: “While agriculture is vital to North Carolina’s economy, so property rights are vital to people’s homes and other businesses.”

It’s unclear whether there will be enough votes in the legislature to resist Cooper’s veto; the original bill passed 67-47 in the House, a few votes shy of the 72 votes required for a veto override.

As the fight for override mounts, some former legislators stand prepared to continue pushing back. Rick Glazier, a Democrat who left the body to become head of the left-leaning NC Justice Center, said the Farm Act might not pass constitutional muster and predicted lawsuits filed against the bill if it becomes law.

Glazier’s been working against the bill alongside his old colleague, former representative Paul Stam, a Republican who spent several days at the legislature two weeks ago speaking against the bill.

The old rivals have found a common argument with the governor, who concluded his veto message saying: “Our laws must balance the needs of businesses versus property rights. Giving one industry special treatment at the expense of its neighbors is unfair.”

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