North Carolina lawmakers who have opposed cannabis reform proposals for several years now are at odds with their constituents, who continue to overwhelmingly support legalization over prohibition, according to a new poll.
Seventy-four percent of North Carolina adults support medical cannabis legalization and 63% support adult-use legalization, while just 15% and 26%, respectively, believe the reform proposals should remain against the law, SurveyUSA pollsters found in a survey they conducted Oct. 7-11.
Commissioned by WRAL News, the poll was published Oct. 16 and included 900 participants, including 778 registered voters. “They’re much more comfortable with [legalization] than they would have been 10 or 20 years ago,” SurveyUSA President Ken Alper said, adding that North Carolina voters have become more open to legalization in recent years because “society hasn’t collapsed” in other states.
North Carolina remains one of eight states without a licensed and regulated medical cannabis program, in large part because the state doesn’t provide for citizen-initiated ballot measures, and because its Republican stronghold in the state Legislature has opposed reform proposals in recent years.
Although the North Carolina Senate passed medical cannabis legalization bills in 2022 and 2023, former House Speaker Tim Moore refused to bring those bills to his chamber’s floor, claiming there wasn’t enough Republican support to call a vote.
However, according to the SurveyUSA poll released Friday, North Carolinians of all political types support cannabis reform, including 65% of Republican adults who support medical legalization and 52% who support adult-use legalization, compared to 22% and 40%, respectively, who oppose reform in this subgroup.
“Majorities in all parts of the state and among all demographic subgroups favor legalization of medical marijuana,” the polling memo states. “Opposition to [adult-use] legalization does not exceed 44% and does not outweigh support for legalization among any demographic subgroup.”
Pollsters found a tie, 44% who support and 44% who oppose adult-use legalization, among those who identify as “very conservative,” according to the results. Similarly, those aged 65 and older were evenly divided at 42%. But those two demographic subgroups represented unicorns in the overall survey numbers.
The survey comes as Democratic Gov. Josh Stein has been attempting to twist the arm of the Republican Legislature to reform the state’s cannabis laws since June 2025, when he created a North Carolina Advisory Council on Cannabis through an executive order to help establish new rules for intoxicating THC products that he says have swelled in retail corridors near schools and universities in the aftermath of the federal legalization of hemp via the 2018 Farm Bill.
At the time, the governor said the terms “marijuana” and “hemp” have become irrelevant in today’s world of manufacturing consumable products infused with THC. “It’s all cannabis,” he said, adding that the better question is, “Will it get you high?”
Stein’s cannabis advisory council released an interim report in April 2026, finding that the Tar Heel State has one of the largest unregulated cannabis markets in the nation at roughly $3.2 billion in annual sales, according to the 2023 U.S. Cannabis Report.
“That’s what I want to bring order to: the Wild West that is North Carolina,” he said. “I mean, it’s really ironic that in some ways the most liberal marijuana adult-use state in the country is North Carolina. It’s not Colorado. It’s not Massachusetts. It’s not these states that legalized it and then created a regulatory structure to sell it. It’s North Carolina, where we have no rules whatsoever. That is unacceptable.”
The advisory council determined that North Carolina’s intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid product market represents a “dangerous policy gap,” because the state has no clear laws banning or regulating those products, which, unlike licensed cannabis products, are often sold to youth and don’t have meaningful potency limits, standardized laboratory testing or clear labeling requirements, according to the preliminary report.
Since convening last year, the council has held a series of meetings, with subcommittees focused on specific areas of reform, including market structure and regulations, consumer safety and youth protection, prevention and treatment, public safety, and revenue and legal.
For example, the Public Safety Subcommittee discussed possession allowances during its Oct. 14 meeting, including a pair of legalization options that would allow up to 1 ounce or 1.5 ounces of cannabis with expungements for past misdemeanor convictions and updated criminal penalties for possessing specific amounts.
Similarly, the Market and Regulatory Subcommittee met on Sept. 18 to discuss licensing recommendations, including a three-tier structure that would require a state-controlled cannabis retail system while allowing private licensed businesses to operate cultivation and manufacturing, as well as accommodating independent wholesalers and distributors.
The end goal is for the council to recommend a “comprehensive approach to regulate cannabis sales and create a safe, legal market for adults that protects kids.” Stein has continued to call on state lawmakers to do just that, even as the council’s work remains ongoing.
When the council issued its initial report earlier this year, the governor put youth safety at the forefront.
“Our state’s unregulated cannabis market today is the Wild West and is crying for order,” Stein said in April. “Let’s get this right. Let’s protect our kids and create a safe, legal and well-regulated market for adults.”
The council plans to issue its detailed regulatory recommendations in a December 2026 report that state lawmakers can use as a roadmap to draft 2027 legislation.
