Is weed legal in North Carolina?

Recreational status

Recreational cannabis is not legal in North Carolina. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-94: Schedule VI controlled substances)

Marijuana, and tetrahydrocannabinols other than those in a product at or below the 0.3% delta-9 THC hemp threshold, are Schedule VI controlled substances. The only exception this section states is for a prescription drug the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved and the Drug Enforcement Administration has rescheduled; nothing exempts personal adult use.

North Carolina keeps marijuana on a controlled substance schedule, and the single exception written there is for a prescription drug that federal regulators have approved and rescheduled. Personal recreational use has no exception of its own, so age changes nothing.

Medical status

No medical cannabis program runs in North Carolina. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-113.100: Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act — Repealed by Session Laws 2015-154, s. 8.5(a), effective July 1, 2021)

North Carolina's one prior medical cannabis program, the Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act (a low-THC program for intractable epilepsy), was repealed effective July 1, 2021, and no other registered source establishes a medical cannabis program currently in force.

The program North Carolina once ran ended by repeal in 2021, which leaves no registry to apply to and no state card to hold. Nothing among the sources cited here has replaced it.

Hemp-derived products

North Carolina permits the sale of hemp-derived products that meet its definition of hemp. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-94: Schedule VI controlled substances)

Tetrahydrocannabinols in a product at or below 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis are excluded from Schedule VI. N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-87(13a)-(13b) defines 'Hemp' and 'Hemp products' on the same 0.3% threshold, broadly and non-exhaustively, and 90-87(16) states that the term 'Marijuana ... does not include hemp or hemp products.' Neither registered source adds a further sale-specific restriction (packaging, licensing, age) beyond this definitional threshold.

The line North Carolina draws is a percentage rather than a product list, so what separates hemp from marijuana is where a product's delta-9 THC lands on a dry-weight basis. Neither cited section adds a packaging, licensing or age rule on top of that threshold.

Home cultivation

North Carolina allows nobody to grow cannabis at home. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95: Violations; penalties)

N.C. Gen. Stat. 90-87(15) defines 'Manufacture' to mean 'the production ... of a controlled substance,' and 90-87(24) states that '"Production" includes the manufacture, planting, cultivation, growing, or harvesting of a controlled substance' -- so cultivating marijuana at home is 'manufacture.' The only exemption in 90-87(15) is for 'the preparation or compounding of a controlled substance by an individual for his own use,' which does not name planting, cultivation, or growing. Manufacturing a Schedule VI controlled substance is a Class I felony under 90-95(b)(2).

North Carolina files growing under manufacturing rather than possession, so a home grow is a felony charge rather than a possession one. The personal-use exemption in that definition covers preparing and compounding, and it never mentions planting or growing.

Possession and purchase limits

The possession limit, as North Carolina states it: No quantity may lawfully be possessed. Possessing any amount of marijuana is a Class 3 misdemeanor with imprisonment suspended; more than one-half ounce is a Class 1 misdemeanor; more than one and one-half ounces, or any quantity of synthetic tetrahydrocannabinols or tetrahydrocannabinols isolated from the resin of marijuana, is a Class I felony. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95: Violations; penalties)

Possessing, transporting, or manufacturing more than 10 pounds is a separate felony, 'trafficking in marijuana,' with tiers up to a Class D felony and a mandatory minimum fine at 10,000 pounds or more.

On buying, North Carolina states: No amount may lawfully be purchased. Selling or delivering marijuana, or possessing it with intent to sell or deliver, is a felony (Class H below the trafficking threshold) regardless of amount, except that transferring less than 5 grams of marijuana for no payment is not a chargeable delivery. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95: Violations; penalties)

The 5-gram no-remuneration exception excuses only a gift, not a sale; a purchaser's own receipt of marijuana is separately punishable as possession under 90-95(a)(3)/(d).

The figures here are charge thresholds rather than allowances, and they climb from a misdemeanor at any amount to a felony above an ounce and a half. That 5-gram gift exception excuses the person handing it over, not the person receiving it, whose possession is charged on its own.

Minimum age

There is no recreational channel in North Carolina, so no recreational age applies. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-94: Schedule VI controlled substances)

Null because marijuana's Schedule VI classification, with no adult-use exception, means there is no adult-use channel, so no age applies.

There is no medical program in North Carolina, so no medical age applies. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-113.100: Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act — Repealed by Session Laws 2015-154, s. 8.5(a), effective July 1, 2021)

Null because the Epilepsy Alternative Treatment Act, North Carolina's only medical cannabis program, was repealed effective July 1, 2021, so no medical program currently exists.

Age is not a line North Carolina draws for cannabis, because neither route exists for an age to guard. Nothing in the sections cited here turns on how old you are.

Where you can buy

North Carolina licenses no retailer that may sell cannabis. (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-95: Violations; penalties)

90-95(a) makes it 'unlawful for any person' to sell, deliver, or possess with intent to sell or deliver, or simply to possess, a controlled substance, except as authorized elsewhere in the Article; no registered source authorizes a lawful marijuana seller of any kind, so the array is empty. The register's sources for hemp_product_status are not among those listed for this question, so no hemp-cbd-retailer channel is recorded despite hemp itself being outside this prohibition.

No license of any kind here authorizes a cannabis seller, so there is no shop to check and no list to publish. The hemp threshold sits outside this prohibition, and the sections cited for this question license nobody to sell cannabis itself.

North Carolina has no lawful retail channel, so this site lists no store here.

Federal law applies here too, and it is not the same. Read what federal law says about weed.