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North Carolina has baffling laws when it comes to cannabis.
Marijuana is illegal. But intoxicating, smokable hemp products that get people high are being sold throughout the state, including all over Charlotte.
That’s worth noting because last week a video went viral of a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer punching a woman during an attempted arrest for smoking what police said was marijuana. Four other officers were restraining the woman at the time.
Critics say the officer used excessive force. The police chief, Johnny Jennings, said the punches were “a compliance blow" to the woman’s thigh because she was fighting police.
But he acknowledged the video is “not easy to watch.” CMPD later said an officer punched the woman, Christina Pierre, in the face early during the encounter after she had struck an officer in the face.
This Inside Politics newsletter explores North Carolina’s cannabis laws — and whether it was wise to confront her and another man in the first place, given that people are legally buying mind-altering hemp.
In addition to general confusion over cannabis, another issue is the city of Charlotte’s struggle in determining how aggressively police officers should enforce “quality of life” issues.
Let’s start with marijuana.
Pierre and Anthony Lee were allegedly smoking marijuana at a bus stop at South Tryon and Arrowood.
We don’t know what kind of marijuana cigarette it allegedly was — and that matters because there’s a lot of cannabis that’s legal.
According to their attorney Lauren Newton, the couple were smoking THC-A, a legal product that closely resembles marijuana.
A marijuana cigarette with Delta 9 THC is illegal in North Carolina.
But in less than a 10-minute drive from the site of the arrest, there are a number of businesses like Seed to Soul Dispensary operating in the open, selling smokable cannabis leaf with THC-A.
A THC-A cigarette looks exactly the same as a marijuana cigarette with Delta 9 THC. It smells the same. And when you smoke it, it has the same intoxicating effects as “traditional marijuana.”
When THC-A is burned — usually from smoking — it converts to regular Delta 9 THC.
Here is what Ryan Dills, the owner of the Georgia Hemp Company, said about THC-A in a story I did about cannabis for NPR: “It becomes Delta-9 once you combust it, once you smoke it. So it's kind of a loophole. So people that come in that know and ask about it, we'll educate them, and say, hey, this is the same thing as regular THC. Buying a joint in Colorado is the same thing as buying this THC-A joint.”
Phil Dixon with UNC’s School of Government said it’s difficult for law enforcement to distinguish between Delta 9 THC and THC-A.
“You have to have a lab to test it,” he said. “And in North Carolina, the state crime lab can’t even do that.”
Under current law, he said someone could stand at a bus stop and smoke THC-A cigarettes as if they were Marlboros.
He said state courts have not given guidance as to what constitutes probable cause in the age of THC-A, which has become popular in the last 12 to 18 months.
Dixon said an officer could approach someone and ask where they bought their cigarette. Was it from a store? Was it regular marijuana from the black market?
Perhaps one problem may be that some officers aren’t aware how fast hemp products are evolving. Many of the Charlotte stores selling THC-A weren’t in business a year ago.
The Charlotte City Council has not had a formal discussion about what THC-A means for CMPD.
Quality of life becomes a thing again
That leads to the second question: Are officers now feeling more pressure (or encouragement) to make arrests for minor offenses?
CMPD over the last decade has taken a more hands-off approach when it comes to minor offenses. The number of arrests and citations has dropped dramatically.
Police have said they have scaled back what’s known as “pro-active policing,” in part because they don’t want to be in a viral video if an arrest goes wrong.
Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather has said that his office will no longer prosecute minor drug offenses.
But in recent weeks there has been a new focus from the city on “quality of life” infractions.
This started with uptown residents complaining about people urinating and defecating in public and public drinking. They want those offenses criminalized again so police have the ability to arrest people for not complying.
Those complaints have mirrored national questions about police across the country taking a lighter touch to law enforcement. Republicans — and some Democrats — have said police need to be more aggressive in places like Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles.
Pierre was charged with assault on a government official, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana.
Police say the man with her, Lee, had a loaded handgun.
He has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana.
