North Carolina Medical Marijuana Card: What To Expect

With medical cannabis now legal in the majority of states across the United States, more patients are turning to marijuana for treatment of their medical conditions. If you are considering obtaining your North Carolina medical marijuana card, here are some things to expect once you become a card holder.

What Are The Benefits Of Getting A Marijuana Card?

1. Gain The Medicinal Benefits of Cannabis

Marijuana has the potential to help alleviate symptoms for a wide variety of medical conditions. Medical cannabis can provide relief for common conditions including chronic pain, PTSD, glaucoma, epilepsy and more.

In most of the states where medical cannabis is legal, there are specific medical conditions that qualify an individual to be eligible for treatment. However, under North Carolina’s law, the only qualifying condition is currently intractable epilepsy. This is defined as "a seizure disorder that, as determined by a neurologist, does not respond to three or more treatment options overseen by the neurologist."

2. Access to Hemp Extract Medication

North Carolina currently allows medical marijuana patients and their caregivers to possess “hemp extracts.” These are defined as cannabis extractions that contain at least 5% CBD and less than 0.9% THC. The hemp extracts may also not contain any other psychoactive substance.

3. Caregivers

Caregivers are individuals who are able to visit dispensaries and purchase medical cannabis products on behalf of a patient. Under North Carolina law, only caregivers are allowed to obtain hemp extract and administer it to their patient. Medical marijuana patients are not able to acquire hemp extract even if they are an adult.

A patient’s caregiver must also be their parent, legal guardian or custodian and are required to register with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can obtain your North Carolina marijuana card, please visit our How To Qualify page for more information.